I heart smartphones and podcast favourites

I heart smartphones. It is the symbol of the new world, where the world is at your finger tips, and, in your pocket! There is so much information out there, digesting it is a big quest. I'd love to have the time to sit down and browse the net for a couple hours every day to catch up on all the news and events, but now I can do all this while on the move.



I am an owner of an HTC Hero on Android. It is the only digital device I carry in my hand bag (other than my obligatory work phone). Living in a busy city like London means I spend a fair amount of time in transit. If you are a Google fan like me, then Google Reader and Google Listen would be your good friends. My favourite activity during transit when I'm not walking about, is to catch up on the news and my favourite blogs through the RSS reader. My favourite activity during transit when I am walking about, is to plug into one of the following podcasts, which keeps me informed and entertained. If this is not optimising your time, then I don't know what would. I guess the next step is to jog to work while listening to podcasts: information downloading and calorie offloading all at once!

• LSE lecture and events: London School of Economist half hour to hour long lectures or guest speakers plus Q&A session (frequent publishing of events)


• The Economist: I like the magazine, but there is so much content to digest. The podcasts do a great job summarising the highlights (weekly publishing or more frequent ones available too)


• NPR News: short bursts of news that keeps me informed of the North American highlights (hourly publishing)


• Science of Better: Operations Research podcasts/interviews by INFORMS (monthly publishing)


• More or Less: BBC radio programme making sense or debunking the numbers behind the news


• Freakonomics: spin off by the authors of the ever so popular Freakonomics book/movie/blog/etc.

What are some of your favourite podcasts?

Aside from being my RSS reader and podcast player, my smartphone is also my:
- phone (first and foremost)
- email
- calendar
- access to the internet
- Skype to call anyone around the world
- instant messaging to keep in touch with friends
- handy document storage
- camera / video cam
- GPS and compass
- maps (offline maps too)
- ebook reader
- notebook (takes my hand scribbling too)
- news reader
- scanner
- games when I'm bored waiting in a queue somewhere
- MP3 player
- all the other things that come with a phone (alarm clock, calculator, voice recorder, etc.)
- and thousands of other applications available for download (often for free) that keep my life organised and what not