Passport, credit card, toothbrush, iPad

APPLE'S latest gadget proves an indispensable travel companion.

Illustration: Igor Saktor

THOSE sunless hours spent in internet cafes waiting for a Paleolithic computer to download your inbox will never be returned. The good news for travellers, however, is that with an iPad in your kit you will never again have to struggle with sticky, cola-stained keys that insist on typing "z" where the "n" ought to be.

That alone should justify the investment in Steve Jobs's latest gadget, but it is only the start.

This 0.68kg device, smaller than a laptop computer and larger than a mobile phone, can be the electronic repository of your holiday reading, guide you through the streets of Yerevan with its built-in GPS, tell you what that Azerbaijani carpet costs in real money and keep you in touch with the news from Australia.

Our first overseas road test of an iPad exceeded expectations and whetted the appetite for what it could soon become.

Even in the wilder reaches of eastern Europe, the world suddenly seemed a smaller place as we woke up each morning to ABC radio's podcast edition of AM, read the latest iPad edition of The Australian and dipped into The Wall Street Journal and The Times over the breakfast table.

When the two key independent MPs threw in their lot with Julia Gillard, we listened live in an Istanbul hotel room using the iPad's built-in speakers.

Rob Oakeshott's tedious speech tested the iPad battery to its limits, but it survived.

On the flight over, the iPad is like an iPod on steroids, offering music or pre-downloaded podcasts. Its screen is crisper, brighter and cleaner than any aircraft in-flight entertainment screen I have seen, making downloaded movies an attractive alternative to airline offerings. Noise-cancelling headphones are an essential accessory, cutting out the low rumble of aircraft noise and delivering high-quality sound reproduction. With Tony Blair's new autobiography downloaded, just days after its release in London, my cabin baggage was somewhat lighter than it might otherwise be.

The iPad is no more cumbersome than a Lonely Planet guide to carry around a city but is, in my view, considerably more versatile. Currency conversion is instant with the currency converter app. Online, the conversion rate is up to the minute, while offline the app stores the rates last accessed. Any number of world weather apps will give you the local seven-day forecast, present temperature and, if you really have to know, the weather back in Melbourne. I discovered a world clock app that displays six clocks on screen with a map showing the moving shadow of night across the globe.

As with mobile phones, 3G global roaming charges are a trap for the uninitiated. We stuck to wi-fi, which was generally fast and widely available at no charge in hotels (even cheap ones), cafes and airports, and were only occasionally left stranded.

Being constantly wired in a foreign city provides unexpected benefits. Once every cafe becomes an internet cafe, no menu is impenetrable and there are no more lamb's brains surprises. Google saves you every time, offering not just a translation of the dish on offer but very often a historical and cultural exploration.

In Kakheti, Georgia's winemaking district, we learned about the pedigree of the remarkable Saperavi grape while savouring a five-year-old Mukuzani, Stalin's favourite drop. For the record, Saperavi also means paint dye in the local dialect, which helps explain its crimson hue, but does no justice to the tannic flavour which, after a year or more in oak, delivers chocolate and blackberry flavours that would give a $40 Coonawarra cabernet a run for its money.

Poorly signed museums and art galleries are suddenly engaging. The Lonely Planet guide had warned us no English was spoken at the museum in Baku commemorating the life of Rostropovich. But matching the Soviet cellist's internet biography to the pictures on display left us better informed than if we had been able to make sense of the 33-character Georgian alphabet.

The GPS capabilities of the iPad were difficult to assess in the southern Caucasus where map coverage is patchy.

But I got a sense of how useful it might one day be when Google Maps was able to identify our location on a Baku street plan and give the directions, distance and estimated walking time to the National Museum. Hasten the day when we can kiss goodbye those infuriating Lonely Planet mud maps with a code that would have challenged the Enigma cipher breakers.

The iPad has its limitations or, to be more accurate, there were things I couldn't make it do that made me glad I had also packed a laptop.

While I could download books in seconds straight to the iPad, I could not download music or podcasts from the Apple Store without loading them on the laptop and transferring them.

I couldn't make a phone call, but that may change once Skype and other internet-based telephone systems catch up.

It would have been handy to be able to download photos directly from my digital camera, but unless you arrive prepared with the Apple conversion accessory (something that should come as standard) it is impossible.

I did however manage to check in for a flight online from an Istanbul cafe on Singapore Airline's user-friendly website. But I couldn't print the boarding pass, which cancelled out any time that might have been saved at the airport. The shortage of word processing applications for the iPad may trouble some users, but for me the inability to link to a printer was more frustrating.

Using the iPad to find hotels helped compensate for our poor planning on our self-organised tour. When the receptionist at one five-star hotel refused to budge on the exorbitant rack rate, I sat in the lobby and booked at the discount internet rate.

I would caution against relying solely on the net to book rooms, however. We turned up twice to hotels we thought we had booked, with email confirmation to prove it, only to find the rooms were not available, leading me to reflect that Jesus might not have been born in a stable if Joseph hadn't booked the inn on Venere.com.

The technology marches ever forward, however, and I fully expect the iPad will be helping out in ways I have not yet imagined on our next trip.

Checklist
Useful accessories: Protective case ($48 at most Apple dealers); iPad camera connection kit ($39 at Apple dealers); Bose QuietComfort 15 noise cancelling headphones ($499); rechargeable portable speakers ($70-$100).

Essential apps: The Australian ($4.99 a month); XE Currency for iPad (free); World Clock ($1.19); Translator (free); Kindle app for downloading books from amazon.com.

Share your suggestions on other useful iPad apps for travellers using the Comments box below.

A selection of the best tips will be published in T&I in coming weeks.