Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In

by Brian X. Chen

Overview

Even Steve Jobs didn't know what he had on his hands when he announced the original iPhone as a combination of a mere "three revolutionary products"--an iPod, a cell phone, and a keyboard-less handheld computer. Once Apple introduced the App Store and opened it up to outside developers, however, the iPhone became capable of serving a rapidly growing number of functions--now more than 200,000 and counting.

But the iPhone has implications far beyond the phone or gadget market. In fact, it's opening the way to what Brian Chen calls the "always-on" future, where we are all constantly connected to a global Internet via flexible, incredibly capable gadgets that allow us to do anything, anytime, from anywhere. This has far-reaching implications--both positive and negative--throughout all areas of our lives, opening the door for incredible personal and societal advances while potentially sacrificing both privacy and creative freedom in the process.

Always On is the first book to look at the surprising and expansive significance of Apple's incredibly powerful vertical business model, and the future it portends.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306822100
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	09/25/2012
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	306 KB

About the Author

Former associate editor for Macworld magazine, Brian X. Chen currently writes for Wired.com, where his regular column on Apple is followed by millions of readers. He lives in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 The Dream of the Perfect Thing 9

Chapter 2 A New Frontier 27

Chapter 3 The Always-On Society 43

Chapter 4 Skyscraper Businesses 65

Chapter 5 The Battle for Control 91

Chapter 6 Smarter or Dumber? 115

Chapter 7 For Better or Worse 133

Chapter 8 Disconnected 153

Chapter 9 iSpy: The End of Privacy 171

Chapter 10 Perfect Vision 191

Afterword 207

Notes 211

Acknowledgments 231

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

Colorado Springs Independent, 7/27/11 “If you’re like more than 70 million others, you’re probably reading these words via smartphone…[Always On] tells you how it got to be that way.”
 
January Magazine, 8/5/11
“[A] very smart and eloquent book…Chen is succinct, lucid and often fun…If you love your iPhone and think it’s the greatest invention since sliced cheese, Always On is for you. If you loathe the very idea of the iPhone and think it’s going to ruin the world, Always On is for you, too. Chen’s book is simply that marvelous: even-handed, engaging and informative, it looks at all sides of a tricky but interesting questions and makes a few assumptions that will surprise you.”
 

Seattle Times, 8/14/11 “A smart, engaging overview of studies, articles and arguments about our increasingly online world—and a look at how corporations got us here and how much further we could go.”

Midwest Book Review, September 2011
“Business and social issues collections alike will find this an important survey.”

Kirkus Reviews, 5/1/11
“A swift, engaging analysis of how the iPhone is changing the way technology is integrating contemporary society…A relevant, refreshingly charismatic nod to personal technology, its innovators and, of course, everything Apple.”

Publishers Weekly, 5/9/11
“Tech guru Chen's columns on Apple for Wired.com have gained him a wide readership, primarily for the same qualities he displays here: an in-depth knowledge of the history of Apple and a wide-angle view of the impact that Apple has made across the globe.”
 
New York Journal of Books Review, 6/29/11
“[Always On] is a page-turner for technophiles, but weaves enough humanity into the topic to keep most readers engaged.”

Shelf Awareness, 7/8/11
“A compelling analysis of how the iPhone has revolutionized every aspect of our lives.”

Connecticut News, 7/3/11
“Always On gives us a sharp and funny journalist/guide who shows us how the Apple phone (and the iPad that followed) and its easily used apps are reaching into nearly aspect of modern life.”
 

From the Publisher