For entertainment, Mr Pitcher has a number of audio books to listen to and more than 4, 000 songs on an iPod.

BBC: Abba on Charlie Pitcher's iPod for Atlantic rowing bid

There is an obsession with official data too: read or listen to a report on the arrest of a criminal and you will probably learn the licence number of the police car that picked him up, the names and badge numbers of the arresting officers, and the exact time that he was taken into custody.

ECONOMIST: Mexico

It's not like everyone, or even a massive number of people (at least at first), are going to ditch their iPods and listen to music on their cellphones, but even if Apple weren't already working with Motorola to bring iTunes to handsets there'd be a lot to buzz about.

ENGADGET: 2005 the year of the MP3 phone?