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This chapter, written by Martine Beugnet, responds to the common complaint that watching movies on a smartphone is ‘uncinematic’, and investigates precisely the cinematicity particular to such devices. While, for instance, the tiny screen of an iPhone is paradigmatic of spectatorial habits in the digital age, it is equally redolent of the kinetoscope’s peephole apparatus prior to the emergence of the film theatre. Although the very antithesis of the collective viewing practices of cinema audiences, the iPhone as a screening device envelops these practices within a broader and more individuated experience of cinematicity. Beugnet proposes to leave the debate about ‘proper’ ways of screening films to one side, and to concentrate instead on the specific characteristics of watching films on very small screens and with sound-isolating devices. Drawing on haptic theories of visuality as well as on the history and aesthetics of miniature art forms and the curio, the chapter examines issues of mobility, manipulability and distracted-versus-attentive viewing, before focusing on the effect of miniaturization on the film image itself.

In this chapter, I consider the general question of ubiquitous listening, with a particular focus on how music is imagined in “homes of the future” at the beginning of the twenty-first century and ten years later. The connections and differences among wearable computing, pervasive computing, and smartphone apps lead me to argue that new issues of size and time are arising, as well as new focuses for the study of music.

Communication, information, and organizational control are tightly entwined; this chapter explores the theoretical literature that elaborates on these concepts. The early years of car phones and cell phones were a time when people used their devices to reach others. But that changed as smartphones—those with Internet access—started diffusing into organizations and throughout society. Now, people with those same devices could access data and share information in addition to communicating. This chapter focuses on a process perspective on organizational control and links the data from Chapters 1 and 2 to the concepts of agentic, hierarchical, and concertive control. Longitudinal data help illustrate how control is fluid and how these changes resemble a tug-of-war. Control is related to power, so it also discusses different types of power. Often organizations control resources, like mobile information and communication technologies, so power and control might work together in mobile communication.

This Introduction provides an overview of the general terrain of the book as a whole. It examines definitional complications associated with the phrase “locative media”; traces the origins of this term within locative media arts; gives an overview of a number of major technological developments that fueled wider uptake and broader public embrace of mobile location-based services; acknowledges that determining the whereabouts of mobile (cell) phone users has a longer history that predates smartphones; and outlines three major evolutions to mobile location-sensitive social networking. The Introduction also reflects on a number of limitations to the present study, and summarizes the book’s structure and contents.

This chapter gives consideration to how use of any one location-sensitive mobile application routinely occurs alongside and intermingled with the use of a wide array of other applications that also include various forms of location functionality. The argument of this chapter is that understanding the complexities driving these end-user choices of application selection and interaction is crucial if one is to more fully grasp the ties that bind platforms, political economies, and publics, and if one is to critically respond to key policy considerations, such as the privacy impacts and implications of location-based services.

This chapter examines the evolution of China’s mobile phone industry, with a special focus on the effect of migration to smartphones on the industrial ecosystem and industrial transformation. The Chinese market was dominated not long ago by the notorious Shanzhai handset makers. In the migration from 2G to 3G and smartphones in China, a few home-grown brands have become the leading suppliers of smartphones, outperforming international premium brands. The chapter assesses the significance of layered platform-based development in the migration toward smartphones and mobile digital services. In addition, it discusses a co-evolution process of social and market factors, in shaping Chinese “good-enough innovations,” to highlight the role of distinct demands in the Chinese market and the growing popularity of mobile internet services within Chinese “walled garden” with heavy regulation and censorship. Moreover, the chapter discusses the “three-level model for standards and innovation in ICT,” including the infrastructure, middleware (service platform), and application levels.

This chapter presents the authors’ view of the future, discussing new digital technologies and mediations and their impact on film and its reception. The subheadings are: “New positioning,” a discussion of the future of film and cinema in the light of new and emerging technologies and the few empirical studies addressing these issues; “Digital presences,” an overview of how the authors’ model can help in formulating new theoretical and empirical approaches; “Death by chat,” an analysis of the film Unfriended with a discussion of how new mediations of filmic content reshape the spectator’s relation to film; “A new film grammar,” which introduces action cams and their impact on film viewing; and “Goodbye to the screen?” which envisions how the new filmic mediation may generate a new form of film reception.

