I hate mobile phones. For an avowed technologist that is a very loud and emphatic counter-intuitive statement, but it is also true.

Apple iPod Touch

I’m one of those people that didn’t really have or needed a mobile till I was thirty and then I discovered that well … I didn’t really need one.

Generation Y people will not understand it, but the phone, that supposedly makes life easier and solves organisational problems, has created more demands on me than I had BEFORE they where available.

I’m not a complete Luddite and I do own one, however very much on my terms. I want a communication device – not a leash.

I have many reasons and mainly there is the intrusion. I once had someone call me about a work idea, at the moment of having that idea – 11pm on a Sunday night. When I asked why they didn’t call on my landline the answer was “didn’t want to intrude”.

When you call a mobile you call a person – a landline you call a household.

Then there is the noise. With that I do not only mean the random ringing but also the enforced sharing of conversations. More accurately, seeing as we only hear one part of the conversation, a monologue with bits cut out. In the nineties if you spoke loudly to yourself like that in public you’d have a quick trip to a padded room! Its self absorbed and just plain rude.

When I’m traveling I have my phone with me and charged up . If I want, or need, to call someone it is there. It does not however ring, that what silent mode is for and I never share an inane conversation with half the train coach.

The problem though is that these days mobile phones come with cool stuff.

One such device is the iPhone. As you all know I’m really biased toward Apple. My liking does not however stretch so far as to pay a huge monthly contract cost to a single vendor for the privilege of the device. Specifically when, as discussed, I don’t really use the phone for any thing other than can be described as emergencies.

Enter the iPod Touch (iTouch seems to be common misnomer)

I get all the iPhone Apps etc. and with wi-fi I’m on the go wherever I find myself (I also have a App that finds me free wi-fi) and with the new OS release the vertical keyboard means I’m a speedy flying typing whizz.

My email is there when I want to read etc. Oh and it is a hell of a handheld gaming platform as well, just in case you tire from watching movies on it.

All in all a very underrated device in my opinion.