Podcasts

If you read back a few posts you'll see me talking about my new phone, the Nokia 5800. I've since discovered that it's awfully good for podcasts, and I now subscribe to quite a few and listen to them in the car to and from work as the phone's speaker is loud enough to use in the car, even on the M25!

My favourite podcast so far is the Stuff.TV podcast which is a geeky/techy podcast about mobile phones, televisions, MP3 players, gadgets and 'stuff'! The subject matter is right up my street and the presenters are pretty fab too. They also gave my new phone a glowing report so extra marks there!

Others I subscribe to are:

Chris Moyles - low brow humour at it's very best and I miss the morning shows now I listen to podcasts instead. Is there some irony there somewhere?

F1 Weekly - only listened to one show so far and it was ok, though being American based the bias was towards their quest to get a Grand Prix in America rather than the upcoming season. May try to find a suitable replacement.

Jonathan Ross - probably the funniest guy on radio and good to have him back. Always has a procession of great guests with whom he engages in lots of witty banter.

Guardian Tech Weekly - more technical musings with lots of web talk and as an eCommerce bod it's most interesting from a professional and personal standpoint.

I also have Stephen Fry and Mark Kermode's podcasts set up to listen to and am always open to some recommendations of podcasts I should listen to. Two that i didn't particularly like are the Adam & Joe and George Lamb podcasts - just didn't click with me. I also tried the Geek Squad podcast but they guy waffled on for so long about not a lot that I decided my life could be better spent on other things and turned it off.

New Phone: Nokia 5800

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic to give it it's full and proper name! I picked it up today after ordering it yesterday, on a whim really! I have had a Sony Ericsson K850i for the last year, which despite almost universally bad reports, has served me pretty well. That is until recently when it has decided to turn itself at random, usually when I making a call or writing a text! Having already been to the repair shop once I decided now was the time to admit it has had it's day and move on.

As an iPod Touch user I have been tempted by the iPhone but the lack of video recording and MMS is a big letdown - I have an 8 month old son those features are pretty essential to me. What I do like is the touch screen functionality so have been looking at the Samsung Pixon and Omnia, as well as the LG Renoir - all had their good and bad points but none stood out as a must have and all were on fairly pricey contracts, something I wanted to avoid as I currently use only a small portion of my call allowance.

A quick scan of Avforums drew my attention to the Nokia 5800 and the Carphone Warehouse offer of £15 a month for 100 minutes and unlimited texts. I never thought the day would come when I would be more of a texter than a caller, but it has so this deal seemed perfect for my needs. Add £7.50 for the unlimited web bolt-on and he whole package would be £12.50 less than my current contract and a swanky new phone as well - sold!

It has Wi-Fi, a 3.2" widescreen display, full touchscreen functionality, 8Gb memory card included and all the other bells and whistles I was looking for. I've not used a great deal yet but so far I am very impressed. The touchscreen is very responsive and texting is very easy which is usually the biggest test for a touchscreen phone. Next will be connecting it to my laptop and adding a bunch of songs and pictures, and configuring the phone to pick up my wireless network.

So far so good for Nokia's first foray into touchscreen phones, which for the market leader in mobile phones, some may say they are playing catch-up?