http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/iamrich http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/iamrich A gallery in Hamburg, Germany is set to display and sell framed prints of the red jewel artwork that once graced Armin Heinrich's do-nothing "I Am Rich" iPhone application, priced at €1,000. Sounds like a hoax, but then so did the original application. Apparently the port city is home to more millionaires per capita than any other city in Germany, and at least one of the people stupid enough to buy and download the application from iTunes was a Hamburger. [iPhone Savior]

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041828&view=rss&microfeed=true The most important software development of our time — Armin Heinrich's $999.99 "I Am Rich" iPhone app that did nothing but display a red gem — "was written pretty much as a joke" reports the New York Times, which is not amused. In a story headlined "Many Fail to See the Humor in ‘I Am Rich’ for the iPhone," the paper ruins all our fun, reporting that of the eight people who paid full price for the App, two — including a man who after accidentally buying the app wrote an angry review of it that is now widely available on the Internet — have successfully appealed to Apple for a full refund. The Wall Street Journal, describing Heinrich as an example of "some developers" who have "run afoul of Apple," reports an Apple spokesperson said the company removed I Am Rich from its store after a "judgement call." “I did not expect many people to buy it and did not expect all the fuss about it," a too modest Heinrich told the Times. “I regard it as art." Us, too, Armin. Us too.

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5035473&view=rss&microfeed=true Before Apple succumbed to jealous cries of the hoi polloi and removed his "I Am Rich" application from its iTunes App Store, developer Armein Heinrich sold eight copies of his $999.99 pristinely useless software — six to refined buyers in the United States, one to a collector in Germany and another to one in France. From a technical perspective, all "I Am Rich" did was glow red. Metaphysically, it was known to provide elation only found in the delicate, snow white comfort of a Himalayan white tiger fur coat. Heinreich told the LA Times: "I have no idea why they did it and am not aware of any violation of the rules to sell software on the App Store." SAI performed the gauche math and figures Heinrich profited $6,000 from his work; Apple kept 30 percent of that for "store upkeep."

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5034715&view=rss&microfeed=true After discovering Armin Heinrich's $999.99 do-nothing "I Am Rich" iPhone widget, Apple iTunes App Store reviewer Lee5279xx claims that he "clicked buy, thinking it was a joke, to see what happened. I forgot my wife had 'iclick' activated on my laptop and it really bought this app for $999." Lee5279xx probably meant Apple's 1-Click feature which overrides Apple's standard "Do you really want to buy this?" dialog box. But that was meant for 99-cent songs, not thousand-dollar timewasters.

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5034188&view=rss&microfeed=true Armin Heinrich's "I Am Rich" iPhone App, sadly no longer available for $999.99 in the iTunes App Store, was probably the most important software development of our time. Wonderfully, some 502 iTunes App Store shoppers took the time to review it, giving it a rating of two stars out of a possible five. Our 10 favorite reviews — sometimes marked by calm, playing-along cynicism, sometimes by wide-eyed fury — are below:

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