This chapter introduces Big Data from several dimensions: the rate of data creation by digital processes, the impact of increased data collection, storage and processing, and paradigm shifts in the demand for data as well as the handling of data for analysis. Important features of Big Data are defined and examined, such as the variety of data sources, the velocity of data creation, and the viral distribution of digital data. The creation of Big Data in specific markets and industries is highlighted, as well the sourcing of data from internal and external data sources, such as customer data, operations, scientific knowledge sets, and mass markets.

This chapter explores the emergence of passive data capture as a compelling source of Big Data. Various types of passive data capture are discussed, such as those stemming from RFID technology, mobile devices, home monitoring devices, GPS, and data sensors in automobiles and agricultural equipment. The merits of passive data capture and active data capture, which is deliberate and limited, are discussed. Inevitable clashes over the ownership and permissions in using passive data are discussed and privacy issues are addressed. Specific direction is provided on how firms can move to passive data capture processes to increase the scale and velocity of Big Data creation.

The reality that most people in developed countries have a phone or even a smartphone has created a network of sensors and “data reporters” at virtually no cost to firms. Location-based services have emerged, stemming from the network of users connected to mobile apps. This chapter includes a case study of Foursquare through which the merits of location-based services are examined. The opportunities to repurpose data from mobile systems to solve challenges in real estate evaluation, customer behavioral modeling, and even customer communications are explored. Best practices for handling and creating location-based data are presented along with lessons on how to best leverage location-based data for value creation. A great focus is given to the development of location-based services through mobile apps and how such data can change business models.

This chapter explores methodological approaches to the study of gig economy work through the deployment of the researcher’s smartphone. Set within the context of a covert ethnography of a delivery platform in London, the phone became a site to both experience work and record empirical findings in the workplace. Specifically, this chapter considers the sociomaterial construction and performance of the smartphone at work to highlight how its capacities and affordances shaped the empirical output. Critical reflections on the limits of the smartphone work alongside reflexive considerations of the researching self to position the researcher and phone as active agents in the research process; in which methodological decisions bear impacts on the nature of the empirical material produced. Of particular significance is the deployment of various apps, tailored to the needs of the field site and research to create diverse, multi-modal datasets, in addition to their synthesis into a coherent and curated ethnographic field diary for subsequent analysis.

Disconnecting from digital media is often mentioned in the public debate as a way of improving quality of life, productivity, sustainability, and so forth. However, not everyone can afford to disconnect, and media morality varies across social space. Based on data from a national Swedish survey (2019), this chapter applies correspondence analysis and a Bourdieusian theoretical framework to chart the extent to which different social groups prioritize disconnecting in different places, and the forms of digital unease associated with smartphone use. Such preferences are mapped onto a social space constructed around the distribution of economic and cultural capital in Swedish society, also illuminating how disconnection practices correspond to other lifestyle practices. The analysis reveals that the handling of digital (dis)connection (in different places) plays into overarching patterns of taste and cultural distinction. As such, disconnection manifests as an emerging moral-symbolic battleground in affluent societies.

The expansion of the mobile consumer market in the last decade has resulted in the widespread availability of affordable, multifunctional tablets, and smartphones with a range of uses. Whether for scientific research or conservation practice, these devices provide a means of digital data collection that is an increasingly time- and cost-effective alternative to traditional methods. This chapter discusses recent advances in mobile data collection, especially with cloud storage, including the advantages and limitations of this emerging approach. It will also review current hardware and software options for conservation data collection, focusing on devices and apps with high customisability, and provide an overview of how these systems may be applied in conservation science. As a case study, it will examine the transition from paper to digital data collection at a primate conservation project at the Issa Valley, Tanzania. And finally, it will identify gaps and precautions in current applications of mobile data collection and suggest what lies ahead for digital data collection in conservation.

Surveillance is regarded negatively in the European Union. It is, of course, highly enabled by the Internet, especially by smartphones. Under modernity, and digital modernity in particular, however, surveillance does have its uses: it can facilitate coordination of complex social functions; it is a means to the personalization, recommendation, and negotiation of choice; it can also be used for care and welfare systems, or control of desirable outcomes, such as the reduction of carbon emissions. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is an area where surveillance has played a role, by gathering data, enforcing lockdowns, and particularly enabling the tracking and tracing of contacts by smartphone apps, to suppress the spread of the virus by asymptomatic carriers. The patchy implementation of this function is reviewed, together with some of the technical issues that made it harder than anticipated.