It was great using the digital camera. I had four 8MB cards which held 18 hi quality pictures each. Some days I'd use them all, but I simply copied them onto the Libretto (which has a 3GB drive) and started afresh. Even taking super-resolution (uncompressed TIFF images at 4MB a throw) was easy.

The Libretto was just small enough to fit in my trouser side pocket, so when recording sounds I just set it recording, clipped the lapel microphone to my shirt and wandered around.

The phone was really weird. Everying was perfect in Shanghai - I sat in the middle of the promenade, connected to the Net, uploaded some things, checked and sent some e-mail. When we got to Xiandu my concern was that there wouldn't be coverage, but there was a full signal. I could call up people in the UK fine. I could call up the modems in London and whistle at them, and they'd respond (if you get the right pitch you can pretend to be a modem).

However, when I connected via the Libretto it would dial and then complain that there was no number responing (this is being the same number I'd just dialled). With my Virgin Net account it would even connect, but then when it tried to validate my password, would fail.

It all worked perfectly again, first time, when I got to Shanghai. I have no idea why this should be the case, some people have mentioned "data compression" as a possible problem, but I'm not convinced.