I like to be prepared, so last night I began planning what I need to pack for my upcoming holiday (very excited!). The first item to make the list was my beloved iPod nano and this got me thinking - what did we used to have to do to listen to music on the beach or the plane?

I certainly remember having a portable CD player which was 1) heavy, 2) bulky and 3) meant that I had to carry around a wallet full of CDs to ensure I wasn’t stuck listening to the same songs on a loop. Before that there was, of course, the trusty portable cassette player which came with all the joys of rewinding and fast forwarding, rewinding and fast forwarding…

Since Apple changed all of our lives (and indeed the state of the music industry) with the iPod, even age-old PR profiling questions have had to be adapted. The good old “desert island discs” question has been replaced by “what’s on your iPod?”, with the assumption clearly in place that everyone has one.

I certainly couldn’t be without mine. I’ve now graduated from the iPod shuffle to the nano and it’s the ultimate gym buddy (it could even be my personal trainer thanks to the Nike+). Mexico is certainly going to be a more tuneful place because of this brilliant gadget so thank you Apple! Keep up the good work.

Rebecca Wheeler