MY VERY OWN 2013 TO DO/TRY LIST


Since everyone is in the mood for making a list of things they plan to do in 2013, I feel like jumping in the bandwagon. So here is my own list of things I plan/wish to do/try in 2013 (catch the hesitation there? ;-p) that is tech related.
1. Try an Android Smartphone: Yes. I have not owned an Android smartphone and I am slowly getting close to being convinced to try one (thank the Galaxy S III and the Nexus 4 for this). I have tried Symbian, WebOS (this was painful), Windows, Blackberry and currently iOS and so far the best experience I have had is with iOS. I have used iOS the longest too and have basically gotten hooked to their eco-system. I just love how my Macbook Pro, iPad Mini and iPhone synch and work together perfectly (well almost- still room for improvement). Recently though I have heard, read and seen so many good things about Android ecosystem that I have decided that 2013 will be the year I try it out. I will probably jump on the opportunity once I see the S4 come out this year.
2. Complete an Online Course: This I want to do for two reasons: i. To test my patience in learning a new subject in an on-line environment (I failed miserably when I first tried on-line studie 3 years ago) and ii. To experience the services offered by websites likeCoursera, Open Culture, Open Learn etc. Currently I am enrolled with Coursera for their “Introduction to Computational Finance and Financial Econometrics” (read about the course here) so far I am only 1 week behind but not for the lack of trying but the Holiday hoopla got in the way- I should be caught up by end of this week. I have always been interested in the concept of an Open University and I believe online studies will become ever more popular in the coming years.
3. Organize my Media Files and other Documents on a good Cloud Storage service: My iTunes Library is a mess and recently I tried to re-organize my playlist but it just got me frustrated. My movies are also taking up too much space on my hard-drive and my only resort for storage is thru my external storage device- which I do not like carrying around all the time. I have cloud storage service with iCloud and Dropbox but none of them has really worked well on its own. I need to find something that allows me to store my media and files, organize it and allows me to access it anywhere, anytime and thru any device. Dropbox is just slowly trying to improve its photo storage/sharing functionality, you can store music but cannot create a playlist and you cannot stream the content too. The most promising service so far is iTunes Match together with with my iCloud subscription. So far iTunes match sounds like the best alternative for managing media (music and videos) and it offers two things I love: i. allows you to stream content and ii. allows you to upload music you ripped from a CD and it even auto-converts your existing content to the best version available thru iTunes. iCloud then can manage the rest of the things I want to back-up thru iCloud (ie. photos and documents). I also know Google has an alternative – Google Drive- and I might have to check out that option too.
How about you? Do you have your own tech to-do/try list for 2013? Comment and share below.

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