Over the summer I was thinking about getting myself an iPod nano (one of the old slim ones, before it got a bigger screen in the most recent re-launch, making it look far less cool).

But then I realised the only reason I really wanted it was because it looked cool - and that since I hate headphones it would only really be any use with some speakers attached.

And then I realised there was a far better solution: my phone (Nokia 6233) has some perfectly good speakers built in to it, it’s very small and portable, and once a colleague had pointed out that I could get a 2Gb card for it for under a tenner on Amazon, I was away.

So as a result in various bits of travelling I’ve been doing over the summer I’ve been able to listen anywhere to entire albums, symphonies, you name it, all from my phone.

And if you plug the headset into it, then it will also function as a radio for you.

I also finally worked out how to access the internet through it, and even to receive and send emails.

It’s also been very handy for taking unexpected photos - or videos.

And helpful a few times to use it as a dictaphone.

When I go away, it is my alarm clock, as well as (when my watch was broken) my watch. I can play games on it, convert things to other currencies on it, even do some translation of basic words into other European languages, which has helped me out in a sticky spot on holiday a couple of times.

I use it as a calculator, a stopwatch, reminders and future appointments.

So all in all, I love my phone! It would be even better if it didn’t have all the bugs in the software which means it sometimes takes me several minutes and several attempts to get it switched on in the morning.

But on balance, I think I’ll take them in return for all the many other things it does for me.

Apparently, if you’re really good, you can even also actually send and receive text messages through it - as well as talk to people on it!