I have been a fan of Steve Wozniak for many years, so I was glad to see this book published. I'm glad I finally took the time to read it; it had been sitting on my 'to read' stack for over a year.

You know how sometimes you find out your heroes aren't quite what you thought they were? Well, there was a little of that in this book, for me. When he was a teenager, I think Woz was a bit of a jerk. A prankster, but still a jerk. He describes a prank he pulled in high school, building a fake bomb that fooled at least one of the school teachers. That teacher held the 'bomb' to his chest and ran out to the school's football field to protect the children. Even after many years, Woz talks more about how he laughed when he got caught than about the heroism it took for the teacher to do that. Granted, the teacher must not have been very bright to believe a couple of batteries with their labels removed were an explosive device, it still doesn't change the fact of what he did when faced with that situation. Woz should have at least acknowledge that, I think.

Steve Wozniak is a genius, but anyone who has read the book or is considering reading the book already knew that. I was amazed when reading at all the things I didn't know. I didn't know, for example, that Woz created the original Breakout game. I loved that game. Someone at Atari had the idea, and Woz built it for them, in four days. Amazing.

Woz has done so much in his life, so many fantastic accomplishments. And his motivation was always the creation; never the money. Maybe that's why he has been so successful; he never thought about how much it cost to do something or how much money he would make. He only thought about the idea. That's what I like about Steve Wozniak. It's why I read the book and I am glad I did.

This was a pretty good book. Woz's (or his ghost writers') style is a bit odd. He brags quite a bit, but he realizes how it sounds.
I liked hearing the inside story on some of the important advances that were spurred by things he did.

If you're a geek, you might enjoy reading it. For non-geeks, it might not be worth it, though he does try to explain some things for non-technical readers.

 Experiences. Pranks. Computers. These words summarize the story of iWoz, by Gina Smith and Steve Wozniak. The novel won numerous awards including the New York Times bestseller list, the National Medal of Technology, and the Heinz Award. This story likely won these awards due to how knowledgeable and qualified Wozniak is when it comes to this topic. Through his experiences in life and his time at Apple, Wozniak brought major advancements to modern computer technology. 
 Because of Wozniak’s credibility and the book’s detail, I would give this book four stars out of five. 
 iWoz is a story about the life of Steve Wozniak, detailing his life from when he was very young to present day. Wozniak mentions his life at a young age, and the impact that time of his life had on his future with computers. He also talks about how he came to invent Apple and his life after it. In the middle of everything, he shares interesting stories about his life that are often not relevant to the main point of the book, which is computers and Apple. 
 I would recommend this book for a variety of reasons. First, as co-founder and an early engineer at Apple, Wozniak made large advancements with computers and highly influenced the state of computer technology today, through his works on the well-known Apple II and other revolutionary computers. This book also covers the entire timeline of Wozniak’s life, and with that, nearly the entire timeline of computers. In addition, this book includes interesting and fun side stories throughout the novel which make it more interesting. In these stories, you can expect to see explanations of certain computer parts, interesting facts, and sometimes short stories about interesting experiences that Wozniak had, like KGB agents following him while on his trip to Russia.
 The book loses one star because Wozniak fails to go into depth about his decisions with many things. For example, if you wanted to learn how a startup like Wozniak’s was able to talk to venture capitalists and get an investment, which he does mention, he won't go into depth with it and will instead go into depth with pranks or jokes he makes. This may be appealing to many readers as it is about his life, but many want to take away important knowledge that can be used in the business world, startups, etc, which this book lacks. A better audience would be those who care to learn about advancements in computer technology and how to apply information from the book to your life today. For example, Wozniak mentions in the end, how he knew that the Xerox computer being built in the lab would be the future of computers, and said that you should always take advantage of an opportunity like that. This can be applied to similar things today, such as a cure for a disease or other inventions. 
 This book reminds me of other autobiographies from other inventors and business people, such as the novel, “Idea Man,” by Paul Allen. The novel relates to an older literary trend of autobiographies, but also a newer trend of people wanting to learn more about successful people and wanting to read their stories.
 Learning about advancements in computer technology and startups like Wozniak’s, are topics that I am very interested in. As I am a high school student, I have been forced to read certain books, many of which are not appealing to me. This book, on the other hand, is one that I was able to choose, out of millions of other books. If helping advance something revolutionary interests you, I recommend that you read this book.

