Describing iOS 4 at the WorldWide Developers Conference 2010, Steve Jobs kept one of the most interesting of the system’s upgrades until point seven. But the launch of iAds, the iPhone’s new advertising platform, may well be its most influential feature. While multitasking and folders will all be very useful, the incorporation of a native advertising program designed specifically with iPhone apps in mind could well have a huge effect on the 200,000-plus apps already in the App Store, and the thousands of others still to come.

The ads, demonstrated through the use of samples created for Nike, Target and Toy Story 3, aim to bridge the gap between the interactivity of digital ads and the emotional engagement of television advertising, Jobs explained. Initially, they look similar to ads currently distributed by Google’s AdMob service, appearing as a small banner at the bottom of the screen. When users click that banner though, they’re given a whole different experience. They’re no longer whipped out of the app as they would be when clicking on a Google ad. Instead, the app is frozen and the user is taken into what looks like a new app that may contain a number of different features, from mini-games and animated timelines to videos and wallpaper downloads. The features may be as inviting and enjoyable as the app itself, providing a reward for a user who clicks on them. And with the original app frozen rather than closed, there’s no penalty for clicking, pleasing the advertiser.

Apple’s Takes a Bite from Both Ends

But it’s in the benefits for the developer that things start to get really interesting. According to Advertising Age, an industry magazine, AdMobs currently charges between $10 and $15 on a CPM basis. Advertisers who want to buy CPC campaigns can expect to pay 15-30 cents a click. iAds however is expected to charge $10 CPM and $2 for a click, passing 60 percent of the revenue to the app developer.

That’s a big leap in the price of mobile advertising (and in practice, advertisers looking to catch the first wave of ads will have to pay even more: with the iAds Developer Kit still to be released, ads can only be developed by Apple, a service for which the company is charging $50,000 -$100,000 for advertisers spending less than $1 million.) But it’s also a big leap in revenues for app developers.

One of the first challenges developers faced when the App Store opened was whether they should give their programs away for free and live off the advertising or charge the buck or two that seemed to be the standard rate for the iPhone. It was a puzzle that was solved pretty quickly: AdMob and other mobile advertising systems just couldn’t generate enough revenue for developers to make it worthwhile to give their products away for nothing. It always made financial sense to charge something — even just 99 cents — than to look to the ads to make cash.

If iAds can make free pay more than 99 cents, then the effect on the App Store, on mobile advertising and even on mobile computing would be enormous. For one, there will be a lot more free programs available. According to Greg Yardley of PinchMedia, a firm that supplies analytics software for iPhone apps, free apps are downloaded on average 7.5 times more frequently than paid apps, although they’re also used less.

But not only would more apps become free, those apps would also need to change to maximize revenues.

Free but Slow

Apple has estimated that the average iPhone user spends about half an hour every day inside apps. Steve Jobs has talked about showing one ad every three minutes, exposing iPhone users to an average of ten ads a day.  The more time a developer can keep a user on his or her app, and the longer they can make that app last before it’s removed to make way for something better, the more ads they can show and the more they can earn on both a CPM and a CPC basis.

Some apps are going to find that easier to do than others. Although all apps now pause when a user clicks an ad, users will still be more likely to click when their eyes are free to wander to the bottom of the screen, something that happens more often while playing strategy games without a timer than action-packed first-person shooters. Similarly, users are more likely to keep the game on their iPhone and return to it — even once the game has been completed — if the developer continues to release regular updates that extend its life.

Three immediate results of a functional iAds system then may be an increase in free apps, an emphasis on apps that exercise brains rather than the speed of fingers, and a greater reliability on frequent updates — all good news for dedicated Sudoku fans looking for a regular free fix.

But developers will also want to extend each play session in order to have time to show more ads. That may mean longer cut scenes between levels or more time in which little happens, moving characters from one place to another. The games may be freer and longer, but they may also turn out to be less exciting.

All of this though depends on iAds living up to its promise. In practice, it may not. Greg Yardley says that he used to be a fan of the potential of advertising on iPhone apps until he crunched a few figures and found that apps needed to show a CPM of around $8.75 in order to be successful. That’s a much smaller amount than the $30 CPM that advertisers can expect to pay for an iAds campaign (according to Advertising Age’s) figures, but much higher than the current 50 cents-$2 CPM that developers have seen from AdMob. iAds then could have a radical effect on the nature of mobile phone apps, creating apps optimized for advertising or  it might just make a few bucks from lite versions of paid apps — which could be why it was only point number seven in Steve Jobs’ presentation.

