Our Friend the Computer

• i-mode and Japanese mobile internet (Mobile Phones)

  Ana tells Camila about the flashing success of early Japanese smartphone tech. The girls discuss how the Japanese tech giants of the '90s and early '00s created exceedingly advanced and snazzy smartphone features and how such phones warranted the creation of the "second internet”. Circling the debate around Japan’s “economic miracle”, they talk about the politics and interrelation with the US that came after WW2.Join us over at Patreon for more tech chats! www.patreon.com/OurFriendtheComputerAnd follow us on Instagram @ourfriendthecomputer and Twitter @OurFriendComp Main research was done by Ana.  Audio editing by Ana.Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages).Interstitial sounds from the Media Archaeology Lab.OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.References - World Top 20 Companies by Market Capitalization in 1989 and 2019: https://www.funalysis.net/economy-times-are-changing-world-top-20-companies-by-market-capitalization-in-1989-and-2019The rise & fall of Japanese phone giants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voyuy1rySX4The Origin and Spread of Mobile Phones: https://web-japan.org/kidsweb/hitech/mobile/mobile01.htmlYou can send email from payphones in Japan?!? We try the technology trick that shocked the nation: https://soranews24.com/2019/10/31/you-can-send-email-from-payphones-in-japan-we-try-the-technology-trick-that-shocked-the-nation/NTT history: https://www.global.ntt/our-history.htmlSharp's awesome-looking Aquos 912SH TV-phone: https://www.techdigest.tv/2007/05/sharps_awesomel.html

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  40:59
• Fashion Phones and L'Amour (Mobile Phones)

  We’re back chatting about the early 2000s Nokia “Fashion Phones”! These phones preferenced a positioning of mobile phones as a fashion accessory, or fashion statement, over technological functionality. Following from the first two episodes of the season, Ana and Camila discuss gendered product design and marketing, aesthetic obsolescence, what “retro” really means, and why Nokia may have had an interest in creating these “experimental” designs in the first place.Join us over at Patreon!Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputerMain research was done by Camila.  Audio editing by Ana. Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages). Interstitial sounds from the Media Archaeology Lab. OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.References:- Nokia “Distinctly Bold” Campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG1JDYUrBUM - Bramston, Dave, “Basics product design: Idea Searching”, 2008, Bloomsbury Academic- De Giovanni, Pietro, “Cases of Circular Economy in Practice”, 2022, IGI Global- Hjorth, Larissa, “Mobile media in the Asia Pacific : gender and the art of being mobile”, Routledge, 2009- Katz, James E.  and Sugiyama, Satomi, “Mobile Phones as Fashion Statements: The Co-creation of Mobile Communication’s Public Meaning”, 2005- Shade, Leslie Regan, “Feminizing the Mobile: Gender Scripting of Mobiles in North America”, Continuum, 21:2, 2007, pp. 179-189- https://www.mobilephonemuseum.com/phone-detail/nokia-7380- https://www.mobilephonemuseum.com/phone-detail/nokia-7280 - https://www.theregister.com/2006/09/05/nokia_l_amour_collection/ 

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  49:40
• The Real Housewives of Bell Telephone (Mobile Phones)

  Although telephones were instated into the home as a business communication tool, the women of the house soon appropriated the technology for “sociability” - checking in with family and friends, gossiping, chatting and connecting with the community. Ana and Camila aptly chit-chat about how this phenomenon became so pronounced over the years that it shaped the evolution of phones and outlined the ways in which we use phones now.Join us over at Patreon and follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputerMain research and audio editing was done by Ana. Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages) OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.References:Fisher, C. S. 1992. America calling: A social history of the telephone to 1940. Berkeley: University of California Press.Hanson, E. 1995. The telephone and its queerness. In Cruising the performative: Interventions into the representation of ethnicity, na­ tionality, and sexuality, edited by E. A. Case. Bloomington: Indi­ ana University Press.Moyal, A. 1992. The gendered use of the telephone: An Australian case study. Media, Culture, and Socieh J 14:51-72.O'Keefe, G., and Sulanowski, B.1995. More than just talk: Uses, gratifications, and the telephone. Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly 72(4):922-933.Rakow, L. 1992. Gender on the line: Women, the telephone, and community life. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Arafeh, S. 2000. Chapter Five: Women, Telephones, and Subtle Solidarity: A Counternarrative. Counterpoints Journal. Peter Lang AG. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42976096?read-now=1&seq=26#page_scan_tab_contentsRetrowow. 80s mobile phones. https://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_collectibles/80s/mobile_phone.html#:~:text=The 8500X had an alphabetic,than the 8000X and 8000S.Sallyedelstein. 2015. The Telephone and the Housewife. Envisioning The American Dream https://envisioningtheamericandream.com/2015/12/22/the-telephone-and-the-housewife/

