My Favorite Products of 2018

At the end of every year I like to take a look back at some of the highlights. Things that happened personally & professionally, things I learned, books I read, products I loved, etc. So here is one of those posts.
This year I had the chance to try out a bunch of new products (and some older products). So in keeping with the tradition I started last year, I wanted to take a moment to review some of my favorites from 2018. Not necessarily bleeding edge things, but things that made my life better.

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Jabra Elite 65t
I’d be remiss if I didn’t start with one of my absolute favorite things from this year: the Jabra Elite 65t earbuds. These have actually earned a permanent spot in my pocket every day. I love being able to take one (or both) out as I walk between buildings at work or drive home and immediately start listening to a podcast or audio book. They are dust-proof, which was important because I can use them in my woodshop while I work on various projects making too much sawdust. It’s allowed me to listen to a lot more things at any time (helping me reach some of my reading goals). They replaced my Moto Hint earbud, which has been rock solid for a few years, but was getting long in the tooth and didn’t have the noise-cancelling abilities. And they don’t look like you have a q-tip hanging out of your ear. Probably one of my favorite products from the past year.

Homer
I had been looking through a ton of reading apps for kids and came across Homer. Of all the ones I tried, it is by far my favorite. It has worked amazingly well for our kids, and they both love it. In fact, while I’m sitting here writing, they are both on their Kindle Fire tablets playing reading games. We usually do reading games together in the evenings, but the fact that they enjoy them enough to do them on their own is great. And it’s been incredible to see how far they’ve come in their ability to read, even in a short period of time. Well-worth the subscription on my opinion.

Fitbit Charge
I’ve been a longtime Fitbit user. I actually got the Flex the day it came out many years ago. I upgraded this year to the Charge and have loved it. So much that I actually got my wife on board (she loves hers as well) and some other family members. Keeping track of activity as well as sleep and other things is fascinating to me, and this makes it basically effortless. Of course, it doesn’t have as much functionality as a smartwatch or higher end trackers, but it is perfect for what I want. I actually got a smartwatch in the past few weeks and am wearing both right now (don’t make fun, I plan on keeping both for the long term). So we’ll see if the smartwatch makes the list for next year.

iPad and Apple Pencil
I know I’m late to the party here, but as a new convert to the iPad, I couldn’t leave it off my list. While I have the older generation of both, I use it on a daily basis for all sorts of things. From taking notes that I can share later, to drawing and sketching out ideas, this has been one of my favorite tools of the year and I carry it with me everywhere. You’ll see some of the sketches in some of my other posts, and my team makes fun of me frequently for all the drawings and sketches I do and send around. Of course, I don’t mind at all and prefer to have handwritten notes and hand-drawn sketches as they better capture my thinking. Not to mention the great drawing apps like Adobe Sketch. 

Fire HD
​We’ve been users of Amazon’s Fire tablets for a little while, and recently upgraded to the Fire HD 8 given its awesome price. I still can’t believe how inexpensive they’ve been able to make these tablets. It’s almost a no-brainer for the price. They are perfect for reading, and perfect for kids to play with. Like I mentioned above, our kids love their reading games and this is primarily where they play now. I’m looking forward to being able to use on some upcoming roadtrips as well. And I particularly like not having to worry about sharing my iPad with sometimes less-than-careful kiddos. 

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So those are my top picks for this year. I have a handful of other runner-ups such as the Echo Show and Echo Spot, which have been surprisingly good. Seeing Alexa with a screen has made it clear how much better it is being able to interact with voice and with touch. The screen has saved us a couple of times as calendar events have popped up, reminding us we need to get the kids to an evening class. The Eufy Smart Scale is another one. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of smart scales in general, but having it connected to your phone and fitness apps makes things so much easier. And the price on this one is quite reasonable for the quality.
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I’ve already started working on potential products for 2019, and am looking forward to reporting back what I’ve found over the next year!