I recently watched a couple of YouTube videos showing how fun is being used to encourage people to do things they don't usually enjoy doing, The first one showed how they turned a used bottle depository into a game with lights and bells and whistles. The second one showed how they encouraged people to use the stairs rather than the escalators in a Metro by turning the steps into a fully functional giant piano keyboard.

Watching these videos made me realise why iPhones and iPads are so popular and why people will happily queue outside an Apple store for days to get their hands on the latest models. Quite simply, using them is a load of fun. Even when using them to do mundane workday things one can pinch and swipe an touch the screens for hours on end.

The touch screen interface is made for games and fun which have made the iPhone the most popular games console of them all. One might be tempted to say that all the bells and whistles are just smoke and mirrors, but don't you agree that touching the bin icon and watching your email shrink into it makes the normally boring job of dealing with emails just that little bit less irksome?

Having upgraded all my Apple devices to iOS 5 a whole new arena of fun has opened up to me. In any screen I can swipe down from the top of the screen and todays weather details, the performance of the worlds stock exchanges and all my notifications are revealed to me. Fun. A double click of the home button from the lock screen gives me instant access to the Camera App and allows me to use the volume button to take a photo just like a real camera. Fun. Now instead of clicking the home button twice I can access my running Apps with an upward, four fingered swipe. Fun.

You are probably going to say that I am easily pleased, but I am willing to be that you haven't read this last paragraph because you have just hauled out your phone to try out some of the featured above. If so - Have Fun!!!!