The iPad. I swore I'd never buy one. Then I saw all my mates flashing them around at Bouchercon and gave in. Hmm. The jury's still out. I thought I'd be able to proof manuscripts on it in iPad Pages but I was wrong. Still, <a title="Scrivener for collaboration – pretty cool" href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/12/23/scrivener-for-collaboration-pretty-cool/">perhaps Scrivener will come up with a solution</a> (provided I'm willing to write in text only files without formatting, an iPad limitation, not Scriv's).

As for its broader use... I don't know. When I was in Florence in November for research I had it on all the time. At home it barely gets used. Nice toy, not sure it's much else frankly. Not yet anyway.

I also found <a title="The best writing keyboard ever" href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/12/08/the-best-writing-keyboard-ever/">a lovely, Windows-only solar-powered Logitech keyboard,</a> the best I've ever used. I've been <a title="Evernote sneak out a killer feature" href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/12/21/evernote-sneak-out-a-killer-feature/">greatly impressed by Evernote</a>, especially now I can take photos with my Android HTC Desire phone and send them straight to a research folder shared between my different computers.

Had to <a title="Kindle as a book revision tool" href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/08/30/kindle-as-a-book-revision-tool/">buy a Kindle 3</a> when it came out, of course. Not sure it really works as a book revision tool. That keyboard is too tiny. But it's a fine e-reader and I'm happy <a title="Dead Men’s Socks… a new story of Rome" href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/12/13/dead-mens-socks-a-new-story-of-rome/">to say I now have my own ebook short story</a> out there you can buy for it and other readers.

For travelling I was immensely impressed by Packard Bell's little tablet Windows PC, the <a title="A new writing laptop" href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/09/15/a-new-writing-laptop/">Butterfly Touch</a>. This is currently about the price of a basic iPad and offers so much more. Great battery life, lovely keyboard. Fantastic highly portable writing machine.

That's me tooled up for 2011 already. I won't be buying anything else. Honest. <em>Honest. </em>