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  42:41
• Nokia and the Mobira Cityman (Mobile Phones)

  We’re back for season 3! Cell phones! Camila and Ana chat about the history of Nokia (the town and the company), the connection between car phones and mobile phones, and 80s naming conventions. They also discuss Gorbachev's famous phonecall on the Nokia-Mobira Cityman—a PR stunt that led to the phone being nicknamed the “Gorba” in Finland.Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendCompAnd Instagram @ourfriendthecomputerAnd Patreon! Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana does our editing.Big thanks to Darija Medic at the Media Archaeology Lab for recording and mixing our transition music this episode from archived Nokia phones!Intro/Outro music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Research:- Arthur, Charles, “Nokia's chief executive to staff: 'we are standing on a burning platform'”, The Guardian, 9 Feb 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2011/feb/09/nokia-burning-platform-memo-elop - Laaksonen, Teemu, "Is this real?" said Mikhail Gorbachev with a Mobira Cityman mobile phone in his hand”, YLE,  6 Dec 2020, https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2020/12/06/onko-tama-todellista-sanoi-mihail-gorbatsov-suomalainen-kannykka-kadessaan - Lohr, Steve, “Risk Inherited at Finnish Concern”, The New York Times, 29 Dec 1988, https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/29/business/risk-inherited-at-finnish-concern.html - Montes de Oca, Bernardo, “What Happened To Nokia And How It's Still Alive”, Slidebean, https://slidebean.com/story/what-happened-to-nokia- Vilpponen, Antti, “Nokia: Finland mourns the demise of its proud tech heritage”, The Guardian, 4 Sep 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/04/nokia-finland-microsoft-startups - Wingfield, Nick, “Microsoft to Lay Off Thousands, Most From Nokia Unit”, The New York Times, 17 July 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/business/microsoft-to-cut-up-to-18000-jobs.html - “Microsoft, Nokia, and the burning platform: a final look at the failed Windows Phone alliance”, VentureBeat, https://venturebeat.com/mobile/microsoft-nokia-and-the-burning-platform-a-final-look-at-the-failed-windows-phone-alliance/ - “Portfolio Expansion”, Nokia World, https://nokia-world.com/nokia-history/2/ - “The Nokia Mobira Cityman”, Microsoft Windows Blog, April 2012, https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2012/04/16/back-to-the-1980s-the-legendary-nokia-mobira-cityman-25-yrs-on/- “Why do the names of Apple's products begin with ‘I’? Know the history of now-iconic letter”, The Economic Times, 24 Dec 2022, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/why-do-the-names-of-apples-products-begin-with-i-know-the-history-of-now-iconic-letter/articleshow/96478120.cms?from=mdr 

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  48:10
• Poly-1 New Zealand (Edu-Computers)

  The girls talk cricket before launching into the final episode of this Education Computers season! We're heading over to New Zealand and talking about the Poly-1. It's another homegrown micro computer destined for schools and funded by a government program, but this one was crushed by corporate (specifically... Apple) interference. Before its time (and 18 months before the BBC micro), we plot its rise and then its downfall which coincided with some pretty dark moments in recent history. Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendCompAnd Instagram @ourfriendthecomputerMain research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana audio edited.Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Research:Poly Preservation Project: http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/homepages/andrew/poly/Poly.htm https://collection.motat.nz/objects/22214/computer-poly1 https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/collection/poly1.htmhttps://www.creationz.co.nz/kiwinuggets/2007/03/poly-1-educational-computer_07.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060424190744/http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3645342a28,00.html http://www.ourdigitalheritage.org/archive/playitagain/the-poly-computer-nzs-purpose-built-school-computer/ https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian/status/1644453795953246209http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/homepages/andrew/papers/2010-5.pdf http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article050106.html 

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  47:07

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