It’s been awhile since I wrote one of these, and in the interest of doing a better job of writing on my personal blog, I thought it was great timing to re-visit my year end favorite things list. Especially considering I have some great things that I really fell in love with this year and I think you will really enjoy as well. Without further ado, here are my favorite things I came across in the past year!
Lume
I don’t know why it took this long to invent something that is this effective, but I love this shit, and let me tell you…it works. I mean, why wouldn’t you use deodorant on your privates? Needless to say, when you apply this magic cream to your stink regions, you’re stink free for a good 48-72 hours. I’m not necessarily recommending you go that long without showering, but let’s be honest, this whole work from home thing has us changing habits a bit don’t ya think?
Run, don’t walk, and score yourself some of this and you won’t be disappointed. I recommend the tubes for the most bang for buck. It’s not cheap, but when something works this well, it’s worth it.
Sleeve
Sometimes the best things are the most simplest things. Something that solves a very specific problem or need and Sleeve is that. For those of you that listen to music while you work which is many of us, this is an incredibly useful and fun piece of software (if you use a Mac). Basically this creates a small little music player that can live in the corner of your monitor for easy access and reference to the current song playing. It’s compatible with Spotify & Apple Music. It’s incredibly customizable, and a joy to have. Plus it’s only a few bucks.
JustWatch
The streaming options have gotten out of control. What was once the more affordable and more pleasurable experience to finding something to watch has now become a shit show. Every network in the world wants their own streaming app and to charge for it, and it’s become more expensive and cumbersome then the days of cable.
I don’t think there’s going to be a mass exodus back to cable, but it sure would be great if there was ONE app to rule them all. Something that could consolidate everything so it made it easier to find, organize and watch what you want. And while it’s not likely that will ever happen since it would require all of the streamers to agree to it, JustWatch is about as good as it can get. It’s an app/website that consolidates all of the streaming libraries and at least lets you more easily search and organize the things you want to watch. And while they don’t have a TV app directly, you can at least browse on your phone or tablet and favorite/organize the things you want to watch to make it easier when you pull it up on the TV.
Oh and did I mention it’s free?
Molton Brown
I love this shit. I forgot about it for awhile, but we recently hit up a resort and this was their soap on hand and I was ecstatic to be reminded of how awesome it is. Their stuff just smells amazing and feels different. It feels clean, sophisticated, and just a joy to use. The soaps, lotions…I’m sure their shampoos are great too, but I’m bald so cry me a river. Either way, I highly recommend trying their stuff out. Get one of their samplers to see what scents you like best, but you can’t go wrong.
Continuity Camera
Ok, so this is more of a feature then a product or service and it only applies if you are in the Apple ecosystem. So the cameras that come with monitors are garbage. We just haven’t reached a point where the technology for better cameras can fit in a smaller bezel. And while some people are griping about this feature, I think it’s pretty ingenious and let’s you take advantage of the incredibly powerful camera in your iPhone.
Basically Apple has provided you the ability to use your iPhone as the camera for your Mac computer wirelessly and it’s called Continuity Camera. It’s relatively easy to set up assuming you have the most recent software updates on our devices. The link above will take you through how to use it. I’ve tested it, and it’s pretty slick.
You will need some sort of mounting hardware to use your phone on your laptop or monitor. I recommend Belkin’s mounts. I have one for both my laptop and monitor and they work very well. You can find them here for notebooks, and here for monitors.
ChatGPT
This is some freaky shit. AI is really evolving quickly, so I’m pretty sure judgement day is coming…the robots will be taking over. In the meantime, you should really check out ChatGPT. Go here and create a free account and ask it anything. Ask it write a blog post about something. Ask it to write a story about something. The natural language it spits back is about as good as I’ve seen.
This won’t be free forever, but in the meantime, I’m betting you’re going to find some use out of this after you play around with it for a bit. The real question is how this will evolve and roll out as a real product/service to the masses, because trust me, it’s coming and coming quick. Google is shaking in their boots worried about how this could canabalize their business.
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