Gibbon half a chance I would stick the boot into Apple's over priced fruity toy, the iPad and its legions of technology-illiterate fanboys who make the Manson family appear like the Waltons.

But recent research suggests that Apple fanboys really are a genetic throwback and counter evolutionary. Which is more or less what I have thought all along.

A new program at the Miami zoo involves using iPads to communicate with orangutans. True it is not the sort of iPads most Apple fans use. These have to be stronger to cope with the fact that Orangutans have to be able to throw them about a bit and wipe their bottoms with them.

According to the Associated Press, trainers are working specifically with 8-year-old twin orangutans helping them draw, play games, and work on new vocabulary as part of a mental stimulus programme. Apparently the younger orangutans have taken to the iPad quicker than the older more reasonable Apes who wonder what the fuss is all about. 

We guess it is only a matter of time before they will be joining the legions of Apple fans who go bananas and spend time abusing those who dare think different and say that Jobs' Mob is just another computer company. Using software developed for kids with autism, the software installed on the iPads shows pictures of objects that the trainer identifies and then allows for the orangutans to touch a corresponding button.

Despite the advances made using iPads with orangutans, there are some limitations. Since the devices are delicate and the screens are too small and trainers have to hold the tablets. But pretty soon the trainers are confident that apes will be able to cue outside an Apple store and give standing ovations during Apple press conferences. [What’s next? An Ape Store? Ed]