A very easy to read recount of Wozniak’s early life which shows his genius and personality but also how being at the right time at the right place makes a huge difference. I learned a couple of things about computers that we take for granted today like the binary system and the role of compilers. I had no idea the guy was so funny either! Great read. Highly recommended.
One star down for the writing style which made the book read like a kid’s journal sometimes.

I do not think this book does justice to what Steve Woznaik and Steve Jobs accomplished. In fact, reader must know that this book is about Woznaik as a person and not about Apple or Steve Jobs.

From an engineers point of view, this book is interesting in parts. You get a good understanding of what goes on within an engineer's head. You get a good personal account of interesting stories involving Woznaik. One story really bothered me: Woznaik's investments with the concerts which ended up with him losing 20 million, Only an engineer with no sense of economics would be able to achieve that kind of a feat. But that's more or less all the good that you can get out of this book because the rest of things are really ordinary to say the least.

This book is a good example of why not many engineers become great writers. Woznaik might be a great engineer but he is a terrible writer. I tried very hard to let go some of the flaws in his writing in the initial chapters but it kept getting worse. Moreover, Woz comes across as a person who is full of himself throughout and I credit the editors and publishers of this book for achieving this feat.

I can go on and on about the serious flaws and unpolished material in the book, but the fact is that I still finished this book within couple of days. This might be either because of the amount of respect I have for him or may be because I just wanted to hear all the stories whether good or bad.

Read it to know the man but don't have any high expectations.

Great biographical book! I had a really interesting time reading this book, it felt like being on a journey listening to Steve Wozniak explain the intricacies of his life's story.

I read other people's reviews where they found the book too hard to read, honestly I did not have that problem, although I did listen to the audiobook version, which might have made a big difference.

In general, the book is a prime example of a good biography, which you cannot miss, regardless about your feelings about the author or the company he co-founded. The facts are simple, Apple is the world's biggest company, it changed our ways of life and here you have the guy who started it all, writing about his life and how Apple was founded.

I simply ate up the book and in no ways did I find it hard to read. My curiosity and excitement just punched through everything, I wanted to hear about the man who co-founded Apple, what was his line of thinking, is there something which made him different, his life philosophy and most importantly, life tips and lessons to other people, particularly other software engineers.

Oh boy did he have an interesting story, I was fascinated how much his parents played a role in his life and his upbringing, which cumulatively ended up being the reason Apple II was built and even why the company was founded.

Some might find him egoistical in the book, but that was not my experience at all, the truth is he does come off as a genius, however he also lists his mistakes which honestly gave me mental relief, knowing that even the most genius people make the most banal errors.

Definitely worth reading, especially if you are interested about startups and inventing. Best lesson Woz gave, to me is that you have to do it yourself, nobody will have passion about something which is your idea like you yourself would.

The book is in his voice and not heavily edited. Some people find may find that it's poorly written, bragging,annoying but I think the book is true to him. This is who he is: a guy who can write industry changing code overnight,whose hobby was to fill notebook after notebook with designs for a personal computer and is proud of it. An Engineer's Engineer.

I've heard a bunch of the Apple story a number of times so in some ways less interesting then I thought I'd find it.

He has a lot of nice things to say about HP and interesting how he would of still liked to work there if they let him design personal computers.

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It By Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith.

I live in the Silicon Valley and of course Apple is one of the many companies that was born in this area. My first computer was the Apple II+.

Like many I’ve read more on Steve Jobs as he was the showman. All eyes were on him. Steve Wozniak of course is always part of the stories that covered the early years. His genius designed the first computers. But in all this, he just seemed to smile and wave off the attention.

Finally, I had a chance to read a book with a focus on him and better yet, in his own words.

I really enjoyed the book. It’s not a complex work as its subject isn’t either. Woz is a simple (yet very smart) man. He just wants to invent and, in his creations, always create something with the fewest chips and taking up a smaller space. That’s what gives him joy; the process of invention.

Steve starts the book appropriately in his childhood. It’s here where we see him at his dad’s knee learning all about engineering and electronics. His dad comes across also very smart, but very patient as he schools his son. Always willing to explain anything and guide him in his learning. After reading this book I realize that the grandfather of Apple, if Steve was the engineering father, is Woz’s dad.

I’d always read about how Steve designed the first circuit board of the Apple computer and it seemed that he just sat down and created a computer… But this book shows the years of experimentation, working on other projects, his experience, that eventually let to the moment he could design something like the Apple computer.