You’d have thought that turning the world’s neatest smartphone into a million-dollar whoopee cushion would have been enough for iPhone developers. Not a bit of it. While some coders have been busy creating games that mimic air traffic control, recreating Microsoft Word on a tiny screen or turning an iPhone into a race track, others have been thinking up some of the most bizarre things it’s possible to do with a mobile phone.

Here are five of the strangest:

iLickit Licks the Competition

One of the things that has made the iPhone so special is the way that users interact with it. A touch screen combined with an accelerometer means that you can operate the device with just fingers and wrists. For Halihow, the makers of iLickit, however, that’s not enough. They think that iPhone users should show their appreciation for the iPhone’s flexibility by operating it with their tongues.

The game pulls up a picture of a food item which players must then lick away in the fastest time possible. Commenting on a review which suggested that playing might not be very sanitary, the company’s blog suggested wrapping it with kitchen foil or cleaning it with an alcoholic wipe. It certainly sounds like alcohol was an integral part of the development process.

iLickit is billed as “the first ever game on the iPhone… for your tongue.” It would be nice to think it’s the last but with 60,000 downloads in three days, we might not be so lucky.

Flychat’s Flies Make Very Small Carrier Pigeons

If iLickit has any admirable creative element it’s the way in which the developers have tried to come up with an unusual way of operating the iPhone. “Everyone uses their fingers,” they must have thought. “What else can they use?” If they had come up with a better answer, their creativity might have been a bit more laudable. FlyChat does something similar to create a text-based version of a social media service that’s a cross between Twitter and ChatRoulette. Type a message, tag or theme it, and attach it to a fly. The fly will then buzz off to someone else’s app, delivering the message to a complete stranger.

That’s two odd elements in one. On the one hand, why would anyone want to send a message to a complete stranger — or read one sent by a complete stranger? And why would they want to attach the message to a fly? What was wrong with carrier pigeons? Or how about dogs? Flies aren’t the cutest messengers in the world and they’re more likely to carry disease than something you’d want to interact with.

And yet millions of people do read messages written by strangers on Twitter every day and flies do get everywhere. Even it seems into your mobile phone.

Holy Cow, That’s a Strange Idea!

FlyChat might be odd but it has the distinction of being complex. The developers have had to come up with categories, think of a way to send the messages to other phones and display them. And someone had to come up with the fly idea too. Programmer Andrew Kaluzniacki doesn’t appear to have given himself too much of a headache thinking of features for his iPhone app. Holy Cow displays a picture of a cow. Touch the screen, and the cow moos. That’s it. No chickens, no goats, not even a picture of a field. You get one cow and one moo (although there are no limits to the number of times you can play that moo.)

It would be nice to say that a moo was the worst sound you can get out of your iPhone, but there are, of course, the fart apps. At least the cow only moos.

Quick, Go Pee!

Not all strange ideas are bad though. RunPee is odd, but it’s a very good idea. The free service, based on a website, lets cinemagoers search for the film they’re about to watch. The app then tells them the best time to  nip out for a quick break without missing anything important. They’re told the cue, advised on how long they’ve got and can even read a synopsis of what they missed when they get back. And if they keep on drinking their gallon-sized buckets of soda, they can keep looking at their phone to learn the time of the next missable boring bit.

The next time a silhouette of someone’s head pops up while you’re watching your downloaded movie then, you can thank RunPee.

Help Ruben and Lullaby Stay Together

Other strange ideas are less useful but they do at least have the distinction of being beautiful. Opertoon’s Ruben and Lullaby is a kind of love story with an ending defined by the player. A couple are having a fight. Shake the iPhone and you can make one of the partners angry, forcing a reaction from the other. Stroke the screen, and you can calm them down. The images are made up of some neatly drawn graphics, turning the app into a kind of interactive comic strip with music that matches the mood of the characters.

As ideas go, this one couldn’t have come much odder. It would have been easier to see how the same concept could have been applied to a battle between a superhero and a supervillain: shake to land a blow; stroke to build up strength. Instead, we get the kind of relationship trouble that video gamers are more likely to turn to their iPhone to avoid.

And yet, the app itself is beautiful enough to be a winner, and who knows, it might even help some poor lover save his relationship — when he gets bored, puts down his phone and shows his partner some attention.

