This was originally posted 18 years ago. Opinions, facts and reality may have changed.
So, new tech readers start here: the new iPhone came out a few weeks ago. It’s a glorious gizmo. A veritable pleasure to work/play/exist with.
Ignoring the iPhone’s new built-in features, the biggest change is the launch of the App Store, a section of the iTunes Store where you can purchase (or get for free) applications/programs to run on your iPhone.
Some are useful (the speaking phrasebooks in Spanish, German and Italian for instance), some are silly (the app that turns my iPhone into a light saber – complete with whizzing noises as I wave the phone around) and then there’s a final category; the WTF selection of apps that I can’t believe anybody wants.
Like this one.
Yes, for a penny under $1000 you can own “I Am Rich” for your iPhone. And what does it do? Developer Armin Heinrich describes it best:
“The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this.
It’s a work of art with no hidden function at all.”
So far he claims to have sold four copies.
Can I interest anybody in the Tower of London?
UPDATE: Apparently “I am rich” has now disappeared from the App Store. Which, scarily, makes the bloody thing even rarer now.