Mobile phones are an inaugural part of us. As they become more and more like laptop in terms of processing power, it is worth while to look at how people use mobile phones now and what they expect to be able to do with them in the future.

Top 10 Ways People Use Their Mobiles Now
1. Make a call
2. SMS
3. Take Photos
4. Show Off your new phone
5. Check Email
6. Listen to Music/Podcast (like these podcast: Top 10 Geek Business Podcast )
7. Personal Organizer
8. Blog
9. Online Instant Messenger
10. Surf the net

Communication still ranks high on the list. However the peripheral services offered by the mobile phone have been gaining in popularity. As predicted, device convergence is adding more and more features into mobile phones. Right now, our phones are like traditional PDA + the ability to communicate.

The mobile phone opens up a lot of web enabled applications that were not feasible on your laptop/desktop computer. However manufacturers have to solve the problem of developing the same application for different platforms. Many handset companies use a different Operating System which means that developers have to rewrite a lot of code everything they want to get their program on different phones. This is by far the largest obstacle as it limits the user base of any applications. To further encourage web enabled applications, mobile broadband cost has to come down. Right now I still do not use many web enabled apps as data cost is still expensive in Singapore.( 1MB is about $5 USD). If the cost comes down, I can probably see myself using more email and certain web applications.

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If you are surfing to TodaysTen.com from another productivity site, you are in danger of getting stuck in your routine. Its time to try something new! New experiences will bring new problems and also their solutions. Creative people use free exchange of ideas to cross link solutions to create new mash ups of solutions that can solve old problems. That is only one benefit of increasing your areas of knowledge. So try something new today! When was the last time you learnt something new?

1. Learn A New Language
This is a pretty hard thing to do, but the benefits will pay off. Learning a new language opens an entire foreign culture to your perspective. Every culture has a different way of solving problems and interacting. For now, the best languages to learn will be Spanish and Chinese because of the sheer amount of people you will be able to communicate with. Lucky for me, I have only Spanish left to tackle.

2. Talk To Someone You Are Unfamiliar With
Another usually hard thing to do. Most of our social circles are limited to people within our same age range or have similar interests. Interacting with these people will not bring you new experiences and opportunities. There are reasons why networking sessions are so strongly recommended. They bring diverse people together who are interested in meeting more people. Each participant gets multiple opportunities to learn something new, either from the speaker or their peers. If you are less inclined in meeting people, try surfing to some internet forums you have never been to before.

3. Surf to an unknown Website
Alexa provides a list of the top 500 sites in terms of traffic numbers. Choose one that you have never heard of before and dive in. Multiple top sites are in Chinese which is another great reason to get familiarized with the Chinese language

4. Read a best selling book you have no interest in
The fact that it is a bestseller means that at least the quality is assured. Looking at Amazon’s top seller list , I realized that many of the books are in the self improvement category. Try to not select these although you will be interested in them.

5. Take a walk
In the absence of the danger of physical harm, try to take a walk around your neighbor hood. You might just discover something interesting that you have missed because you were driving too fast down the road. You might also rediscover neighbors whom who you forgotten exist!

6. Go to a class
Sign up for a class. Dance classes, hobby related classes seem very popular to people who have a bit more time. They might have something of interest to you too. There are numerous places online to learn something new. One class I am attending now is the Adobe Photoshop CS2: introduction by HP. It is completely online and free too!

7. Get a hobby
Another great way to try something new. Some people also manage to successfully turn their hobby into part time businesses.

8. Listen to a random radio station
Visit podcast alley to see what the popular podcast are. Download one and starting listening to it on your compute now!

9. Read every article in your newspaper
Have you been guilty of scanning article titles and only reading the ones you have interest in? You paid the full price for the newspaper so make full use of it. Read every article. It might take you an entire hour by the price is well spent. Newspaper articles are usually well researched and have quality writing in them. That’s something you won’t find online consistently.

10. Come back to TodaysTen.com everyday
Yes, it’s a shameless plug. But I believe that your areas of experience will increase with our Daily Top Ten articles. To see the reason why Top Ten articles are so powerful, read my post on Why you need TodaysTen.com

Podcast are a wonderful technology. Its enables entertainment and information to be carried on the go and you only require partial attention unlike video or text. I usually listen to podcast when I commute or when I am out running. This way, I make full use of my time and learn something instead of doing nothing. I have listed my Top 10 Geek Business Podcast. These podcast will help you stay engaged in the tech sector and open up new business opportunities for you.

