BKCLTIPD.RVW   20051222

"The Cult of iPod", Leander Kahney, 2005, 1-59327-066-6,
U$24.95/C$33.95
%A   Leander Kahney
%C   555 De Haro Street, Suite 250, San Francisco, CA   94107
%D   2005
%G   1-59327-066-6
%I   No Starch Press
%O   U$24.95/C$33.95 415-863-9900 fax 415-863-9950 info@nostarch.com
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593270666/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593270666/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593270666/robsladesin03-20
%O   Audience n- Tech 0 Writing 1 (see revfaq.htm for explanation)
%P   160 p.
%T   "The Cult of iPod"

This book is a followup to Kahney's "The Cult of Mac" (cf.
BKCLTMAC.RVW) and has the same disorganized style.  However, the two
books differ in some respects.  The Mac version has more information
about how the Mac came to be, and how people have used it in
interesting ways.  This version, dealing with th iPod, provides much
less information about the iPod, and its development, instead
concentrating on pronouncements about how the iPod will (note future
tense) change how people deal with music.  The iPod is thus granted
the credit for the changes occasioned by a whole range of technologies
dealing with the distribution of music in digital format.

The introduction is basically a promotional pamphlet for the iPod,
which will, after all, change our music listening habits forever,
usher in an era of world peace, and cure cancer.  Chapter one details
the announcement and initial release of the iPod, as well as public
reaction.  The changing listening styles and operations are outlined
in chapter two.  Surprisingly little information about the design and
creation of the iPod is provided in chapter three.  Chapter four
presents a number of things people are doing around the iPod product:
most of these are pretty silly, such as the business that will produce
black silhouette images, reminiscent of the Apple iPod ads, based on
your own photographs, or the person who owns over 70 iPods.  (Given
the point of the iPod is that you can store all your music on it, one
wonders why you need more than a single such device, and whether
having more than one is contrary to the concept, and therefore the
cult?)  Starting with the use of the iPod as a disc jockey gadget,
chapter five looks at a number of odd uses, and miscellaneous
characteristics.  Chapter six is basically the same.  Accessories are
listed in chapter seven.  Chapter eight purports to discuss the
cultural impact of the iPod, but really only recycles material
previously presented.

"The Cult of iPod" is less interesting than "The Cult of Mac," and, a
the same time, more pompous.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2005   BKCLTIPD.RVW   20051222