The app store is filled with racing games, fart machines, platform games and measuring devices. Many of them look roughly the same. It takes creativity to come up with a new idea, and even if not all of those ideas are useful, even the strangest can be their own source of new inspiration. Just steer clear of the cows.

Photography: Yutaka Tsutano

With more than half a million iPads sold within a week of launch and European rollout delayed to cope with the unexpectedly high demand, it seems as though the question of whether there’s space for a third type of product between the laptop and the mobile phone has been answered. People do want tablets in general, and they want iPads in particular. But the new gizmo hasn’t gone down so well with everyone. While the fanboys have been lining up to get their fingers on Apple’s screens, others have been looking to hit the new device out of the park. Some have done it literally but others have been pulling the shutters down on Apple’s tablet, banning people from using it. A number of bloggers and tech types too have called for a consumer boycott.

The most comprehensive ban on the iPad took place in Israel, a country known for its hi-tech industry where Intel’s chips are designed and ICQ pioneered instant messaging. After initially allowing people to bring the device into the country, advising them only to declare it at customs in order to pay VAT, Israel’s Ministry of Communications then confused everyone by announcing that iPads were completely prohibited and would be confiscated at entry. A number of devices, dutifully declared by their owners at Ben Gurion airport, have been seized and placed in storage until the owners remove them from the country. The customs authorities are even demanding storage fees of around $12 per day.

Asked to justify the ban, the only national lockout imposed anywhere, the ministry noted that the iPad wireless system is made according to US standard, not the European standard followed in Israel, and could cause disruption. It’s an issue that doesn’t seem to bother any European countries nor does it worry the ministry when people enter the country with US-purchased laptops, iPhones and other devices.

The iPad Ban is “Nonsense”

The explanation has caused much head-scratching around the world, with Time Magazine quoting one Israeli technology lawyer describing the decision as “nonsense.”

“I went to the FCC website and saw that the iPad already correlates with the European standards,” said Aviv Eilon.

In fact, the bizarre nature of the ban has led to a number of conspiracy theories, with some commentators noting that iDigital, Israel’s sole official importer of Apple products, is owned by the son of President Shimon Peres. Others have speculated that the iPad’s wifi system could conflict with military communications.

The ministry though has received some support in the form of smaller bans elsewhere. The Wall Street Journal has reported that both Princeton University and George Washington University have banned the iPad following concerns about security. Other colleges, including Cornell, have reported problems with connectivity and bandwidth overload.

It’s likely though that all of these bans will be repealed at some point. Once the iPad is launched in Europe, Israel’s Ministry of Communications will no longer have a reason to keep it out of the country — and if it tried, the people made angry would then include the President’s son as well as its Apple fans. Colleges are likely to strengthen their security and wireless systems to cope with the demand and some are even offering students a choice between Macbooks and iPads on registration.

More worrying though are the calls from bloggers for a consumer boycott of Apple — worrying not because people might actually heed the call but because the calls aren’t entirely wrong.

Open Source Versus Closed Stores

The complaints are two-fold.

The first problem is Apple’s new SDK Agreement which bans “applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer.” In effect, it pulls the drawbridge down on Adobe’s CS5, a workaround that would have allowed developers to put Flash on Apple’s products. It’s a surprise move that led even Techcrunch to accuse Apple of “playing dirty.”

It’s certainly a nasty case of bullying by one company against another. But it’s also a sign of Apple’s desire to exact complete control not just over the way its products are made but what users can put on them after they’ve bought them. That’s the second reason that people have called on consumers to boycott the iPad. By forcing developers to submit all applications to its app store for approval, and by preventing any other way of adding programs to the device, Apple prevents creativity and blocks competition. As Fionn Dempsey, creator of Facebook’s Boycott iPad group states:

“They want use [sic] to throw away our netbooks for a device on which we cannot install whatever software we like, cannot watch video on the internet for free, cannot use flash applications and games, but must instead, in all cases, pay for the alternative service that Apple offers.”

Buying an iPad (or an iPhone or an iPod Touch for that matter) is a bit like buying a Dell PC then discovering you can only add software from Dell’s own software store.

