Apple products 'banned' from Bill Gates' home

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has banned arch-rival Apple's iPhone and iPod gadgets from the family home, his wife has revealed.

Melinda Gates told Vogue magazine: "There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids."

Her admission has raised giggles in the technology community, with some members of the blogosphere speculating that Gates' three children – Jennifer, 13, Rory, 10 and Phoebe, 7 – must instead use phones running the Windows Mobile operating system, and listen to their favourite songs on Microsoft's much-criticised Zune music players.

Mr Gates, a multi-billionaire, lives in a lodge-like house overlooking Lake Washington. According to reports, the home boasts plenty of cutting-edge technology, including automatic lighting, speakers hidden inside walls to create the impression of music following visitors wherever they go, and portable touch pads that control everything from the televisions to the temperature.

Mrs Gates admitted to be swayed by Apple's iPhone device, which combines a touch-screen music player and web browser with a fully featured mobile phone. "Every now and then I look at my friends and say 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone'," she said.

Bill Gates has stepped down from his role as chief executive of Microsoft, the company he co-founded with Paul Allen, in order to concentrate on the philanthropic work carried out by his charitable organisation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Last month, at TED 2009, the technology, entertainment and design conference, Gates let loose a swarm of mosquitoes to highlight the dangers of malaria.

“Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,” he yelled to the crowd before unleashing the insects, which were not carrying the disease. “I brought some. Here, I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected.”