Forward thinking: An Apple a day...

Having read the past week's coverage I have reached this conclusion: because iHave an iPod Touch, now iNeed an iPad.

Now, there is much evidence that I am singularly not qualified to discuss matters of gadgetry.

After all, the first PC I bought was an Atari, which might be retro-geeky. But this was the beginning of the 90s. They saw me coming. I still have a Sony minidisc player because at the time it seemed like the solution to a life spent listening to too much music and interviewing people about it. MP3 what? Oh, I see. It's in the same drawer as my discman of which I owned many, until they finally wore out.

As are the portable speakers which had sucker pads you supposedly stuck to your hotel room window to act as the resonator or something. Maybe it had something to do with the quality of the glass in the sort of hotels I used, but they always sounded crap. Likewise, my home stereo would have audiophiles ringing Amnesty International.

And when I last bought a new television, I opted for a cathode ray tube monstrosity because I figured it would outlast the early generation LCD or plasma screens. It has. But it also may have helped the foundations in that corner of the lounge sink a little.

A year or so back I got a flash smartphone but quickly had it stolen. My work-issue cheap and cheerful cellphone is at no risk of being mistaken for a camera or doing anything useful but text or call. I did get a decent point and shoot for a present a few years ago, only for it to crap out on an overseas holiday and then be repaired for free - after I bought a replacement while away which isn't quite as good.

So yes, I have long been unlucky in tech-love.

But a year ago, having only had one Apple product in my life, a early generation iPod shuffle, I went crazy and splurged on an iPod Touch. For the uninitiated, it looks like an iPhone but it's not for speaking on. But, care of wireless, it does pretty much everything else an iPhone does without the crippling Vodafone bills.

It has developed into quite a love affair.

Yes, it being an iPod, I have filled it with music. I even helped soundtrack a mate's wedding with it. It also has enough photos to induce the sort of catatonia in my friends that once could only be achieved with a family slideshow.

And then there's the games (does 200 games of Scrabble constitute an addiction?), the web browser (Apple's own Safari) and email capacity (on the home wireless at least).

But what sealed the relationship was the multitude of applications - apps as they say - that make me wonder, how did I cope before? Whether it's checking the Auckland traffic conditions, the weather, the tides, what the words and chords are to The Only Living Boy in New York, the Turoa ski runs suitable for ageing beginner snowboarders, or lots of other very useful stuff.

Yes, all those things are available on a proper computer with a keyboard, a mouse and an internet connection. But that requires you turn them on, boot up, log in, faff around, get distracted, and remember what you were looking for in the first place. And computers with keyboards of whatever size mean one thing to me: work.

It might be an instrument of leisure but the iPod Touch is small. Playing Scrabble - did I mention I'm quite keen on it? - on it is not for the optically challenged. I have never watched a movie or read a book on it (and the iTunes store really needs to upgrade those departments anyway).

So, should my disposable income and the NZ release date of the iPad align, I'll be, well not the first in the queue, but somewhere in the vicinity.

Yes, I know Steve Jobs and Apple set the bar for control-freakery with their closed system devices, and they don't exactly embrace the web's spirit of freedom and co-operation.

But I doubt I will care. After all, the iPod Touch broke my gadget jinx. The iPad could develop into an even more meaningful relationship. And one with less squinting too.