Always On
How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future - and Locked Us In
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Narrated by:
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Brian Chen
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By:
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Brian Chen
About this listen
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 350,000 and counting.
But the iPhone has implications far beyond the phone or gadget market. In fact, it's opening the way to what Brian X. 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.
©2011 Brian X. Chen (P)2011 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In Smarter Than You Think, Thompson documents how every technological innovation - from the printing press to the telegraph - has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But as in the past, we adapt, learning to use the new and retaining what’s good of the old.
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Title should be Getting Smarter Through Technology
- By A. Yoshida on 03-10-17
By: Clive Thompson
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The World Is Flat
- Further Updated and Expanded
- By: Thomas L. Friedman
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, what will they say was the most crucial development in the first few years of the twenty-first century? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations?
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If you like cliches...
- By Jonathan Shultz on 09-08-07
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Googled
- The End of the World as We Know It
- By: Ken Auletta
- Narrated by: Jim Bond
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In Googled, esteemed media writer and critic Ken Auletta uses the story of Google's rise to explore the inner workings of the company and the future of the media at large. Although Google has often been secretive, this book is based on the most extensive cooperation ever granted a journalist, including access to closed-door meetings and interviews with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CEO Eric Schmidt, and some 150 present and former employees.
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Audio production could have been better
- By David on 11-12-09
By: Ken Auletta
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Becoming Facebook
- The 10 Challenges That Defined the Company That's Disrupting the World
- By: Mike Hoefflinger
- Narrated by: Nicholas Techosky
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Facebook's founding is legend: In a Harvard dorm, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg invented a new way to connect with friends...and the rest is history. But for the people who actually molded this great idea into a game-changing $300 billion company, the experience was far more tumultuous and uncertain than we might expect. Mike Hoefflinger was one of those Facebook insiders.
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mainly a tribute to the success of FB
- By Anonymous User on 10-07-18
By: Mike Hoefflinger
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Little Rice
- Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream
- By: Clay Shirky
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the 1990s China has been climbing up the ladder of quality, from doing knockoffs to designing its own high-end goods. Xiaomi - its name literally means "little rice" - is landing squarely in this shift in China's economy. But the remarkable rise of Xiaomi from startup to colossus is more than a business story because mobile phones are special. The common desiderata of the global population, mobile phones offer the kind of freedom and connectedness that autocratic countries are terrified of.
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Informative and up to date.
- By Kevin on 01-10-16
By: Clay Shirky
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Machine, Platform, Crowd
- Harnessing Our Digital Future
- By: Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson predicted some of the far-reaching effects of digital technologies on our lives and businesses. Now they’ve written a guide to help listeners make the most of our collective future. Machine | Platform | Crowd outlines the opportunities and challenges inherent in the science fiction technologies that have come to life in recent years, like self-driving cars and 3D printers, online platforms for renting outfits and scheduling workouts, or crowd-sourced medical research and financial instruments.
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Both How AND Why for Techies
- By Dan Collins on 08-11-17
By: Erik Brynjolfsson, and others
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The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs
- By: Carmine Gallo
- Narrated by: Sean Mangan
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, best-selling author Carmine Gallo reveals the qualities that make the Apple co-founder the most innovative leader in business today. Each principle is backed with research, quotes, and first-person interviews with experts and business leaders, as well as specific ideas for applying those principles to every business, large or small.
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awful
- By Thomas on 10-15-11
By: Carmine Gallo
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What Would Google Do?
- By: Jeff Jarvis
- Narrated by: Jeff Jarvis
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In a book that's one part prophecy, one part thought experiment, one part manifesto, and one part survival manual, internet impresario and blogging pioneer Jeff Jarvis reverse-engineers Google, the fastest-growing company in history, to discover 40 clear and straightforward rules to manage and live by.
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Shallow and one-sided
- By JimmiJ on 02-04-09
By: Jeff Jarvis
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Disruptive Marketing
- What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal
- By: Geoffrey Colon
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Colon
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Now that 75 percent of screen time is spent on connected devices, digital strategies have moved front and center of most marketing plans. But what if that's not enough? What if most people ignore company messages? What if consumer engagement never goes further than the "like" button? A sobering reality is hitting marketers. Technology hasn't just reshaped mass media, it's altering behavior as well. And getting through to customers will take some radical rethinking.
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Needed. Valuable. Welcome contribution.
- By Oliver Nielsen on 04-26-17
By: Geoffrey Colon
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Big Data in Practice
- How 45 Successful Companies Used Big Data Analytics to Deliver Extraordinary Results
- By: Bernard Marr
- Narrated by: Piers Hampton
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of Big Data is back, this time with a unique and in-depth insight into how specific companies use big data. Big data is on the tip of everyone's tongue. Everyone understands its power and importance, but many fail to grasp the actionable steps and resources required to utilise it effectively. This book fills the knowledge gap by showing how major companies are using big data every day, from an up-close, on-the-ground perspective.
