Apple iPhone Fan To Donate His House To A Homeless Charity!

Cast your mind back to the release of the iPhone 4S. Can you remember the guy who camped outside the Apple shop for ten days? Well Rob has a new experiment. Over the years Rob has been through a lot, anxiety, depression, homelessness and a load of other hardships. Rob got himself into app development and marketing and then found himself camping outside the Apple store. Rob at the time documented it on his blog and has recently written a book about the whole experience.

Robs latest experiment is to do with his book. Here is the press release.

Apple fan boy Rob Shoesmith, 30, from Coventry, England has announced today that he will be giving his home away to a homeless charity when he sells 1 million copies of his debut book “Bin There Done That” on Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks.

Bin There Done That is an account of how Rob used the world of smartphone apps to transform his life after hitting rock bottom, which culminated in a 10 night camping experiment outside an Apple Store in Central London for the release of the iPhone 4s.

Rob Shoesmith has made this generous pledge after connecting with dozens of homeless people in London throughout his stay. Key to his experiment was that he couldn’t spend any of his own money whilst in line and generated over $30,000’s of sponsorship from 100 plus companies worldwide including;

– A belly dancer travelling from Scotland to keep him entertained
– A hairdresser cutting his hair outside the Apple Store
– Numerous gadgets and camping equipment
– A UK Hip Hop Artist performing tracks
– A luxury holiday to Dubai

Expecting a fairly straightforward camping experience, Rob wasn’t prepared for the connection he would make with the homeless.

He states:

After setting up my camp, a homeless man of my age approached me and asked me what I was doing. I explained the experiment and he then offered me some slices of bread, saying “I don’t have much to give you, but I want you to help you with your experiment.” I felt incredibly humbled and overwhelmed at this mans generosity.

Throughout the course of my 10 day camp out the homeless people outside the Apple Store played a huge part in helping me get through to the end, and I was motivated to stick with it so I could give away some of the camping equipment to people who really did need it! Before coming into the world of smartphone apps I was suffering with severe anxiety and depression and without the support of my family and friends I could have possibly ended up on the streets.

It would be very easy to rattle a collection tin outside a supermarket, collecting some loose change for a homeless charity and patting myself on the back, but I know I can do more!

I’ve decided to aim for 1 million downloads to capture peoples’ attention and do something different, which will hopefully raise awareness for anxiety and depression sufferers and the homeless. I want the book to inspire people.

Rob feels just releasing a book and saying that some of the proceeds will go to charity won’t cut it and wouldn’t raise the same level of awareness as giving away his home. He has confirmed that if the target is met his home will be sold at market value and 100% of this value will be donated to a homeless charity, which would be approximately £100,000. Rob has reiterated that he will be making charitable donations along the way to his target.

Shoesmith found success in 2009 with his agony Aunt Style iPhone application “Problem Halved”. He submitted his idea to Californian based app developer MEDL Mobile’s App Incubator, which turns everyday peoples ideas for apps into a reality.

We’ll let you know how Rob gets on with his latest venture. If you want to check out the ebook head to one of the links below and get yourself a copy.

Links – UK iBooks link

Amazon UK Kindle link

For more info visit Robs website here