Sophistication & Simplicity: The Life and Times of the Apple II Computer

Steven Weyhrich

$29.95

Publication Date: December 1st, 2013

Publisher:

Variant Press

ISBN:

9780986832277

Pages:

576

Description

Despite humble beginnings, today Apple, Inc. enjoys unprecedented popularity and prosperity with its products, routinely selling over a million devices in a single day. It is a major innovator in the computing and consumer landscape, and as shown in this retrospective, the history of the Apple II computer plays a large part in the current successes of the company. The late 1970s saw the dawn of the Apple II, the company's first hit product. It provided the breathing room for Apple to become self-sustaining and ultimately blossom into one of the greatest business and technology successes in history. This account provides a unique view of early personal computing and Apple as a company, focusing almost exclusively on the role of the Apple II within that story. It extends outward to the products, publications, and early online services that made up the ecosystem for the platform during its active years, and follows the story to present-day enthusiasts who still find new things to do with a computer that got its start more than 35 years ago.

About the Author

Steven Weyhrich is a family physician practicing in Omaha, Nebraska. He has extensive experience with the Apple II platform, starting with the Apple II Plus back in 1980 through the Apple IIGS in the late 1980s. He wrote articles about the Apple II for a variety of commercial publications before starting on the history of that computer in the early 1990s. He continues to maintain a keen interest in the Apple II. Since it first appeared on the Internet in the mid 1990s, his Apple II History web site has been the standard reference for the story of the Apple II, covering it from its beginnings to its continued life among enthusiasts today. Steven is a board-certified member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In his spare time he occasionally writes music parodies, he's a casual gamer (both old games and new), and a Minecraft enthusiast, designing an Apple II replica in the Minecraft world large enough to walk around in. He has been married since 1986, has II grown children, II dogs and II cats.