I had taken a shot at answering the riddle back in June 2007 by dutifully asking the Apple public relations department for an explanation. A spokesperson told me she would "try to find an answer," but, alas, she failed to come through. I moved on, reluctantly, but did not forget.

Fast-forward to earlier this month and a blog post by Jon Manning, lead developer at Secret Lab, which makes software for the Mac, iPhone and iPad. Manning noticed two things of importance on Saturday, April 3: first, that the iPad making its retail debut that day shows a time of 9:41, not 9:42, in promotional photographs; and second, that the fellow standing over there in the Palo Alto Apple store appeared to be Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software.

Manning walked over to Forstall and asked the question that's been bugging (some of) us for years. Here's how it went:

Forstall: "We design the (product launch) keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation. When the big image of the product appears on screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience's watches. But we know we won't hit 40 minutes exactly."