Last week we stumbled across an interesting interview with Shaq. He says he literally begged Steve Jobs to give him one of the first iPhones before they were first launched. Steve flat out refused.

Head over to Redmondpie.com for more details and the video interview.

Shaq is still heavily into the lastest and greatest technology. He calls himself the world’s tallest geek and he is now looking to invest in tech startups, through Pitch Shaq, a contest that allows entrepreneurs to upload 15 second video pitches, in the hope to grab Shaq’s attention and funding for their startup.

Shaq was trying to get his hands on the iPhone 2G before it was released in June 2007 in the USA. I still remember buying my first iPhone – it was long before they were released in SA. I bought an iPhone 2G for R5700 in late 2007 (the phone incidentally died a few months later) from a guy that met me in a parking lot in Sandton. There were no apps or fancy features (compared to what we have today) but it was still a ground-breaking device that looked like nothing else on the market. It’s amazing to thing how far we have come, technology-wise, in a few short years. It gives you some perspective to think that only 6 years separates the original 2G iPhone from the iPhone 5. Buying my first iPhone was the catalyst that eventually led to the launch of Platinum Repairs, which now boasts a team of mobile Apple repair technicians around Johannesburg and Pretoria. While we haven’t repaired anything for Shaq, we have had the privilege of repairing iPhones and iPads for South Africa’s leading politicians, business leaders, doctors, DJ’s and comedians. While we can’t reveal them all to you (it’s one of those “we’d have to kill you if we told you” situations) but if you have a look on Twitter, you will see what Casper de Vries thinks of us. Check it out here.