The Origins of Mobile Phones

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The first mobile phone call was made to troll his competitor and rival. Dick Tracy came as an inspiration with his two-way wrist radio. The dream of mobile communication had long been forecast by TV shows, radio, comic strips and books. When mobile phones first became commercially available they were something of a luxury item costing almost four thousand dollars in 1984. In movies mobile phones were an indicator of wealth and privilege.

Their return to rule is unequivocally bad for the country’s women and girls. But wholesale collapse has not come and some aspects of government have improved; it turns out threats of grotesque violence change behaviours. We investigate the curious case of Morocco’s absent king—and his unlikely mixed-martial-artist pals. And how the mobile phone has shaped cinema for half a century.

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