Apple’s response, of course, would  be to point to its long lines of raving fans, the iPads piling up in Israeli customs warehouses and an app store with hundreds of thousands of programs that no one can ever find. It would say that when people buy its products, they want a very cool piece of hardware but they also want the confidence that comes from knowing that every program has been checked for bugs and problems. Those consumers are really not interested in how the apps reach their devices as long as there’s plenty of them  (and despite the restrictions, there are far more apps available for the iPhone than programs for Google’s Android operating system which is open source.)

And most pointedly of all, they’d note that Fionn Dempsey’s group has only 90 members promising a boycott in contrast to its half a million iPad buyers.

There may be good reasons then for boycotting the iPad (although the Israeli government seems to struggling to find one) but when it comes to Apple, those who want to make a point about the importance of open source and free access are always going to be outnumbered by consumers who  just want to point their fingers at the screen.

iPhone apps have become every frustrated geek’s dream path to riches. While computer games now demand the budgets of Hollywood movies and productivity programs mean eventually going head-to-head with either Microsoft or Adobe, iPhone apps can still be created in the way that software should be made: by lone developers spending their weekends in their bedrooms with a keyboard, a Mac and a manual for Ruby-on-Rails.

And it can work. While many apps have been developed by companies rather than individual programmers, there’s no shortage of stories about programmers who have struck it rich enough to give up the day job and dedicate themselves to a life of one-man mobile game-making.

So what are the key ingredients of an app that goes all the way? What sort of decisions does a developer have to make in order to increase the chances of success? And what can programmers learn from the experiences of others?

The Price is Right

Perhaps the biggest decision a programmer will need to make is whether to charge for the app or give it away for free. And if you are going to charge for it, what’s the right price: 99 cents or $899.99?

Surprisingly perhaps, it may well be possible to make money from the advertising on free apps — but only if the app is very successful. According to AdWhirl, a mobile ad network, because each use of an app generates several ad impressions, free applications that make the App Store’s top 100 can generate from $400 to as much as $5000 a day in CPM revenues.

Clearly though, only a small fraction of free apps will make it into the top 100, leaving the rest to pick up cents from each download, instead of the 99 cents (minus Apple’s 30 percent cut) that many paid apps earn.

One solution then is to use the free app not as a way to bring in ad revenues but as a tool to advertise the paid version. Perhaps the most famous success story that used this method is iShoot Lite, an artillery shooting game developed by Sun programmer Ethan Nicholas. After the full version of the game sold only a few downloads, Ethan released a free lite version that offered a limited selection of weapons. Within ten days iShoot Lite was the most popular free app in the App Store. At the same time, boosted by the 13 percent of free users who decided to upgrade, the $2.99 version topped the paid charts, generating almost 17,000 downloads a day. Within a month, Nicholas had netted over $600,000 and was no longer working for Sun. It’s no surprise then that the free app listings are now filled with lite versions of paid games.

Buy While Stocks Last!

Ethan Nicholas didn’t spend a dime on marketing. Once his app was in the charts, its high visibility was enough to keep it there. That’s not always the case though and many developers recommend marketing — even paid advertising — as the most effective way to push a new app. Brook Lennox, for example, has talked about using the iPhone ad networks as a way of promoting his company’s Textfree app. (The lite version of Textfree even integrates ads as a way of both promoting the paid version and recouping some extra revenue).

“Spend $200-$500 and see where it gets you,” he says on his blog. “You can target by country, device, and test several ads at once. Make sure you can track your new users and ranking hourly.”

For those with low budgets — or no budgets at all — reviews can also be helpful. A positive report from a review site like AppCraver or AppStorm can generate some free traffic. Feedback from users though is even more valuable. Buyers do pay attention to the number of stars an app receives in the same way that eBay customers look at buyer reviews.

That opens a couple of opportunities. Although app prices tend to be fairly low, those priced above 99 cents have the freedom to be cut for a limited time, creating a sense of urgency, and — no less importantly — increasing the chances that some of those initial buyers will offer enough reviews to keep the momentum going when the price rises again. Dmitriy Glebenok’s PandoraBox was created specifically to make the most of this opportunity, allowing downloaders to see which apps have recently been reduced in price so that they can snap up a bargain.

The second opportunity is to do a little black hat marketing. Infomedia, creator of perhaps the App Store’s most famous app, iFart Mobile, was accused by makers of rival app Pull My Finger, of placing negative reviews in the App Store. The discord between the competitors eventually led Pull My Finger to sue Infomedia for copyright infringement in its marketing material. Infomedia has counter-sued.