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Good book for managers
- By Capnbody on 01-08-18
By: Bernard Marr
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Trade-Off
- Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't
- By: Kevin Maney
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In Trade-Off, Kevin Maney shows how these conflicting forces determine the success, or failure, of new products and services in the marketplace. He shows that almost every decision we make as consumers involves a trade-off between fidelity and convenience between the products we love and the products we need.
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No Trade-Offs for Reading Trade-Off
- By Joshua Kim on 06-10-12
By: Kevin Maney
What listeners say about Always On
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- matthew
- 09-17-13
A disturbing look into the future
There are many great things we have enjoyed as a result of technological advantages, but I am not sure I am ready to completely meld with technology itself. I love my Ipod and my two laptops,but I would still much rather interact with a real human being. There is something disturbing about our addiction to media. Computers are reshaping our thought processes. As Brian alludes to, we are relying too heavily on media to think on our behalf. What happens when the computers can read our minds? Will we cease to be human or become some sort of cyborg like beings? It seems Brian is able to keep tech in perspective and perceives its value without being dependent on it. This book has made me aware of my addictive habits and how they are isolating me instead of connecting me with the people I love.
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Overall
- Christopher
- 06-20-11
nothing too surprising
It's almost like he took a couple of blogs and expanded them to book length form--no great new insights here. There is a good chapter about Apple vs. Google vs. the wireless carriers that is interesting. The author is not a great narrator.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Joshua Kim
- 05-01-12
"Always On" Is Surprisingly Good
Always On is one of those books that I flirted with buying (downloading?) for a few months. Up until last week I could never convince myself to pull the trigger (add to the cart?).
The book seemed to have a few things going against it:
-Do we really need a whole book about the iPhone?
-Doesn't Apple get enough ink?
-Should we really be spending our valuable reading time obsessing about a smart phone?
-Isn't this book already out-of-date (after 9 months), with the coming of the iPhone 4 and the introduction of Siri?
-And doesn't Apple get enough ink? (So important I had to list it twice).
Turns out, I should not have waited to read Always On - and neither should you.
Give yourself 5 hours and 42 minutes to read Always On (the length of the audiobook … you will read it even faster if you use your eyeballs and not your ears), and you will learn some new things. Brian X. Chen is not an Apple fanboy or an unthinking iPhone evangelist. Rather, Chen (who now writes for the NYT Bits blog) is a thoughtful critic of the costs, as well as the benefits, of our always connected and hyper-networked society. Chen's thesis is that the combination of 3 technologies - the smart phone, ubiquitous bandwidth, and Web 2.0 social tools - have fundamentally changed how we structure our professional and personal lives. Mobile information abundance, combined with always available digital communication, equates to the need for new structures around our work, education, and social lives.
What Chen is advocating is that we take seriously this shift from information/communication scarcity to information/communication abundance. He asks, what would higher education look like if designed around the capabilities the iPhone and mobile apps, and he wonders how the institutions that do not evolve will remain relevant. Chen also recognizes the costs of living in a world where e-mail, text messaging, Twitter, Facebook and the entire Web are always with us.
Chen does not shy away from detailing the dangers of our mobile web addiction. He worries that we will misuse the technology of smart phones, ubiquitous networks, and social tools to avoid rather than develop authentic relationships. And rather than offer any simple fix-alls or advice, Chen takes the route of detailing how the iPhone and the web has provided both benefits and costs in his own relationships.
The other strength of Always On is Chen's analysis of the pros and cons of Apple's closed iPhone ecosystem. Most writing about Apple's walled garden tends to be either strongly for or strongly against vertical integration. Chen takes a middle path, pointing out the benefits for both companies (profits) and consumers (quality/integrated product experiences) that vertically integrated platforms can create.
The iPhone and a Mac may (I'd argue do) provide a better use experience than non-closed platforms, but this comes with a set of very high costs around control. The birth of the computer industry owes much of its early growth from the hacker ethos, from young technologists being able to re-program their machines and re-write their software. None of this is possible on an iPhone or iPad. Apple approves each app, and each app must conform to all of Apple's programming policies and guidelines. In Always On, Chen gives this tension between vertical vs. horizontal / open vs. closed platforms considerable attention, complementing his opinions with thorough (but concisely reported) research and analysis.
Any complaints about Always On? I think that the book could have been even more condensed into the length of Kindle Single, but maybe the iPhone, apps, and the web are contributing to my shortened attention span. This complain should not deter you from reading Always On, as I'd like to chat with you about your reactions to the book.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- João Evolução
- 06-20-11
Very Good Book, but the Audio version not so Good
The book is really good, cause give us an excellent overview about the smartphones impact over our lives. However, the narrator (the author himself) is not so good. For foreigners like me, it affects the listening. I suggest you to hire a professional one.
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3 people found this helpful
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- RON
- 10-25-11
Nothing new here.
Whats to say about how we are tethered to our electronic devices. There is nothing new that this book adds....
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- Photo Princess
- 09-20-11
Rant
I did not enjoy this material. The author was ranting. I wanted information I could use. The material was true but did not help me.
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