1. TWIT:This Week In Tech

Hosted by Leo Laporte, Person of the Year in Podcasting. The podcast offers a weekly round up in the world of technology. The articles that they discuss come from Digg, Slashdot, Valleyway and many more tech news sites. Each show is about an hour and it is interspersed with much opinionated comments from Leo’s guest. Sometimes there are also accurate predications being made. (One that I remember is John C Dvorak’s prediction that the Mac will be able to run boot Mac OS and windows.)

Listen to this if: You need a weekly summary of the Tech world

2. Diggnation
Hosted by Kevin Rose & Alex Albrecht who had a hand in creating http://www.digg.com/, the geek social website that has suppressed Slashdot in bringing down servers all around the world. The podcast covers a selected number of stories from digg. Watch and hear how the conversation between Kevin and Alex degenerates into an entertaining banter on interesting tech news and products as more beer is consumed through out the entire show. Very entertaining to say the least. (Interesting Sidenote: Kevin is valued to be worth $60Million by Businessweek)
Listen to this if: You just want to be entertained by 2 other geeks!

3. Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American

Hosted by Steve Mirsky. Stories are drawn from the popular mainstream Scientific American magazine. Includes a section where you have the chance to guess which of the 4 stories presented this week is actually bogus. Stories are not only limited to computer technology so expect a broad grounding in the various cutting edges of science

Listen to this if: you want to hear about non computer related technology

4. boagworld.com: web design

One of the few long running podcast on running website sites and web technology in general. After all, if you are a geek, you must have a website right! The podcast takes a web design related topic each week and teaches you on how to use it. Don’t expect to become an expert in an hour but at least you get some knowledge on the upcoming web design technologies (like CSS, Flash Videos) you should be paying attention to.

Listen to this if: you have a website or are going to get one. (Which means everyone reading this blog)

5. SecondCast - Second Life Podcast

Secondcast discusses topics centered around SecondLife, a virtual world where players can create and own items. It is the #1 podcast for Second Life. SecondLife has been compared to the internet in its infancy. User growth is exploding and there are actually people making consistent and stable income in the world. A lot of big business are also opening shop in second life(I.e: IBM, Levis, Adidas) Most of the podcast are more of entertaining than informative though. To get to know secondLife, its better that you jump in world anyway.

Listen to this if: Virtual Worlds are your cup of tea or are planning to jump onto the next big thing

6. Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders lecture

Every geek hopes to make it big by using technology combined with business. Stanford invites speakers from high technology companies to speak to their students. The podcast does not have a regular schedule but it is worth keeping up with as the speakers are usually of high quality and bring with the industry specific information and insights that you cannot find in other podcasts.

Listen to this if: you are interested in business.

7. Manager Tools

As geeks, sometimes we just do not have the ability to shine in our interpersonal skills. Fret not, that is where manager tools come into play. Manager Tools is one of the strongest business skills podcast online. Every week, a topic is tackled and step by step tutorials are given so that at the end of the podcast, you should have all the knowledge required. However practice still makes prefect so go ahead and practice the new skill you have learnt. The topics covered are pretty broad ranging from holding meetings to networking session.

Listen to this if: you need to work with people

8. The HotSpot

All work and no play makes a boring geek. Coming from gamespot.com’s editors, the Hotspot discusses game news. You don’t really get game reviews in this podcast though. What you get are opinions and a rough idea of what games are worth playing. Sometimes you get event coverage like E3 and D.I.C.E. Nice of listen to for a feel of the gaming industries’ pulse.

Listen to this if: you want to be knowledgeable about games but don’t have that much time to go through all of them.

9. IT Conversations

Get the buzz from famous people in IT. IT Conversations record conference and keynotes made during important events by important people. Of course these conversations are good indications to near future trends in the IT industry. Every conversation is interesting and full of information. Very geeky and also very helpful increasing what you know and discovering new areas of interest.

Listen to this if: you want to be spotting trends before they hit mainstream tech media

10. Your Own show.
Podcasting is real easy to do. Quality content in the podcast however is much harder. Like blogs, the initial period where you have to consistently pump out podcast for a small audience really test your willpower. However if your content is attractive, news will spread. If you have a show, remember to inform me via TodaysTen@gmail.com
Listen to this if: you are a blogger and have a skill you wish to impart to someone or has a very entertaining character.