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The Daily Doings of Steph

Squeezing in under the wire here to post my “Bests of 2007″. I’m going to cover tech, books, and music:

Tech

My favorite tech item of 2007 is hands down the iPod Touch. I know - how could the iPhone not rank as my favorite? Well, I don’t have an iPhone. I’m still very happy with my Nokia E70. The fold out wing keyboard is by far the best on the market - I’m not that fond of Apple’s touch screen keypad, and the Nokia phone OS (Symbian S60) is extremely good - solid and intuitive. Plus, there is a GREAT bridge program available for Symbian S60. I’ve played a bazillion hands of bridge since I installed the program this summer. However, when the iPhone goes 3G sometime in the summer of 2008, I will probably take the plunge. The iPhone’s messaging interface is simply the best. I absolutely love it.

Back to the iPod touch - last year, my favorite tech toy was the iRiver Clix mp3 player. There was nothing on the market that even came close to the Clix in terms of user interface and sheer joy of use. However, the Touch is revolutionary - I love its look and feel - it is so fun and easy to use. The screen clarity and color is striking. The Touch interface is a hoot - the screen smoothly accelerates up and down in a zippy real life manner. In the past, I haven’t cared about device thickness, but the touch is so thin that it just feels right when one is holding it. The device weighting and balance were carefully thought out.

Surprisingly, on such a small screen, video works amazingly well. The viewing experience is very good. Perfect for tv episodes and webisodes.

Finally, I LOVE its wi-fi capabilities and Safari browser. The wi-fi is rock solid and so simple to use. Microsoft could take a hint on this one from Apple. The Touch’s wi-fi interface and connection establishment is as easy as it gets. The Safari browser is sweet (totally optimized for the Touch). It’s so fun shrinking or expanding the screen size - pinch your fingers together to make the screen smaller or expand your fingers from a pinch to make the screen bigger. To view the screen in landscape mode - just simply turn your iphone on its side. Totally intuitive.

The Touch is truly revolutionary.

Music

For me, this has been the best year in music for several years. Several strong, inventive, musically advanced, compelling, gets-you-in-the-gut releases. Here’s my list:

1. In Raindows by Radiohead.
   Wow - I absolutely LOVE this album. It sounds like the ultimate jam band record - only way way way better. It’s multi-layered, melodic, complex and still accessible. It’s obvious that both Gomez and The Verve were strongly influenced by Radiohead.
2. Neon Bible by Arcade Fire.
   I’m a BIG Arcarde Fire fan - I have been since the release of their first album, Funeral. Neon Bible is an ambitious record: Big themes: god, society, disaffection. Big group and big instruments: at least 10 band members, a Hungarian Orchestra, a big ol’ pipe organ, a hurdy gurdy, a military choir, etc. And it all works - fabulously well. My favorite song on the album is My Body is a Cage. Big, intensely heartfelt, and boy, does it take advantage of the pipe organ.
3. Prog by the jazz group The Bad Plus. The Bad Plus are the tightest and best jazz rock trio performing today. They’re intense, complex, and BIG - in a jazz trio sort of way. Physical Cities and the cover of Rush’s Tom Sawyer are fabulous. Staggeringly advanced and unbelievable rhythms, driving and intense, totally fun and you don’t want them to end.

Books

Last year (2006) was my best year of reading in over 20 years: 3 amazing Novels topped my list: Kafka on the Shore, The Book Thief, and The Highest Tide. I still shiver when I think about those three books.

This year, my top two books were non-fiction followed by the final Harry Potter book.

1. Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer.
   Essays on art, artists, and neurology and the brain. Intensely well crafted, readable, compelling, and even funny. Lehrer is clearly brilliant and makes astounding and thought provoking connections. I think about this book every single day.
2. Travels with Herodotus by by Ryszard Kapuscinski.
   I am not a fan of travel writing - which I realize is sort of the minority view. However, Travels with Herodotus, Kapuscinski’s last book, is marvelous. I can’t really do the book justice. It’s such a smart, deeply emotional, affecting end of life book. It charts Kapuscinki’s travels with the Herodotus book throughout out his career as one of the great journalists of the twentieth century. I adored this book.
3. Finally, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling.
   A triumphant, worthy finale to one of the great series of all time. I’ve already re-read the book once and will probably re-read it several more times.

Happy New Year!!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.