A better option then, is to add viral marketing to static reviews. DataViz, makers of mobile productivity suites, has been using Twitter to keep followers up to date with progress of its iPhone release, and has created a Facebook fan page to respond to customers’ comments. It’s even used giveaways on Twitter to bring new customers in and spread the word about the approaching release.

So pricing is an important part of a successful iPhone app, and it is possible for a free app to generate income, both alone and as a way to promote the full version of an application. Paid advertising on networks like Quattro and Millennial Media can bring rewards, while viral marketing and good reviews are free. Success too brings more success, and nothing generates sales faster than hitting the top of the App Store’s charts.

Perhaps the most important ingredient for an application’s success though is the same as that for any endeavor: you have to like what you’re doing. Ethan Nicholas didn’t set out to create an app that would allow him to say goodbye to Sun. He wanted to create a game that he would enjoy playing. Whether you’re creating something as trivial as The Moron Test or as serious as IRA Pro, create an app that you want to use and you should have the first and most important element for success.

Courtesy of Apple

As toys go, few are more attractive than the iPod Touch. It’s sleeker and lighter than its big brother the iPhone, it doesn’t come with expensive AT&T handcuffs and it won’t turn into a brick when you jailbreak it then try to upgrade. But when it comes to using it as a serious work tool, the media-player-with-benefits also seems to pack a much weaker punch.

You can’t even use it to call and make appointments.

But spend a little time experimenting with apps and you’ll soon find that behind the iPod’s slender build is a pretty useful hand-held computer that can have a serious impact on both your productivity and your way of working.

If you don’t want to use Paypal to ask for money, for example, there’s paper-free billing (in more than one flavor); Stafftool to help non-profits and churches keep track of their activities, and so many GTD-related list apps you might think that fanbois and music-lovers had signed up for the David Allen cult en masse.

Use the iPod to Show off your Portfolio
All that’s simple enough, but things get really clever when you start to combine the power of a computer with the mobility and big-screen of a device that can slip into any pocket.

One way to do that is to use Orb.

This is a neat little program that turns your computer into a broadcasting center beaming your media content to your iPod — or to any mobile device.

Simply download the program onto your computer for free, register with a username and password, then surf to Orb’s website using your iPod browser. Log in with Safari and you’ll be able to use your iPod to play any of the media files on your computer.

As long as your home machine is on and online, you’ll be able to listen to your music collection, watch video, tune into streaming radio and — if you have a television tuner — watch the box too.

Suddenly, that 8/16/32 gigabyte limit no longer looks so limiting. You could put a small amount of content on the iPod for when you’re out of wifi range and enjoy the rest by remote control when you’re back on the Web.

For videomakers and musicians, that’s clearly going to be a boon. Meet a contact and want to show off your work, and you’re not going to be restricted by whatever you happen to have on your iPod (or yes, iPhone too). You can browse through your entire portfolio, choosing the items that best suit the client.

Designers can do exactly the same thing by making their other work folders Orb-accessible too.

The quality of the image won’t be as good as your laptop screen, you can’t zoom in and out of photos in the way you can when they’re synced, and you’ll need a pretty hefty computer to broadcast video (Orb demands 2.4ghz)… but it still massively expands the power of your iTouch.

Orb isn’t the only software offering mobile-based remote control of your computer. Files2Phones lets you look through all of your folders but costs $8.33 a month with a minimum 12-month purchase. Ewe-Software’s BeFree4iPhone does the same thing and is free. But it’s in German, requires that you play around with your router and we couldn’t get it to work.

If it Doesn’t Write, It’s Wrong
That’s a shame because BeFree4iPhone does include a productivity service that’s horrible lacking on the iPod Touch: a good text editor. (Actually, it just lets you write basic text files and send them back to your computer — but even that’s more convenient than most things out there.)

Until someone figures out a way to make Google Docs — or even Zoho — work on the iPod, the Touch is always going to full short of its potential as a work device. At the moment, the best alternatives include gOffice, MobileWebDocs or Web Notes (for early buyers who didn’t want to shell out $20 for the upgrade.)

Zoho has promised that it will deliver something if the next upgrade from Apple doesn’t allow in-browser text editing, but surely it’s only a matter of time before it’s possible to write complete documents on your music player… while listening to your entire song collection and showing off the work you left at home.

Of course, none of this means the iPod is going to replace the iMac. But with the right apps, it can be a very neat — and good-looking — extension of it.

