It’s surprising to think back to the early-to-mid ’90s when almost no one owned a cell phone. I remember giving a friend of mine a hard time about purchasing one back then. "It’s too expensive… it’s just a status symbol… you’ll never use it… it’s just a trend," I told him. Times have changed.

Now I don’t even have a landline (I have cable for high-speed access). My cellphone is so valuable to me it goes with me where ever I go. I couldn’t live without it because it’s my:

• Alarm Clock - Since my clock radio died a few years ago, I’ve used my cellphone as my alarm clock.
• Flashlight - The backlight makes a great emergency flashlight. Use it all the time.
• Phonelist - I’ve got most of my important numbers programmed into the address book.
• Reminder - I have reminders sent to me via SMS from Yahoo! Calendar to notify me of upcoming appointments.
• Navigation Device - For example, you don’t need detailed directions to get to a friend’s house for the first time. Just get close, give them a call and have them talk you in.
• Notepad - I just type in an SMS message, and save it instead of sending it.

I’m sure there’s some other stuff I am forgetting, but that’s the main list. However, the really surprising thing is that my phone is completely out of date. It’s an old AT&T Wireless TDMA Nokia 8260 (or a very similar model). No web access, no fancy QWERTY keyboard, no color screen, no PC synchronization funtionality… pretty much just a straight-up phone. Perhaps mobiles are here to stay?

Tired of broadcast radio? Don’t want to go through the hassle of installing a satellite-radio receiver in your car? Bored with your music collection? Then podcasting is for you.

If you haven’t heard of podcasting, it’s going to be hot in 2005… if it isn’t already. Podcasting is obviously a play on Apple’s iPod - appropriate since podcasts are audio files (typically in MP3 format) similar to music you’d download. These audio files are attached to RSS 2.0 feeds as enclosures, and can be easily downloaded using a podcast client. Podcasts can be looked at as the audio form of blogging, and with the explosion of podcasts over the last few months, there’s content available to interest almost anyone. And as with most blogs, the majority of this content is free (I can’t think of any podcasts that you have pay for) and legal.

In order to start receiving podcasts you need to download a podcasting client, and subscribe to some podcast feeds (if you already use an RSS Newsreader, check to see if your current or a new version supports podcasts). From Adam Curry’s first podcasting client (which was release only a few months ago), podcast clients have matured to the point where they will automatically download your podcasts based on a schedule you set, synchronize those downloads with iTunes or Windows Media Player, allow you to skip editions that you don’t want to download, keep a history of your downloads, allow you to search for new podcast feeds, etc. The client I use is called Doppler Radio and can be found here. Doppler also has some links to help you find podcasts here.

I’ve been listening to podcasts since the early fall of 2004, and I’ve noticed that they have really changed my "radio" listening habits. Before podcasts, whenever I had the radio on in my car, I would be listening to music. Now I almost exclusively listen to podcasts. In addition, I’ve got a small MP3 player which allows me to listen to podcasts when I’m exercising… and even when cleaning up the house.

As with websites and blogs, you need to experiment a bit to find content that interests you. However, it didn’t take me long to find several podcasts that I now really look forward to hearing. I think you’ll find your experience will be similar.