Happy New Year to each and every one of you! I’m thankful that you’ve hung with me for some part of 41 straight bi-weekly emails.

As we head into 2018, please consider forwarding this on to someone who you think may enjoy receiving my email. Also, say thanks to someone who has had an impact on your career.

I’m going to use this edition to reflect on 2017 before I get to some great reads from the past two weeks. I also want to thank Forbes – and am humbled – for including me on their list of Top 50 Must-Follow Sports Business Twitter Accounts.

Let’s start with some of my new favorite apps of 2017. These were apps I didn’t have installed on my iPhone at the start of the year, but have made their way to my home screen.

Robinhood: Free stock trading – yes, no more $7 trades. Beautiful interface and user experience. (Use the link here and get a free stock.)

Coinbase: Cryptocurrency was likely a topic of discussion at the dinner table this holiday. Coinbase is the easiest way to dabble in Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum. (Use the link here and get $10 in Bitcoin for free.)

HQ Trivia: The live trivia game is beyond impactful because of its ability to drive appointment viewing. (Use my referral code “darealstanch” if you do sign up to play – I’d get a free life.)

NBA AR: The NBA was the first sports league to release an AR gaming experience using Apple’s ARKit technology. Super proud of the hard work the team did on this one.

I had originally set a goal of reading 50 books this year. I ended up at 25, although I was on a great pace until I went from taking a train into the city (NYT) to driving to work every day (NBA). Here were some of my favorites that I picked up in 2017.

• Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built – Duncan Clark
• Walt Disney: An American Original – Bob Thomas
• The Conversion Code – Chris Smith
• Delivering Happiness – Tony Hsieh
• The First 90 Days – Michael Watkins

Every year I set a goal to write more. While I didn’t write nearly as much as I wanted to, I was proud of some of the work I did publish in 2017. If I can do 12 posts as important as these next year, I’d be satisfied.

• If You Buy It, Users Will Still Come
• The Importance of Delivering an Experience
• Impossibilities Are Only Temporary

On to the best reads from the past two weeks…

Spend 25 minutes watching this Ben Evans presentation on tech’s next 10 years.

The Information (paywall) previewed and predicted the upcoming year for digital media companies.

Apple made it possible to publish iPhone and iPad apps from a single binary a couple years ago. Now they’re doing the same with Mac apps.

This is how online advertising should look: The New York Times partnered with Waze on this native content ad.

“DaRealStanch” was my first AOL Instant Messaging screen name. The service shut down a few weeks ago. Bleacher Report had a great read on NBA players’ favorite AIM memories.

I aspire to write as much (and as thoughtfully) as Andrew Chen. His blogging tips were tremendously helpful, including reminding me how important email is to build a following.

How many of The Atlantic’s Top 50 Best Podcasts have you listened to? The Daily and S-Town are some of my favs. I also really got into Somebody Knows Something, which has a couple season’s worth of great listening but isn’t included on the list.

Finally, I’m a twice-a-day showerer. The New York Times confirms that’s an optimal amount of time spent under the water.

Rock and Roll.

My last newsletter had an open rate of 45.1% (-4.9%).

Sign up for my bi-weekly email newsletter where I’ll share what I’ve written about or read from around the web related to digital media, tech strategy, emerging platforms, sports & more. The newsletter is sent 8 p.m. ET on Sunday and appears on ScottStanchak.com 10 a.m. ET on Monday.