Having a digital assistant is very important for a travel blogger or even traveling in general. I bought an iPod touch just recently and I love it! not only does it keep me entertained but with so many apps available, it has made me more productive even when I’m on the road. Mostly I use it to read travel research I did prior the trip (like travel itineraries), make notes while I’m on the trip (so I keep track of everything), make things to do lists, view calendar entries, view offline Google Maps (neat, huh?).

Of course I still use the iPod to listen to tunes. Having the perfect song playing when traveling is really priceless … like listening to a great summer song while bumming on the beach. Usually I also load a lot of movies and tv series episodes before the trip but I try to avoid watching them since it distracts me from really getting into the places I visit.

If there’s Wifi then I can surf the net, load feed items (and even read it later offline), check emails, update my (Facebook, Plurk, Twitter) status. My ipod touch is also synced to most of the web apps I use, which is also synced to my PC.

The new Apple iPad

One of my frustrations with the iPod Touch is that if you want to type something, the touch keyboard takes up half of the screen so it’s hard to use it for blogging (but still doable).

The recently released Apple iPad minimizes that problem with its larger screen. You can buy an external (bluetooth) keyboard if typing really gets on your way too much.

Another feature I’m excited about is that it’s possible to load pictures into the iPad from your SD Card via an external card reader. I can then use it as a mobile storage for my photos. I can review the photos on a larger screen (than the LCD on my camera) and upload the pictures online (if there’s WiFi).

I’m already satisfied with my iPod Touch since it does most of the things I need for a pseuo-personal assistant. I’m still planning on getting a netbook though so that I can blog conveniently while I’m on the road but I have to put it off since my camera got broke recently, and I have to shell out some money to get it fixed.

Fortunately Urban Data is sponsoring a contest for a chance to win an iPad. So I’m writing this post to submit my entry and hopefully win one. Urban Data is a website that gives you advanced information about any website on the Internet.