Just what Apple needed to hype its latest product even more: A photo of Norway’s Prime Minister running his country from his iPad.

Jens Stoltenberg was stranded in New York after a volcano erupted in Iceland, closing airports throughout northern Europe. But instead of using a laptop, netbook or smartphone to conduct business at the airport, the prime minister turned to Apple’s magical tablet, CNN reported.

It’s not clear what Stoltenberg was doing on the iPad, though he described the device as “excellent.” Clearly he wasn’t running any sort of special Norwegian government software (I can’t find any in the App Store, at least), nor was he doing more than one task at a time (that’ll have to wait until the fall).

My guess is he was mostly communicating with his staff by e-mail. Or maybe he was sending free text messages around the globe with the Web version of Google Voice. A third scenario might have him watching Lost on ABC’s app or playing Plants vs. Zombies to kill time.

Anyhow, it’s good news for Apple, as the company is taking some heat today for rejecting a Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonists’ app, on grounds that it “ridicules public figures.” Maybe Stoltenberg only uses technology that has no chance of poking fun at him.

The prime minister told CNN that he won’t be getting home until Saturday, as he’ll have to fly south of the closed airports and travel the rest of the way by car. Shouldn’t be a problem as long as there’s no layover in Israel.

Via: