The iPhone represents an important moment in both the short history of mobile media and the long history of cultural technologies. Like the Walkman of the 1980s, it marks a juncture in which notions about identity, individualism, lifestyle and sociality require rearticulation. this book explores not only the iPhone’s particular characteristics, uses and "affects," but also how the "iPhone moment" functions as a barometer for broader patterns of change. In the iPhone moment, this study considers the convergent trajectories in the evolution of digital and mobile culture, and their implications for future scholarship. Through the lens of the iPhone—as a symbol, culture and a set of material practices around contemporary convergent mobile media—the essays collected here explore the most productive theoretical and methodological approaches for grasping media practice, consumer culture and networked communication in the twenty-first century.

Reviews

"Through a review of theories past and present, as well as various case studies into already visible change, this book lays a foundation for further scholarship in mobile media and sociotechnical query in general. Because of its focus on the iPhone as a context, the text has a grounding and certain familiarity that will likely give it wide appeal." -- Zack O'Leary, University of Edinburgh, First Monday

Contents

1. Getting Connected: An Introduction Larissa Hjorth, Jean Burgess, and Ingrid Richardson I. iPhone as a Cultural Moment 2. Adapting the Mobile Phone: the iPhone and its Consumption Gerard Goggin 3. Galapagosisation/Globalisation: Social Construction and People's Design of Mobile Media Literacy Shin Mizukoshi II. iPhone as a Platform 4. Learning to Play Katie Salen 5. The iPhone as an Innovation Platform? A Game Developer Case-Study John Banks 6. iPhone as Hands-up Display Chris Chesher III. iPhone as a Phenomenon 7. Shake da Interface: An Investigation of the iPhone as Metamorphing Object Nanna Verhoeff 8. Touching the Screen: A Phenomenology of Mobile Gaming and the iPhone Ingrid Richardson 9. Touching/Gesturing Around One Infinite Loop Rey Chow 10. Does Albert Borgmann Use an iPhone Michael Arnold IV iPhone and Labour 11. iPod City Jack Linchuan Qiu 12. iPersonal: A Case Study of the Politics of the Personal Larissa Hjorth 13. Working It: iPhones and the Labour of Listening Kate Crawford 14. Accounting for iPhones: What if You Want an iPhone but Your Organisation Says No? Ilpo Koskinen

Author Bio

Larissa Hjorth is Senior Lecturer in the Games Programs at RMIT University.

Jean Burgess is a Senior Research Fellow in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Ingrid Richardson is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Creative Technologies and Media at Murdoch University, Western Australia.