Looking Back at 2011 in Movies, and Looking Forward to 2012

Keep this blog post short and sweet since we all have much better things to do than read this blog.

Top 10 Movies of 2011

22 movies made my shortlist for the top 10. Not much movement happened, but had to reconsider the order after watching Moneyball last night for the first time.

1. Drive
2. Attack The Block
3. 50/50
4. Win Win
5. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
6. Moneyball
7. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
8. The Ides of March
9. Crazy, Stupid Love
10. Rise of The Planet of The Apes

Some observations: Hey Girl....yeah, the Gos shows up an amazing 3 times in my top picks. Drive was hands-down my favourite film, while Ides of March beat out CSL for next best Gos film.

Most Anticipated Movies of 2012

In no order of excitedness:

• Project X
• 21 Jump Street
• The Hunger Games
• American Reunion
• Five Year Engagement
• The Avengers
• Men in Black III
• Snow White and The Huntsman
• Mirror Mirror
• Prometheus
• Brave
• GI Joe Retaliation
• Amazing Spiderman
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Neighbourhood Watch
• Bourne Legacy
• The Expendables 2
• Argo
• Looper
• Skyfall
• Gravity
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• World War Z
• Django Unchained
• Great Gatsby

Top Mobile Apps in 2011

2011 was the year that mobile finally shook off its laptop and desktop big brothers and carved a name for itself in the minds of consumers. Android pushed out its Ice Cream Sandwich platform which gave its first unified platform among its various new devices; iOS continued to gain market share and steam with improvements to iOS 5.0, and Windows Phone 7 is starting to gain major headway with developers and consumers. RIM...well...we all know how bad its going for them.

Below are my picks for top mobile apps. How did I come to judge the merits of these apps? I used them all the time and they are pretty much the reason why I can't move from iOS to any other platform. It's totally subjective, but I can't judge the app ecosystem any other way.

In no particular order:

Evernote (iOS, Windows Phone, Android, PC/Mac, Web)

Evernote has become my daily brain dump of all things. Its perfect for storing meeting notes, grocery lists, potential purchases, among many other things. I have notebooks for pretty much everything, and tags coming out of the wah-zoo. I even bought a small Doxie scanner that works amazingly well at scanning in receipts and important old-school paper docs so that I always have access to them. I should also mention that it can scan the text in documents and make them searchable terms.

Mint (iOS, Android, Web)

I was an early early adopter of Mint (I have a US account with CDN finances, so my recommendations tend to not apply), but I wont change it because of the crazy budgets I have set up. Mint tracks my progress towards financial goals, but also allows me to categorize my purchases into pre-set or custom categories. Highly recommended for those who need help sorting out their money.

Due (iOS)

If I had to rank all my apps in category of keeping me out of trouble with friends and family, Due is #1. It's premise is simple: Enter what you need to know, a time you need to be reminded, and that's it! Due bugs you every minute until you check off that you have done it. Integration with Dropbox is included so I have a constant backup of my tasks.

WhatsApp (iOS, Blackberry, Android)

Some history: My buddies and I always had an issue with getting 8 people on the same page for weekend plans. People heard different things from different people, and no one could come up with a group plan. Hello WhatsApp and group chat. We quickly solved that one issue, but so far it has snowballed into something much more. Constant group chat is basically Twitter on steroids. We talk about EVERYTHING all day. It gets out of hand, but also provides an afternoon pick me up.

Social Apps (Too many to name, but use em all)

I use all of these apps all the time (as you know, I tend to be pro social network), so i'll just list them out:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Tweetbot ($0.99 but the best Twitter app out there)
• Foursquare
• Google+
• Facebook Messenger
• Oink (needs more people in Toronto to provide true social recommendations on items)
• Flipboard

ScoreMobile (iOS)

The Score's recent update has made this the best sports app on the App Store hands down. Intuitive and beautiful interface, more precise push notifications, and fantasy player and team updates. Let's me follow all the Toronto sports teams without being intrusive.

So this is my top app list. What apps can you not live without?

Next Post: Best Movies of 2011 

2012 New Years Resolutions

Following up last years post, here are the 2012 New Years Resolutions. But first, let's take a look back on the progress made last year:

1. Learn how to snowboard
2. Learn how to play the guitar
3. Learn how to cook healthy meals
4. Run a 10K race
5. Add yoga into my workout routine
6. Attend a social media/mobile marketing conference
7. Travel to Europe
8. Travel to San Francisco.

For the past couple years, I always wanted to learn how to snowboard. Finally decided to just put the cash out on a board and lessons. Was always a skiier, but snowboarding is an entirely different (and painful) beast. But I love the pain, and am addicted to it.

Europe came totally out of the blue for me as I was not expecting to go with my parents at all. It really was a life-changing experience and I can't wait to go back.

2012 Resolutions

• Travel to San Fran
• Develop a website
• Develop a mobile app
• Learn how to play the guitar
• Learn how to surf

Lofty goals as a) where the heck do you learn how to surf in Toronto b) Just learning how to develop a website so....there will be some difficulty there.

If anyone has any tips or tricks, let me know!

Google Scheme's an interesting way to find things to do

Today I was invited into Google Schemer beta, so I had the opportunity to try out Google's attempt at providing tips and to-do's. In a nutshell, it is a way to see what other people are doing, and add it to your "Schemes".

The way this service works is that users create things they want to do. It can pretty much be anything that you want. You want to learn how to play the guitar? Add a Scheme. You want to be a part of a flash mob? There's a Scheme for that. Looking for six-pack abs? Check it off. You select the "+" button to add it to your list. When you complete that Scheme you select the checkmark beside it, and it gets logged on your completed list. A key feature is people leaving comments on the Schemes. For the most part user's leave words of encouragement, and tips on how to complete them.

You can filter by customized location (Home, Work, etc.), and can filter by type (by land and sea, do it yourself, feel better, kid friendly, etc.). As well, all schemes are tagged with any sort of information you want, and there are sponsored Scheme Lists by National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and IGN. Some of these Schemes are niche and interesting and hilarious to do. Entertainment Weekly has Schemes such as:

• See Will Ferrel get serious for once
• Watch Modern Family on ABC
• Watch actor's who have co-starred...with themselves

My thoughts on this? I absolutely love this...and have become slightly addicted to adding things to my list. I've added Schemes such as:

• Read Game of Thrones
• Watch Mission Impossible (sponsored by Entertainment Weekly)
• Blog regularly
• Learn C++

As mentioned before, just the feature of seeing comments and how people are completing schemes is genius. Easy to use, simple quirky design and tight Google+ integration makes this a winner. The real test is to see how often I come back to checking new Schemes, completing schemes and contributing to the community. I'd love to see a mobile app that allows me to search for Schemes around my current location, notify me when I'm near a scheme I can complete, and upload photos or videos.

I have 20 invites to give away, so feel free to add me on Twitter: @jordansaxe, @reply me for an invite, or message me on Facebook, or Google+.

This Is Steve