No iPods, iPhones allowed in Bill Gates household

This is pretty funny. He is depriving his family of some very cool toys. Sucks being the kids of a billionaire..maybe when they are a little older, they will sneak this stuff into the house like all other good boys and girls.

The three children of Bill and Melinda Gates may not be allowed to have a product from a certain Cupertino-based rival in their home, but that doesn't mean Mrs. Gates doesn't wish for an Apple gadget every once in a while.

Melinda Gates told Vogue in a recent interview that the couple's three children try to have "as regular a childhood as possible,", but that doesn't include Apple's ubiquitous iPod digital music and video player or its cellular companion, the iPhone.

"There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household," she said. "But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids."

Gates' husband Bill, of course, founded Microsoft, which sells its own line of digital media players under the Zune brand name. So when it comes to the market-leading iPod, it's look-but-don't-touch for the Gates family, including the three children (aged 12, 9, and 6), and even Melinda herself.

"Every now and then I look at my friends and say, 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone,'" she said.