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AuthorStephen Fry
NarratorStephen Fry
Duration1h 6m
CategoriesAdult Non-Fiction, Science and Nature
PublisherAudio Go Ltd
VersionUnabridged
Stephen Fry traces the evolution of the mobile phone, from hefty executive bricks that required a separate briefcase to carry the battery, to the smartphones available today. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people on the planet: Stephen Fry talks to the backroom boys who made it all possible and hears how the technology succeeded in ways that the geeks had not necessarily intended. For example, the engineers who designed the early texting facilities didn't imagine that anyone might want to reply. (Just in case, they added a short list of possible pre-set answers: yes, no and maybe). They also thought taxifones and fax machines for your car would be winners. In the early nineties, Nokia, then famous for toilet paper and rubber boots, was on the brink of collapse; until the new CEO made a bold decision to focus solely on mobile phones... Thanks to Margaret Thatcher opening up the airwaves, Britain became a world leader in mobile phone technology. And today, 85% of the silicon chips inside all mobiles are designed by just one Cambridge-based company. Series produced by Anna Buckley.
Stephen Fry On the Phone, Episode 1 Creating A Network
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
SeriesStephen Fry on the Phone Series, Book 1
Duration 13m
Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people on the planet: In this first episode, Stephen Fry explores the creation of the mobile phone network. Richard Frenkiel, a Bell Labs engineer, who created the cellular networks on which all mobile phones depend, was himself never part...
View BookAuthor: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 15h 33m
No one loves and quarrels, desires and deceives as boldly and brilliantly as Greek gods and goddesses. They are like us, only more so - their actions and adventures scrawled across the heavens above. From the birth of the universe to the creation of humankind, Stephen Fry - who fell in love with these stories as a child - retells these myths for ou...
View BookAuthor: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 9h 52m
For Ned, 1980 seems a blissful year. Handsome, charming, popular and talented, his life is progressing smoothly, effortlessly, happily. And when he meets the lovely Portia Fendeman his personal jigsaw appears complete. But timing is everything in life, and his life is about to change for ever. Things are going to get very bad indeed for innocent yo...
View BookStephen Fry On the Phone, Shrinking the Handset
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
SeriesStephen Fry on the Phone Series, Book 4
Duration 13m
Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. In this third episode, he looks at the discovery of text messaging. The engineers who designed the early texting facilities didn't imagine that anyone might want to reply. (Just in case, they added a short list of possible pre-set answers: yes, no and maybe). In the eighties, when network covera...
View BookAuthor: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 9h 49m
Stephen Fry invites readers to take a glimpse at his life story in the unputdownable More Fool Me. 'Oh dear I am an arse. I expect there'll be what I believe is called an "intervention" soon. I keep picturing it. All my friends bearing down on me and me denying everything until my pockets are emptied. Oh the shame' In his early thirties, Stephen Fr...
View BookAuthor: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 15h
There are Heroes - and then there are Greek Heroes. Few mere mortals have ever embarked on such bold and heart-stirring adventures, overcome myriad monstrous perils, or outwitted scheming vengeful gods, quite as stylishly and triumphantly as Greek heroes. In this companion to his bestselling Mythos, Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, f...
View BookStephen Fry On the Phone, the Accidentaldiscoveroftext
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
SeriesStephen Fry on the Phone Series, Book 3
Duration 13m
Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. In this third episode, he looks at the discovery of text messaging. The engineers who designed the early texting facilities didn't imagine that anyone might want to reply. (Just in case, they added a short list of possible pre-set answers: yes, no and maybe). In the eighties, when network covera...
View BookAuthor: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 11h 33m
a) A fatuous, wasted, degenerate and wholly useless existence captured in delicate, lyrical and exquisitely realised prose. b) Lightly amusing anecdotes and tender reminiscences of the great men and women encountered during a rich, varied and rewarding lifetime, fondly remembered in the tranquil evening of a career of public service. c) The autobio...
View BookAuthor: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
Duration 9h 1m
Ted Wallace is an old, sour, womanising, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too. Fired from his newspaper, months behind on his alimony payments and disgusted with a world that undervalues him, Ted seeks a few months repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend...
View BookStephen Fry On the Phone, From Carphones To Executive Bricks
Author: Stephen Fry
Author Stephen Fry
Narrator Stephen Fry
SeriesStephen Fry on the Phone Series, Book 2
Duration 13m
Stephen Fry meets the brains behind the mobile phone. There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people on the planet: Stephen Fry talks to the backroom boys who made it all possible and hears how the technology succeeded, in ways that the geeks had not necessarily intended. In this second episode, he traces the evolution of the mobil...
View Book