Well it’s that time of year again. A few weeks ago I did retrospective of polls and voting results from the poll section of my blog.  It was prefaced with “part one” because I expected to be writing a second, more exhaustive look at the year that has just passed. Problem is, I don’t have the time to write such a retrospective.

I can tell you that for me, 2007 was one of the most turbulent and challenging years of my entire life–well it WAS the most challenging. So much happened so fast; the whole year seems like a blur when think about it all.

Blogging has been down, and I’ve been less in touch with the excellent people in my industry than I’m comfortable with, but I’ll excuse it, because my business continues to cook up new offerings and growth.  And that’s a good thing.  My priority list, in order of importance, goes something like this: my kids, my business, blogging, the music business, and dating.

But tonight I’m going to a prime steakhouse to “just chill” with my date and ring in the New Year the traditional way, the bubbly way. I’m more excited about 2008 than I am about what unfolded in 2007. The future is bright and baseball season is just around the corner… Happy New Year to all my associates, friends, family, and readers.

I LOVE that slogan. LOVE it. Whoever thought of it deserves a Guiness on me. Or a Miller Lite.

But it’s a great slogan because it so aptly describes the present state of high-speed communication. It captures the paradigm shift that we’ve seen just the last few years: that the network indeed is made of endpoints (people), but it serves the COMMUNITY of people. As community has usurped point-to-point in our view of networking, the Internet and telecomm are at a crossroads not likely to be reversed over in the coming years. Everything is changing, accelerating, pulling more mental capital into the evolving, democratizing, business-model-bending world of accelerated social communication…

…and the heaviest hitters in this industry are all going to be gathered at EComm 2008, March 12-14 in Silicon Valley. Not going? You should be. The biggest players are sending their brightest thinkers to tell you how the world of speed communication is growing. So are the smallest players. Speeches will be given and toasts raised while backroom conversations will hatch ideas that may just transform your world, perhaps even shaking up the foundation of telecomm, a global infrastructure in which we’ve invested a trillion or more to get us where we’re at now. The question is–what’s the next trillion going to do?

Find out in March.

Should 11-year olds have cell phones? This was an interesting poll. Over half of you said 11-year-olds should NOT have cell phones, while a smaller but still significant number responded that they should. Only a couple of people said 11-year-olds should only have cell phones if the parent is able to limit their use.

Who’s going to win the ALCS?  Of course, it was the Red Sox versus the Indians for a chance at the World Series, and we all know what happened. The Indians choked bigtime and the Red Sox took the ALCS in 7 games, going on to sweep the Fall Classic against Denver.  Interestingly, you favored the Indians by a whopping margin. One cool tidbit–the Rockies swept their way to the World Series and then got swept, while the two Indians series were the only ones (including the division series) that weren’t sweeps.

Back in July, I asked “in 24 months, where will Vonage be?”  Overwhelmingly, your answer was “liquidated via bankruptcy” though a few of you seemed to think Vonage will be acquired by an established telco. Perhaps 2008 will be the year Vonage becomes relevant again, but I doubt it.

In January, I posted a poll asking who is going to win the Super Bowl? You said the Bears would do it. Not so much.  The Bears got absolutely spanked by Peyton and the Colts.

When the iPhone was introduced at MacWorld last winter, I asked: iPhone: Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. Your response, by a 90%+ margin, was definitely thumbs up.

I’ve been carrying the Nokia N81 8 GB phone in my pocket for several days now and this much is certain: it’s an awful lot sweeter than its predecessors, for the most part. Everything about it is better–the form factor, the color, the display, the keypad, the whole nine yards.

The N81 8GB, as the name would indicate, offers 8 GB of internal solid state storage, putting it on par with an iPhone or solid-state iPod as far as media storage. With built-in Realplayer software and integrated music browser and player, the N81 8GB makes an ideal media instrument. If you’ve been thinking about combining your music player and phone into a single device, now might be the time. The N81 even has stereo speakers in the enclosure (as does most of the N-Series), allowing you to monitor the media player without the need for headphones. And of course, if you need headphones, Nokia provides earbuds in the box.

There’s a lot to love about this device. It feels better than the other phones in the N-Series that I’ve tried–especially the N73. I’ve noticed that with some of these phones, it’s hard to know where to place the phone against your ear when you begin a phone conversation, and you sort of had to move the earpiece around on your ear until you hit the sweet spot. Not so with the N81 8GB–it just feels right.

The N81 8GB offers a 2 megapixel digital camera with flash, though the lens cover (which is clear plastic) doesn’t offer a protective, closeable cover, as on some of the other N-Series phones. Over time, I suppose this could lead to scratches that might make the camera less effective. But then again, if you really need a great camera, you’d be better off with Nokia’s flagship N95, which has 5 megapixel imaging and a Weiss lens to boot.

Gamers will enjoy the N81 8GB, as it comes with three pretty nifty demo games and access to Nokia’s N-Gage gaming platform. The three demos include a 3D soccer game and a fabulous-looking side-scrolling space shooter (which is impossible on the scale of an old Psygnosis game and visually reminiscent of one as well). Though I struggled with the controls for these games, I suspect that’s because I’m not very good at video games and not any fault of the device itself. On either side of the earpiece is a cradle-rocking button bar that lights up when game mode is active and more or less disappeared at other times. Pretty nifty.

As with some of the N-Series phones, built-in GPS allows you to interact with Nokia’s superb mapping/tracking program, though I’ve not had occassion to putz with it yet. There are a few other goodies as well: finally, a good calculator program, for one. And a caller-facing camera lens for video calls and self-portraits. The call-quality on the N81 8GB is typically good and sounds identical to the N95 (the only Nokia phone on which I’ve had any real issues with call quality is the N73).

Casual users of the media features may be satisfied with the N81 8GB’s relative small display (though it’s at least as big as the new iPod Nanos), but I can’t see myself watching anything more than a 2-minute YouTube on the phone’s display, since it is rather small. Of course, if it were any bigger, the phone would be a hooptie. Size versus functionality is a big gamble for the phone makers, and the N81 8GB strikes a very good balance.

The phone’s user interface is quite snappy. It has an updated look with more depth than previous N-Series devices. The only time this phone has responded slowly was while navigating SMS messages, but, again, that could be a Ted thing. I have like 2000 text messages in my inbox and I never bother deleting anything. (Though the N81 8GB does make it a little too easy to delete stuff–the Clear button is in the spot where the hangup button is on all the other N-Series phones.)
As usual with the N-Series, I’m glad Nokia has kept the charger receptacle the same size, as I can use the N81 8GB with my mobile charger, the same one that works on the other N-Series phones I’ve tried. In addition, my 3G SIM card went right into the N81 8GB with no issues (though it was a little hard at first to locate the SIM card slot–they’ve cleverly hidden it away in a slide-out clip under the battery), and Nokia Transfer Wizard utility transferred my address book and calendar in about 5 minutes over Bluetooth from the previous phone I’d been using.

I suggest you give the N81 8GB a shot. If you need a phone that does it all–this might be it.