LITTLETON, Colo. -- When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, he told consumers they should bury any idea they had about a phone. He said, "You were wrong."

You can quibble with his arrogance, but the iPhone indeed appears to be changing the definition of a handheld device.

There are now more than 25,000 applications for the iPhone, revolutionizing how we treat and use our cell phones.

For example, for $1.99 you can buy an application called Pocket Bacon developed by self-proclaimed "tech geek" Chris Hanson, who lives in Littleton.

"You can add a slice, so there's a little extra sizzle as it hits the pan," said Hanson as he played with the Pocket Bacon application he designed. You can virtually fry the graphic-enhanced bacon, you can eat it, or the app even locates restaurants in your neighborhood that truly serve the real deal.

"People are hungry for bacon, I can help them out," said Hanson.

Pocket Bacon is just one of the latest quirky iPhone apps.

It's hardly practical, yet highly entertaining and Hanson knows it.

"(People) pull it out and say, 'Hey look, I have bacon,'" said Hanson.

"It's like the anti-health food. It's sort of like a dirty little sin -- 'I ate bacon the other day. I'm gonna go to the gym, but I might have some more tomorrow too,'" said Hanson.

Writing iPhone applications is becoming very popular.

"Somewhere out there, somebody's thinking about almost anything, any concept you could have," said Hanson, who heads up a group of Denver-based developers.

With a little training, almost anyone can do it. And some of those ideas have made people rich.

"Instead of having the touchtone-style keyboard, (one application) displays a rotary old-style phone keyboard. (The designer) released it on a weekend, and he claims -- who am I to say otherwise -- he claims he made $20,000 in a week," said Hanson. "He probably never needs to work again."

At Colorado State University, computer science students learn it.

"Our entire curriculum -- starting as freshmen, is how do you write programs? How do programs interact with machines? How do programs interact with people?" said Ross Beveridge, associate professor of computer science at CSU.

"Everyone who's played with an iPhone knows what's cool is the finger gestures," said Beveridge.

Stanford even offers a 10-week online creditless class on how to build your own iPhone app. Beveridge said his graduates are in greater demand than ever. "In the general sense that people increasingly find interesting things to do with machines that 10 years before no one even dreamed about."

There are also more practical iPhone apps. Touch Physics challenges kids and adults to design objects to get the ball to hit the star.

"If I build a big triangle here, a lever here, and then I drop something on the lever ... how cool is that?" said Hanson as he demonstrates through show and tell.

Also very practical is an app that allows you to check any flight coming or going from any airport at any time, as well as a credit card app that allows vendors at craft fairs and flea markets to simply charge you.

"You can enter in all their information from their credit card and charge them right on your phone, so you don't have to haul around one of those credit card machines," said Hanson.

And there are totally useless apps, like the now vast crop of flatulence sound effects.

"Whichever guy it was who was first in line the day that they approved that is probably a millionaire right now," said Hanson.

"I'm in a field where every 10 years everything I know is wrong, everything has changed. For some people, that's a nightmare. I enjoy it," said Beveridge.

"We have the smooth griddle and the grooved griddle," said Hanson as he further demonstrates Pocket Bacon. It also gives you the latest bacon recipes, popular even among vegetarians, according to Hanson.

"I found a recipe for shiitake bacon, which is a big shiitake mushroom sliced really thin, seasoned and then fried in a pan," said Hanson. "We have the bacon butterscotch doughnuts. I'm sure that's going to be popular with the American Heart Association."

And while Pocket Bacon isn't quite a cash cow just yet, 7NEWS asked Hanson if he's a millionaire. "No. At this point I probably make enough every day to buy a pack of bacon," said Hanson. One day, Hanson might be bringing home the bacon.

"Apple has the keys to the kingdom," Hanson said. "If your idea takes off, you can make a lot of money. People will spend 99 cents on something without even thinking about it. You can't even get a coffee for 99 cents -- not coffee you'd want to drink," said Hanson.

Apple does take a percentage of the sale of each application, but the designer takes the bulk of the profit.