Now that we are into 2019 I thought I would jot down some thoughts on my ‘Top 3’ Music, Movies, Books etc.
With no further ado…
Top 3 Devices
My top three devices of 2018 were:
Gemini PDA
Re-invention of the PSION as a modern day smartphone. Despite being crowdfunded its incredibly robust and innovative. I’m looking forward to the Cosmo this year.
Galaxy Note 9
The new Samsung Note 9 is a lovely bit of kit and its the closest you can get to a pad and pen for taking notes on the move.
Macbook 12″
I moved to a fully loaded MacBook 12″ as my MacBook Pro 15.6″ finally gave up the ghost. The 12″ MacBook is an M7 (although they now market it as an i7), 16GB RAM with 512GB SSD disk. I was worried it would not be beefy enough from a power perspective after my MacBook Pro but the upgrade specs means it just about cuts it. Its smaller than my iPad Pro and in the main I’ve been really happy with it and the form factor and weight is amazing.
Top 3 Movies (I watched in 2018)
In no particular order:
1. The Greatest Showman – Awesomely entertaining retelling of the beginnings of P.T. Barnum and the modern day circus. So good I watched it twice.
2. Bohemian Rhapsody – I was, and am, a huge Queen fan and thought the movie more than lived up to expectations. Rami Malek was superb as Freddie Mercury, the uber talented conflicted frontman.
3. Johnny English Strikes Again – The scene where Rowan Atkinson is in a VR simulator and wanders off piste is comedy genius, particularly the part where he beats a shop owner with what he thinks are nunchucks but are actually bread sticks !
An honourable mention to Ready Player One. I’d been meaning to watch if for a while and finally got around to it over Christmas. The movie is different to the book by Ernest Cline and technology has moved on quite a bit since 2011 but I thought it was very well directed by Spielberg.
A second honourable mention to Solo A Star Wars Story – I ended up watching it on a plane and it was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. If you are a Star Wars fan I think you will enjoy this.
Top 3 Albums (I listened to in 2018)
In no particular order:
1. Greta Can Fleet, Anthem of the Peaceful Nation – Awesome album. Awesome band. Echoes of Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant.
2. Paul Carrack, These Days – A new album from Mr Carrack is always welcome and true to form this is excellent.
3. Rod Stewart, Blood Red Roses – A new album from Rod with new material. Enough said.
Honourable mentions – Brian Fallon, Sleepwalkers. Probably the best album by Brian Fallon (of Gaslight Anthem fame) to date. (Early) Springsteenesque in places.
Top 3 Books (I read in 2018)
In no particular order
1. White Knight Black Swan – David Gemmell – A favourite fiction author of mine over the years and an unreleased book had been snuck out without me realising. I read it in a hotel room in New York in one hit and then re-read it on the plane home. Why it was never accepted by a publisher when it was first released I’ll never know, and the pleasure of finding a new work by my favourite, sadly deceased author, was immeasurable.
2. When Breath becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi – A heartbreaking posthumous memoir about Paul’s life and cancer illness.
3. Lombard Street, a description of the money market – Walter Bagehot – Recommended to me by a friend. It’s a hard read, written over 100 years ago, but it explains a lot about the British Finance institutions, British Banks, ruling elite and even Europe.
Top 3 Apps (across desktop and Smarphones):
A computer is a computer is a computer so rather than splitting out my favourite apps between desktop and smartphone I am just going to list my favourite top 3 Apps that come instantly to mind, again in no particular order:
1. Termux – Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment that is the closest thing to having a portable full blown Linux installation on your smartphone.
2. IA Writer – I use this across Windows, Mac and Android. IAWriter is a focused writing App that also supports markdown, its seamless.
3. Coda 2 – I write all my code in this. IMO it is simply the best Code editor bar none.
3. Simplenote – Simple seamless scrapnotes sync.
Honourable mentions, Google Keep. Materialistic, Joey, Blackberry Hub