2024 year in review: Paris vlog

2024 was a special year for me, one you could sum up with the motto travel. I’m spending the last days of the year traveling too, in Paris, which is one of the most beautiful cities for me, especially at Christmas time with the lights and the decorations of the luxury department stores. Here I look back on the year.

Paris four times

It was the fourth time this year that I got to be in Paris:

1. June: for the launch of the Honor 200 Pro.
2. July: for Galaxy Unpacked with the Galaxy Z Flip and Fold 6, the first Galaxy Watch Ultra and the first Galaxy Ring.
3. August: Samsung invited me to the Olympic Games in Paris for three days. I was there live for the men’s tennis final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz and for the final of the men’s 100-meter race. That counts as one of the highlights of my life.

What the year taught me

• Making your passion your career is actually possible.
• Bending yourself out of shape in a job that doesn’t fit has more negative effects than you first see. I did a job for 17 years that wasn’t 100% right for me, and I’m still struggling with the consequences.
• Doing is worth a thousand times more than thinking, and saying no is important, even when you love what you do.
• My biggest lesson: with all the traveling, I should have thought much earlier about how to back up my data on the road.

The data loss after IFA

On the way back from IFA in August, I experienced a total data loss for the first time, which could only be partly reversed. Many recordings from IFA, the events and the devices fell victim to it. It cost me a lot of nerves and gray hairs.

Ad: Since then, I always carry Samsung’s portable SSDs when I travel. All the footage from the camera or smartphone goes onto the 4 TB T9 first. On the 1 TB T7, I archive finished YouTube videos and individual recordings for later. Both are small, slim and light and have a high read speed, 2,000 MB per second on the T9 and 1,050 MB per second on the T7. That way I can transfer large video files quickly and work directly from the SSD in my editing software. That was a real game changer this year. They are also protected against drops. In the cameras, I use the Samsung PRO Ultimate (512 GB, 200 MB per second) and PRO Plus (512 GB, 180 MB per second) memory cards, which are also protected against heat, water and shocks.

A YouTube channel that changed everything

Three years ago, I pushed my fears and doubts aside and started a YouTube channel with nothing but the front camera of my smartphone at the time. This year, I got to go to launch events and trips to Paris, Dubai, Ibiza and Barcelona. The biggest thing for me is that I get to see devices before the official launches and often test them already. Until a year and a half ago, I was still following such events on the internet, spellbound. As a tech fan, I feel it’s a privilege to know before everyone else what’s coming to market.

I’ve also met many wonderful people. It’s nice to talk about tech without being looked at funny, and real friendships have formed. I suddenly feel like a fish in water and, for the first time, I feel that I’m in the right place professionally too. It’s not always easy, but it gives me more energy than it takes.

The year in keywords

• The S24 Ultra with the new Galaxy AI in February and the evolution of smartphone cameras.
• New smartwatches, four smart rings at the same time and usually three smartphones on vacation.
• The Honor Magic V3, which made me scream with delight because it’s so thin and light.
• Annoyance about the Huawei embargo, because the devices are so good, and about Apple.
• More and more conversations with Gemini.
• Smartphones flipped and folded, and the Huawei even folded three times.
• Laptops, and new headphones and TVs tested every month.
• With the Galaxy Z Flip 6 at the Olympic Games, my first time at MWC in Barcelona and at IFA in Berlin.
• Saying goodbye to my old job, my 40th birthday and my first wedding anniversary in New York.

Looking ahead to 2025

I’m sure that 2025 will be a year full of wonderful moments and people, with lots of travel, great new smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and laptops, and an AI that finds its way into our lives more and more. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of this journey, and I wish you only the best for 2025.