The story nicely filled in the gaps of his life that I didn’t know about. It covers in more detail his love of working at Hewlett Packard. His on again, off again attempts at getting his college education. His wives and of course his life in Apple as it became something large to the point that Steve just decided he wanted a smaller place to do what he loved best, creating something new.

Woz seems to be one of those guys that what you see is what you get. Just a friendly, jokester that is an engineer. He doesn’t seem to have that hard edge streak in him like Steve Jobs had. Woz comes across simple and kind in this book. But in all the decades, this book matched with the stories that I heard from others.

With this work, I got the other half of the duo that created one of the greatest companies of the world.

If the story of Apple or one of this generation’s great inventors is of interest to you, I can recommend this book.

I heard about the book on a podcast, and thought it sounded interesting. Its a biography of one of Apple computer co-founders, Steve Wozniak.

It recounts the sometimes serendipity of innovation and invention, but also too some of the genius that obviously was part of both Steve's. Woz comes off as arrogant at times, but not so much self-serving as perhaps just facts.

There is quite a lot of contextual information surrounding not just the birth of Apple computer, but also really the birth of personal computing and some of the key players in this industry.

A very interesting book, and not just for nerds or those who fancy computers and gadgets. Its about entrepreneurs, thinking outside the book and how innovative, creative people are often rise above the typical constraints placed upon society by *norms*, customs and rigid conformity.

Having a book as addicting as this when I fell sick in Cancun was one of the most serendipitous things that could have happened to me. The free time I got in the vacation was immediately occupied by the larger questions this book raised.

Steve Wozniak’s memoir is unlike many other memoirs I’ve read: it flew through a lot of his personal life but paused thoughtfully at each of his science projects. His explicit passion for electronics is obvious to a reader, and unexpectedly, so is his morality. His writing is very straightforward and unpretentious, giving us a peek into his boyish nature. Pranks have always been a big part of his life, and his effort for his pranks give us an insight into his pattern of hard work and patience to see something through. I caught a few stares as I uncontrollably laughed out loud at his pranks in a cafeteria. Even his pranks were original and elaborate! His attribution of patience and uninterrupted individual effort to his success is at odds with the current day obsession with teamwork and open offices.

The parallel storylines of building the first personal computer and Steve Wozniak’s morality were the highlight of the book for me. He invented the Employee Stock Option program, giving away his stocks for free to early Apple employees AFTER he knew that they were worth millions. He designed the first personal computer, Apple 2, and gave away those designs for free so that others would benefit from it. Since he conceived the design for Apple 2 while he was still an HP employee, he offered the design to HP. Only after they refused it, he felt comfortable in incorporating Apple. These facts raised the larger questions for me: Why has Steve Wozniak been relegated to the side while Steve Jobs took center stage? Why do we, the collective humanity, value the businessperson more than the inventor?

Steve Jobs had a carefully curated public persona. Once Apple got investors, Jobs knew he wanted to be a part of history in the way that William Shakespeare is, a classic icon. He projected the image that he and Wozniak jointly invented the first personal computer, which is simply factually incorrect. Wozniak invented it in the privacy of his desk at HP and in his room. Jobs suggested that they sell it and set up a company. Jobs refused to give away any of his shares to employees as he claimed that they were being paid to do their job. When Steve Wozniak and Steve jobs jointly worked on a design and got a cash prize for it, Steve Jobs gave Wozniak $700, claiming that was 50% of the prize money, when in fact, Jobs kept an additional two thousand dollars for himself.

Our responsibility to reward inventors like Steve Wozniak cannot be overlooked, if we want products like Apple. There is no doubt that Apple, the company, has been well served by Steve Jobs, the business person. There is also no doubt that Apple, the product, has been better served by Steve Wozniak, the inventor. Having read both, the biography of Steve Jobs, and the autobiography of Steve Wozniak, I can confidently say that I’m not upset that I’m not a Steve Jobs. But I’m upset that iNotWoz.

Definitely an amazing read for anyone who's a geek and interested in tech. Some reviews point to the fact that the book talks too much about "I" and about Woz's greatness. To those people - this guy started a revolution by visioning the idea of people having computers at home and building those by putting in so much thought into them. He deserves it. At no point he seemed like an arrogant person to me as stated by some.

What a story! So so different from Jobs! This guy almost seems simplistic--just a guy. He likes to play pranks, and oh yeah--change the world.