STEVEN LEVY

On October 23, 2001, Apple Computer, a company known for its chic, cutting-edge technology -- if not necessarily for its dominant market share -- launched a product with an enticing promise: You can carry an entire music collection in your pocket. It was called the iPod. What happened next exceeded the companys wildest dreams. Over 50 million people have inserted the devices distinctive white buds into their ears, and the iPod has become a global obsession. The Perfect Thing is the definitive account, from design and marketing to startling impact, of Apples iPod, the signature device of our young century. Besides being one of the most successful consumer products in decades, the iPod has changed our behavior and even our society. It has transformed Apple from a computer company into a consumer electronics giant. It has remolded the music business, altering not only the means of distribution but even the ways in which people enjoy and think about music. Its ubiquity and its universally acknowledged coolness have made it a symbol for the digital age itself, with commentators remarking on "the iPod generation." Now the iPod is beginning to transform the broadcast industry, too, as podcasting becomes a way to access radio and television programming. Meanwhile millions of Podheads obsess about their gizmo, reveling in the personal soundtrack it offers them, basking in the social cachet it lends them, even wondering whether the device itself has its own musical preferences. Steven Levy, the chief technology correspondent for Newsweek magazine and a longtime Apple watcher, is the ideal writer to tell the iPods tale. He has had access to all the key players in the iPod story, including Steve Jobs, Apples charismatic cofounder and CEO, whom Levy has known for over twenty years. Detailing for the first time the complete story of the creation of the iPod, Levy explains why Apple succeeded brilliantly with its version of the MP3 player when other companies didnt get it right, and how Jobs was able to convince the bosses at the big record labels to license their music for Apples groundbreaking iTunes Store. (We even learn why the iPod is white.) Besides his inside view of Apple, Levy draws on his experiences covering Napster and attending Supreme Court arguments on copyright (as well as his own travels on the iPods click wheel) to address all of the fascinating issues -- technical, legal, social, and musical -- that the iPod raises. Borrowing one of the definitive qualities of the iPod itself, The Perfect Thing shuffles the book format. Each chapter of this book was written to stand on its own, a deeply researched, wittily observed take on a different aspect of the iPod. The sequence of the chapters in the book has been shuffled in different copies, with only the opening and concluding sections excepted. "Shuffle" is a hallmark of the digital age -- and The Perfect Thing, via sharp, insightful reporting, is the perfect guide to the deceptively diminutive gadget embodying our era.

La criptografía -el uso de códigos secretos- era hasta hace poco tiempo coto vedado de espías y excéntricos, pero coincidiendo con la explosión de Internet, un grupo de individuos independientes iniciaron una revolucion en este campo. En las palabras de Lawrence Lessig, las poderosas herramientas matematicas que crearon fueron el avance tecnologico mas importante en los ultimos mil años. Esos poderosos algoritmos resolverian el problema decisivo para todos nosotros en el siglo XXI: como comunicarnos, hacer negocios y mantener nuestra informacion personal en privado en un mundo interconectado en redes. Pero esta era una revolucion a la que se oponia el FBI y las agencias de seguridad. Cripto habla de los visionarios que, hace mas de veinte años, predijeron que la principal ventaja de Internet -el libre acceso a la informacion- tambien era su mayor peligro: el posible final de la intimidad. Mezcla de thriller, divulgacion cientifica e intriga politica, solidamente narrado, Cripto explora lo que resulto ser un desarrollo decisivo en esta lucha: la improbable alianza entre los hackers y las grandes empresas. Su objetivo comun: defender el derecho a la intimidad frente el gobierno y otros intrusos.

(Note: contains only chapters 1 and 2)

A penetrating account of the momentous consequences of a reckless young company with the power to change the worldBrad Stone, author of The Everything Store and The UpstartsHow much power and influence does Facebook have over our lives? How has it changed how we interact with one another? And what is next for the company - and us?As the biggest social media network in the world, theres no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in our daily life. And in light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing "fake news" accounts, the handling of its users personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO, never has the company been more central to the national conversation.In this fascinating narrative - crammed with insider interviews, never-before-reported reveals and exclusive details about the companys culture and leadership - award-winning tech reporter Steven Levy tells the story of how Facebook has changed our world and asks what the consequences will be for us all.

The most interesting book ever written about Google (The Washington Post) delivers the inside story behind the most successful and admired technology company of our time, now updated with a new Afterword.Google is arguably the most important company in the world today, with such pervasive influence that its name is a verb. The company founded by two Stanford graduate studentsLarry Page and Sergey Brinhas become a tech giant known the world over. Since starting with its search engine, Google has moved into mobile phones, computer operating systems, power utilities, self-driving cars, all while remaining the most powerful company in the advertising business.Granted unprecedented access to the company, Levy disclosed that the key to Googles success in all these businesses lay in its engineering mindset and adoption of certain internet values such as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk-taking. Levy discloses details behind Googles relationship with China, including how Brin disagreed with his colleagues on the China strategyand why its social networking initiative failed; the first time Google tried chasing a successful competitor. He examines Googles rocky relationship with government regulators, particularly in the EU, and how it has responded when employees left the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups.In the Plex is the most authoritativeand in many ways the most entertaining (James Gleick, The New York Book Review) account of Google to date and offers an instructive primer on how the minds behind the worlds most influential internet company function (Richard Waters, The Wall Street Journal).

Qui aurait cru qu’une poignée de hackers binoclards seraient à l’origine de la plus grande révolution du xxe  siècle ? Le livre culte de Steven Levy, histoire vraie de l’équipe de geeks qui ont chang

If youve ever made a secure purchase with your credit card over the Internet, then you have seen cryptography, or "crypto", in action. From Stephen Levythe author who made "hackers" a household wordcomes this account of a revolution that is already affecting every citizen in the twenty-first century. Crypto tells the inside story of how a group of "crypto rebels"nerds and visionaries turned freedom fightersteamed up with corporate interests to beat Big Brother and ensure our privacy on the Internet. Levys history of one of the most controversial and important topics of the digital age reads like the best futuristic fiction.