Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone
Maker and role
Jon Agar, Author
Production date
2013
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Object detail
Accession number
PUB-2022-669
Maker
Description
"Jon Agar takes the mobile to pieces, tracing what makes it work, and puts it together again, showing how it was shaped in different national contexts in the United States, Europe, the Far East and Africa. He tells the story from the early associations with cars and the privileged, through its immense popular success, to the rise of the smartphone. Few scientific revolutions affect us in such a day-to-day way as the development of the mobile phone. Jon Agar's deft history explains exactly how this revolution has come about - and where it may lead in the future."
Contents
Pt. 1. World in bits : What's in a phone? ; Save the ether ; The cellular idea -- Pt. 2. Different countries, different paths to mobility : Born in the USA ; The Nordic way ; Europe before GSM : La Donna è Mobile, Männer sind nicht! ; GSM: European union ; Digital America divided ; Mob rule: competition and class in the UK ; Decommunisation = capitalist power + cellularisation ; Japanese garden ; For richer, for poorer: India and China -- Pt. 3. Mobile cultures : Txt msgs ; TxtPower ; Two organisations in the Congo ; M-Africa ; The Nokia way - to the Finland base station! ; Mobile phones as a threat to health ; Cars, phones and crime ; Phone hacking: a very British scandal ; Phones on film -- Pt. 4. Smartphones : Intimately personal computers ; 3G: a cellular world made by standards ; Apple ; Apple's rivals ; Blood on the smartphone ; Smartphone culture ; Cellular war ; The revolution will not be mobilised ; Oases of quiet ; Perpetuum mobile?
Contents
Pt. 1. World in bits : What's in a phone? ; Save the ether ; The cellular idea -- Pt. 2. Different countries, different paths to mobility : Born in the USA ; The Nordic way ; Europe before GSM : La Donna è Mobile, Männer sind nicht! ; GSM: European union ; Digital America divided ; Mob rule: competition and class in the UK ; Decommunisation = capitalist power + cellularisation ; Japanese garden ; For richer, for poorer: India and China -- Pt. 3. Mobile cultures : Txt msgs ; TxtPower ; Two organisations in the Congo ; M-Africa ; The Nokia way - to the Finland base station! ; Mobile phones as a threat to health ; Cars, phones and crime ; Phone hacking: a very British scandal ; Phones on film -- Pt. 4. Smartphones : Intimately personal computers ; 3G: a cellular world made by standards ; Apple ; Apple's rivals ; Blood on the smartphone ; Smartphone culture ; Cellular war ; The revolution will not be mobilised ; Oases of quiet ; Perpetuum mobile?
Signature/Marks and Type
Stamp Ink Stamp
Pencil Hand-written
Pencil Hand-written
Media/Materials
Physical description
x, 275 pages ; 20.5cm
ISBN/ISSN
9781848315075
Edition
2nd
Record level
Item
Credit line
Jon Agar. 2013. Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone, PUB-2022-669. Walsh Memorial Library, The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
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