OK. Everybody is coming up with their own list - of what's hot, what's not, what's cool, what's uncool - about 2007. So I decided to come up with my own list. I am going to list them down in no particular order since some of them are really not comparable.
A disclosure probably is in order here: I am not a techie - I have never been a techie. But I do try to keep abreast with the changes that are happening in the tech-world, specially when it comes to software and gadgets.
My hope? To inspire you to consider creating your own list - and perhaps egg on companies to do better about their products into the future.
So here are my ten most favorite digital things - again, in no particular order:
1. Yahoo! Finance Pages.
In the same way that I am not a techie, I am not financially savvy. However, I do know the basics of stocks and technical analysis. I know my Betas, MCAs, ROCs, Bollinger Bands, EMAs, and Stochastics. Yahoo! caught my eye one day with their beta (is it still a beta?) of their new charting functions. I went crazy! For once, I didn't have to strain my eyes looking at the graphs that I usually look at when analyzing stocks and their possible movements.
Have I learned a lot of money after using Yahoo! Finance? If I did invest based on my analysis, I would have done better. But since I would rather go for less volatile stocks, well, nothing really did materialize and get monetized.
Maybe next year.
2. Windows Live Services
Windows Live indeed upped their usability quotient this year. I now have Windows Live Mail on my desktop which checks my emails from hotmail.com, live.com, and gmail.com. It's a one-stop-software that consolidates all my email accounts into one big screen. And to add to that, it's got RSS readers that fetches all my favorite blogs and newssites that I read at the end of the day to keep my brain alive.
Of the different things that I really love, Windows Live Writer tops my list. It is an amazing piece of blogging software. Much better than MacJournal which I am now using when I am on my mac, and even the interface that Typepad has when one logs on. WYSIWYG interface, cut-and-paste photos, add-ins that are quite helpful - I think this is my favorite of them all in the Windows Live suite.
3. My MacBook Pro and OSX Leopard
OK. OK. It was a buy that I was cajoled into buying by a friend. He said "Be different; get a Mac!" And I reasoned post-purchase, "I will use my Windows laptop for work, my Mac for other stuff". But there is indeed something magical about using a Mac.
In fairness, I have not tried Windows Vista - so I really cannot compare the two. Windows for me is for serious business - when I do data-mining, simulations, modeling work, and other heavy numbers stuff. Mac is for photos, collating them into nice albums.
The only problem I have with the Mac - it keeps on asking me to login to mac.com. I have enough emails and blogs and other services on the web. Enough with it already. I am happy with that.
4. My Nokia E90 Phone
My first phone was a Nokia - it's one of those brick phones that could be used as a murder weapon when thrown at another person. And the old Nokia Communicators were really ugly and bulky. So when I decided to go for a phone upgrade, I ditched my Sony Ericsson P900 (which sucked badly) for a Nokia E90 - and yes, it was a match made in heaven.
Prior to the Nokia E90, I had a Motorola (difficult to use - and only for engineers, I felt), a Samsung (too stylish for my liking - and too sensitive to the touch), an O2 (which has bad customer service in Singapore and kept on hanging on me), and another Nokia (the one with the blue screen).
I am happy with Nokia E90 because I can access the web through its 3-3.5G capabilities. I downloaded as well the Windows Live application for the Nokia E90 - and now, I am always ON Windows Live Messenger, which is also slowly becoming my favorite thing in the world.
Will I ever trade my E90? Never. Unless they come up with something better, more functional, more powerful than an E90 - then I just might consider.
5. The New Outlook 2007 and the New One Note
I have always used Outlook since I started working. My greatest frustration was how disjointed the different subroutines were - I couldn't link my tasks/to-do lists with my email, and vice versa. I cannot link contacts with my to-do lists.
The New Outlook 2007 is simply easy to use. If I needed to follow up on something, all I have to do is drag and drop an email to my to-do-list and voila, I can schedule when I should follow it up. (Mostly for me to remind the boss to respond to an important query.)
The other thing that's really great is OneNote. I now bring my laptop to meetings. I like the way OneNote allows you to type and type and type. It automatically saves your work, which makes it really reliable. It also allows me to create task lists accordingly - and plan my life as I take down notes. It also allows me to highlight important things to remember - and link them with files in my laptop and with other programs or notes. OneNote's ability to capture weblinks and webpages (as a 'printout') is also a great favorite. Now, I don't have to print out on paper all these research stuff that I do.
----------------
So there you have it, the first five of my favorite digital things in the world as of 2007.
There'll be more. So watch out. And if you have any comments, just comment. Disagree with me - or just suggest new or perhaps even better things that I should consider. Would love to hear your thoughts.