David McManus says he got far more than he bargained for in the shops

My daughter starts university after the summer. While trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am a parent to an adult, I have been helping to organise the things she will need for this exciting chapter of her life.

Top of the list is, of course, a new computer.

During her A-Level studies, she has been using an iPad with a rather splendid keyboard/cover combination from Logitech. It has served her well but as the essays get longer and greater in number, something more comfortable for prolonged typing was needed.

We have both had our lustful eyes on the new MacBook (before I go any further I should make the disclaimer that we are a family of Apple devotees and, yes, other fine computers are available).

The latest MacBook is lightweight and sports enough oomph for standard use.

We took a trip to the nearest Apple store in order to give the potential purchase a workout because only so much can be learned from watching YouTube reviews.

The verdict was good although we both felt that the keyboard may not be a significant upgrade from that iPad attachment. Ease of transport was one thing but a typing workhorse had to be the primary consideration.

We were informed the MacBooks were out of stock and would be for some time. Even online orders were estimating a five-week delivery period.

Our decision was made for us.

As we turned to leave, my attention was drawn to a gorgeous-looking iMac. Within five minutes of drooling over its astonishing retina display, I hatched a new plan.

My daughter could have my MacBook Pro with its proven track record of many hundreds of hours of typing over its 18-month life, which would leave me with the excuse I needed to buy one of these incredible machines.

It may be wrong to fall in love with an inanimate object, but this is one affair I cannot keep under wraps.

Over the years, I have owned many new computers and back in the old Windows days would perform regular reformats in order to regain lost performance. What astonishes me these days is just how easy it is to set one up.

I recall tedious hours of carefully backing up software, files and bookmarks, certain in the knowledge that something important would be missed. Then there was the hunt for drivers and endless configuration tweaking of the new system.

Within an hour of unboxing this new Mac I was conversing with it like an old friend.

Thanks to the wonders of The Cloud, all my purchased software was easily downloaded again, my Dropbox and iCloud files were synched with the mere entry of a password and all those large files – movies, original photographs and a hefty music collection – are already stored on external drives which simply needed plugging into the new machine.

My own little corner of the world is now home to an even more content father and daughter team. Thank you, technology.