New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

App Review: Wikitude

With the introduction of AR (augmented reality) software and its implementation into mobile devices there has been a considerable rise in apps that use such geo-location and AR features. One of these apps is ‘Wikitude‘ developed by the Austrian...

By Philip Breek on 10/09/11 Comments Off

Let’s talk iPhone? App-so-lutely!

The iPhone 4S In the advent of the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event, people were already looking for tutorials in order to sync and back up all of the various apps they have gathered from the moment they “went apple,”...

By Jeroen Rijskamp on 10/05/11 Comments Off

Mobile Tweeting – recognising usage frequency, tendencies and social interaction differences

The Question Academic research on Twitter has been rife since it hit off in 2006, with significant focus on two topics in particular- that of privacy and identity. Much that has been written by scholars of Twitter has generally...

By Christopher Mead on 10/05/11 Comments Off

Book review: ‘Designing Culture: the technological imagination at work’ by Anne Balsamo

In this book, ‘Designing culture: the technological imagination at work’, Anne Balsamo, Professor of interactive media at the University of Southern California, calls for a new approach to technological innovation arguing that culture must be taken into account when...

By Philip Breek on 09/19/11 Comments Off

Book Review: What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly

“Space: the final frontier – to boldly go where no man has gone before.” This may be the answer Kelly was looking for when he set out to answer his own question, the title of his book and thesis. ...

By Christopher Mead on 09/18/11 3

Media art to teach the unaware people

My first blogpost on the Masters of Media blog should be about a topic I’m interested in., but that’s not as easy as it looks, because my interests are very wide spread. The reason why I’m following the master...

By Maarten Jansen on 09/15/11 Comments Off

‘Headdesking’ and Beyond: The British Uprisings

‘Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not...

By Jamie Franklin on 09/12/11 2

The battle between industry and ideology

Just a quick word on something that might sound obvious to all of us, yet is a topic that in my opinion is applicable on most new media discourses. The struggle between ideology and the ‘real world’.

By Renoud Netjes on 09/12/11 3

The Missing Link: Google Alternatives

“In the greatest leverage of the common user, Google turns traffic and link patterns generated by 2+billion searches a month into the organizing intelligence for a new economy.” – Kevin Kelly (Bruns 2008, 174) Whether users realize it or...

By Ronen Shay on 03/11/11 2

Technion Society of the Future

A nation that fascinates me enormous in many aspects is one of the smallest countries in the world. Despite that, this nation has four climatic zones and is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel – that’s...

By Elias van Hees on 02/20/11 Comments Off

I Played Kinect, and I Liked It

During my recent travels I came across a demonstration for the Xbox 360 Kinect in the Zurich Hauptbahnhof railway station. For those that don’t know, the Kinect is Microsoft’s latest peripheral for the Xbox 360 that allows gamers to...

By Ronen Shay on 10/31/10 5

Apple Is Chasing The Largests.

Apple Inc. is becoming on of the most powerfull sellers and producers of smart phones. According to DC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker Apple, that came up on October 28, 2010, has went up and joined three the biggest phones producers,...

By Michal Kielbasa on 10/31/10 1

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mysterious LED

Wandering around some Mac-aficionado forums in search of good repairing tips for my powerbook maybe-a-bit-old’n’dusty-thus-winding-way-too-slow-and-definitely-too-noisy internal fan, I found this amazing asynchronous, multi-user dispersed chat: user A: I keep my powerbook on my desk when I work. When it goes to...

By Alberto Angelini on 10/26/10 2

The human race towards immortality or stupidity.

The idea of immortality plays a significant role in the human life. Within every generation, and within every culture this is an issue. The Chinese incorporate this with Ba Xian, the eight immortals. Within he Indian Mythology there is...

By Chris Hoogeveen on 10/21/10 1

Digital Comics: Not as Invincible as They Could Be

As a Toronto born comic book fan, I’ve probably visited my local comic book shop, Cyber City Comix, once a week for the last fifteen years. Every Wednesday I would go by and pick up the latest issues of...

By Ronen Shay on 10/18/10 Comments Off

Electronic Paper to the Rescue!

Digital publishing is trying to replace centuries of ink printed publishing, however many people are still skeptical to this idea of digital publishing, and remain loyal to the ‘old’ book, mostly because they...

By Bob Nefkens on 10/17/10 1

John Doe is addicted to Twitter

From ambient awareness to addiction to the virtual world of tomorrow When your social life is only one Tweet away “What are you doing?” or in more recent words “What is happening?” is a question that can be answered...

By Ourania on 10/14/10 3

Educate Me in 140 Characters or Less

When packing your bag for school, make sure you have your lunch, books, and favorite Twitter client. The social network is making great strides as an academic tool, as more and more educators realize the benefit of fast, transparent...

By Ronen Shay on 10/11/10 Comments Off

Twitter Research Supported by Info Visualisation

Everyday users of Twitter users provide the world with us with of tweets on topics differing from what they ate, how they feel to what music they listen to. This is a great source for researchers who want to...

By Jidi Guo on 10/07/10 1

The Future is… When Exactly?

Computing interfaces have come a long way over the years. I think we can all agree that the mouse and keyboard of our current day pc’s is highly preferable to the tape spools and cable jacks of the WOII...

By Laurent Hubeek on 10/07/10 Comments Off

The Ultimate Boycott of Brains?

About the other, less seen, side of Israel: Technology and digital innovation “People of good conscience have chosen to boycott israeli products and companies supporting the zionist entity.” is stated on the Anti-Israël website inminds.com. Such political statements are...

By Elias van Hees on 10/01/10 Comments Off

Virtually Yours! The Meteoric Rise of Virtual Game Goods

In the space of just over a decade, virtual game goods have gone from being a black market cottage industry to an extremely successful business model for gaming and social networking virtual goods industries. This evolution, caused by player...

By Isobel Gorman on 09/27/10 1

The Customer is Always Right (or at least able to convince the Internet masses they are)

With the dominance of social networking, user generated content, and the ability to comment on just about anything, web 2.0 has changed the way consumers interact with corporations, especially when they are pissed off. Many corporations are performing the...

By Ronen Shay on 09/26/10 2

The Chinese Room

Friday, 17 september, in Hague’s Korzo5HOOG theater, I, with companion, got immersed in the phantasies of dancer and choreographer Kenneth Flak. Inspired on the thinking experiment ‘The Chinese Room’ placed in the context of the notions of William Gibson’s...

By Xander Stolwijk on 09/24/10 1