I'd go as far as to say the leftorium is a total reference to Apple, who groening worked for in the same year that the episode came out.

EDIT: It was actually 2 years after he worked for apple.

Apparently several posters failed to heed my warning from earlier in the thread. Vgchartz is not the place to post trolling garbage. Also, I should remind several of the site's younger posters that they owe a hell of a lot to Steve Jobs and Apple. Even if Jobs wasn't necessarily the first person to think of a product, he was a brilliant innovator. He made them fun, intuitive, and easy to use. And Wozniak's development of the Apple II computer was ridiculously important in helping personal computers reach the mainstream.

Just to be clear, I don't think Apple is shit.
I think Jobs is shit and Woz is god.

I actually respect Wozniak a lot (especially after watching a documentary about him on History Channel).  However, Steve Jobs I have no respect for and he always came across as a prick to me.  I believe almost half of my Apple hate was fueled by him alone.

Without the software built around the hardware, the iPhone, iMac, and iPad are really pretty paperweights.

Ives is a great industrial designer. Probably the best in the world. Still, at best he's only responsible for half of Apple's success and even that is a stretch. Without iOS, without the App Store, without OS X, Apple is basically Sony but slightly better.

Absolutely. Because 1995 Apple has a lot to do with 2012 Apple.

Oh, wait. No it doesn't. Not in the slightest bit. The 1995 Apple was on the verge of collapse and hadn't created a successful product in years (though they were still innovating in digital cameras and PDAs, they just weren't even remotely successful).

Hey, I love Woz. I think he's one of the smartest UI people on the planet (not to mention a much more decent human being than Jobs). But just because Woz was good at certain things, it doesn't mean Jobs wasn't good at others. There is no coincidence that the rise, decline, and rise of Apple fall directly in line with Steve Jobs' tenure with the company. He was really good at getting everyone pointed in the right direction and seeing his vision come to fruition.

It does actually, if you stop being so defensive and think about it for a minute.

It's a product virtually identical to another, yet has a rabid fanbase who think the product is perfect for them/superior to others.

I'm not defensive, I just think your point is crap. Apple isn't even close to the same company they were 20 years ago. Back then, they were collapsing and were scraping out a meager portion of the PC market through a small group of zealotus fans. Today, they are the third largest PC manufacturer, completely dominate the tablet market (that they themselves created), and hold a very sizable share of the phone market. They're the most valuable tech company in the world.

Does Apple still have its fair share of fanboys who annoy the shit out of everyone around them? Sure, but SO DOES EVERY OTHER TECH COMPANY. This forum is living proof of that. But when you're dominating the tech landscape, the "left-handed store" analogy falls flat.

I'm gunna go tell lots of other people on different websites where you can't contradict me.
:D

Then we'll see who's won this battle.

So Apple will buy Greece. I-Athens come.