Apple fans remain some of the most passionate and dedicated fans of any around. And when you have that level of dedication, who knows what may result. Some are more dedicated than others, but nothing gets in the way of an Apple fanboy.

Two Apple Fans Accused of Stealing Displays, Create Innovative Halloween Costumes

Nothing says Trick or Treat like two full-grown men in Apple costumes. But wait- those aren’t any ordinary costumes! Those are the jumbo-sized Apple products- with a working display! A lot of controversy surrounding the costumes surfaced, with claims that they were stolen props from an Apple store.

The creators of the outfits claim they were indeed hand-made, and not stolen. The total weight: 60 pounds. The YouTube video shows them cleverly dancing around, enjoying a nice bout of Benny Benassi music to boot.

Fanboy Sacrifices Skin for Apple

Fanboy? We meant Fanboys! Marc Soto reveals why geeks grow ponytails (to hide their fanboy cult affiliation apparently) but AppleTattoos.com is filled with images of Apple symbols tattooed in all sorts of places… including someone’s left butt cheek. We spared you the picture. It’s not a pretty sight.

What better way to declare your love for something than to have its image permanently impressed onto your skin – while hoping your favorite company doesn’t change its logo?

How to Successfully Pimp an Apple Fan’s Car

How many times have you seen television shows such as “Pimp My Ride,” and thought, “I wish Apple fans had their own solutions to tricking out cars!” Well, have no fear Apple fans- it seems someone has come up with a solution.

After all, how much can a few stickers cost? Rest assured, you’ll get a few looks of awe while driving down the highway. Nothing says “I’m in love with Apple” more than completely littering your car with Apple stickers.

And this is just the beginning. What we really need is something edgier- something that even the birds can marvel at.

We couldn’t think of any better way to catch the envy of planes, birds, and construction workers. Now the paint may cost more than a hundred or so Apple stickers, but you can’t deny the fact that this vehicle would make any Apple fan tremble. The only thing missing: an external sound system so that everyone knows what Apple fanboy-ism really is.

Apple: Your Next Haircut

If you’re like most Apple fans, you’d love to show your dedication- all the time. This even includes showing how dedicated you are to complete strangers. But don’t just give your apparel the attention: perhaps it is time to instead follow the new Apple haircut craze.

Can you just imagine reaching out to anyone- and everyone- who happens to be behind you? That’s the kind of Apple dedication that goes in the history books. If hairstyle trends do indeed start to become modeled after companies such as Apple, we are pleased to know that these styles follow more than one pattern, as shown below.

This type of hair-do will be perfect for those who still enjoy somewhat-normal haircuts. The level of surprise is also raised a few bars: as this young gentleman is most likely perfectly normal from a front-end perspective.

Whether it is the outline, or a full Apple shave, it’s good to know trends still have a bit of originality. We like the idea of Apple haircuts- perhaps they will even become popular enough for Microsoft fans to enjoy!

Apple Lifestyles on the Open Road

We know how travelers feel- they want to see as much as the world as possible, as quick as possible. We can’t blame them; the world is full of many beautiful attractions and scenery. But if we don’t have any Apple stickers for our cars, we can always resort to something just as good.

And the state is New Jersey, of course. Jokes aside, what better way to show the entire travelling community your love for Apple, than to brand a license plate? It might even turn a few Windows or Linux users over. Think about it: how many Windows or Linux license plates do you see? If it’s anything like our count, it is not many.

eMail – The Fanboy Way

So what do you do when your Apple doesn’t bite any more and it’s time to move up a model? Sticking it on a pole might not be the most respectful thing to do but it’s better than leaving it to gather dust at the back of the garage. And hey, at least this Mac user’s old machine still delivers mail.

Pushing the iPhone’s G-Spot

Described as “a great gift idea for every geek’s (or apple fan) girlfriend or wife” these thongs were available on eBay in black and white for $10 before the iPhone launched. They might well be the best way for a geek girlfriend to drag her feller away from his Mac for a couple of minutes, but did they stop selling because… well, just how big a market is there for products for fanboy girlfriends?

How They Used to Use Them

And finally, although this isn’t strictly a fanboy shot it does show that Apple was already thinking of novel uses for their products long before the iPod was a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye. You probably shouldn’t try this with a Nano though.

[tags] apple fan, apple fans, apple fanboy, cult of mac [/tags]