Though we have both written extensively before, and even self-published a book once, this was much more involved than we’d have guessed going in. We couldn’t have done it—and certainly not this well—without the assistance of a number of others.

Mary Treseler, our editor, championed this whole project and showed great faith in both of us, especially during somewhat challenging times, as the scope of the book began to grow and as we stretched the bounds of what an O’Reilly technical book normally is.

The various members of the production team at O’Reilly have also been extremely help- ful in working through our unique demands and sometimes-mediocre writing. Without them, this would be a much less readable and sensible book.

We’d also like to acknowledge the efforts of the technical editors. Steven also edits other books, and is very aware of how much work this can be. Josh Clark, Dan Saffer, Jennifer Tidwell, Bill Scott, and Christian Crumlish all gave us excellent feedback, if sometimes painful to hear and difficult to implement.

Similarly, there were innumerable small conversations on Twitter, in blogs, via email, on LinkedIn or Facebook, and face-to-face at work or industry events. Dozens of people gave us encouragement or useful feedback, or asked for a feature to be addressed that we might have forgotten otherwise.

Matthew Irish helped us with many technical aspects, such as setting up the wiki and taking some of the many screenshots we needed at the last minute.

Our device collection has been invaluable for research and perspective, so we want to thank everyone who donated an old device to us. We’d especially like to call out Ed Madigan, who donated his desk drawer collection on leaving Sprint. Though they do not know they helped, the Surplus Exchange in Kansas City — which has the best electronics recycling program, perhaps anywhere—has minimal interest in phones and PDAs, so we were able to get some neat old gear for terribly low prices.

We’d like to thank Allan Swayze, who provided better soldering and wiring gear, and a power supply to help Steven get many of these old devices running. He also exposed us to all sorts of interesting industrial automation devices, adding a lot of hidden technology to our knowledge base.

Thanks also go to Paige Miller, who has been growing up just down the street from Steven’s house, and, along with her friends (especially Audrey and Lily), let me observe their phones, interview them, and perform free user tests. They have provided great insights into the youth market.

Thanks to Jesse Schifano and Mike LeDoux, for letting me put their exploration of an iPad kiosk in here, and to the rest of the Ai design team for only occasionally making Steven come out to dinner instead of writing or editing all night long.

And of course, thanks to our friends and families for putting up with almost a year of spending every bit of spare time writing, editing, photographing, drawing, and editing more in a seemingly endless cycle.

Next: Colophon

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