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

The Building Blocks of Mobile Innovation

“Mobile innovation is over” – Marcus Wohlsen (Wired Magazine) A lot has happened since the first call from a mobile phone has been made by Martin Cooper 1973 from a Motorola phone. Since then the market has been ruled...

By Inte Gloerich on 10/09/13 Comments Off

A Bloody Trail Behind Our Mobile Life: a fair trade mobile phone

“It is time to be asking questions about technology. Where does it come from? Who makes it? And for what?” ― Bandi Mbubi (@ TED talk) Explosions of two plants that make Apple gadgets. A series of employee suicides...

By Seah Kim on 10/16/12 Comments Off

Dis Connecting Media

In the current literary landscape of mobile phones and mobile culture it’s rare to find a title that’s both playful and insightful. In fact, most titles concerning mobile-mediated communication are text tomes: although interesting, also dense. Occasionally...

By Natalie Dixon on 11/12/11 Comments Off

Interview with James Robinson: Mapping the World’s Signal

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blogpost about Open Signal Maps, an application for android that maps the world’s signal. I used the application myself for several days and it worked pretty fine and gave me better...

By Daan Fliervoet on 10/29/11 Comments Off

2012: An Offline Year for Bram van Montfoort

Bram van Montfoort (’87) is an online man. He once started with a dial-up internet connection and egg timer to keep track of ‘online’-time, nowadays Bram is equipped with iPad, PC and mobile phone and can be followed on...

By Leander Roet on 10/27/11 3

Love in the Time of Call-era: Rap music videos and the infectious relationship between humans and mobile phones

Attraction: Mobile tools R. Kelly ft. Nas “Did You Ever Think” (1998) The access point of your curiosity is the body, an exciting, new gadget. J. Macgregor Wise describes one perspective of human-technology relations as a received view in...

By Kendall Grady on 10/17/11 Comments Off

App review: Open Signal Maps

No signal? Mobility and GPS Locative media has always been an interesting topic to write about, especially nowadays of the ubiquitous present of smart phones in society. A smart phone is a very rich tool to research because it has...

By Daan Fliervoet on 10/12/11 1

UberSocial App Review – Mobile Tweeting

Twitter’s official app for Android is notorious for its limited features and overall lack of functionality. Let’s face it – if people had a choice between the official app and using a computer, they’d choose the latter. Or maybe...

By Christopher Mead on 10/11/11 Comments Off

The Switch: from Matthew Fuller to mobile apps

Erupting Irruption Ask Elk Grove, launched ten days ago for the city of Elk Grove, California, numbers among the newest localized smartphone applications for reporting civic repairs. Most follow agendas similar to GRCity311, an app developed for Grand Rapids,...

By Kendall Grady on 10/10/11 2

Phone fun — Phone art

With the help of Internet and what follows it, with the help of social media and mobile phones development, today many people percieve themselves as artists. What we can easily observe is that the form of artistic creativity which...

By Urszula Jurgiel on 10/10/11 2

A review of the PostSecret app. Please don’t tell anyone

I am a part of a small group of new media students who have set the wheels in motion on a practical project designed to study anonymity has in regards to honestly online. We intend to investigate how people...

By Jamie Franklin on 10/04/11 Comments Off

Shanzhai Factory Life

One of the things that I really wanted to do in Shenzhen aside from sightseeing was to visit a factory where they produce electronics. Quickly I found out that factories in general are not too eager on letting in...

By Jidi Guo on 05/09/11 3

Blood in our mobiles

Corporate social responsibility has had a great impact on businesses the last decade. In light of this awareness, the Dutch television station VARA aired an episode last week of ‘Uitgesproken’ - an in-depth news program - that was about...

By Bob Nefkens on 10/28/10 1

Social Networking Sites and the Missing Half

Dana Boyd describes “social networking sites” as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3)...

By Ben White on 10/04/08 2

PICNIC 08 – Locative Lab on Education

What: Locative Lab on Education and GPS-based programme 7scenes Organised by: Waag Society When: 24 Sept 08 14:00 - 18:00 Where: PICNIC Club (Gashouder)

By Sarah van der Land on 09/29/08 Comments Off

Skype-to-skype by mobile phone.

phone_logo.png" alt="Skypephone" style="float:left" /> A nice addition to previous posts on this blog by Laura en Daphne on 'skype alternatives', here a pro-skype announcement. Today, mobile phone company 3 unveiled its...

By Minke Kampman on 10/29/07 Comments Off