Oh for goodness sake… Yesterday, I tried to keep my opinions to myself. Today - All hell is loose. I’m not going to sit by and let blogs like Crave, newspapers like Capital and agencies like the Associated Press make a big deal outta nothing. A car with integrated Apple compatibility (just look at how many have iPod docks) as nothing new. Throwing in a few extra features? Last time I checked, it didn’t warrant an ‘i’ stuck before it… Blearing headines such as ‘Apple ‘iCar’ in the works’ (found on Crave), quite frankly sicken me and show themselves up as nothing more than a lame attempt to attract extra visitors and extra clicks. Sure, me writing about it isn’t exactly helping, but whoever said any publicity was bad publicity sure didn’t see the Internet.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Audi Chairman Martin Winterkorn, who heads the Audi brand group that includes Volkswagen, met recently in California to discuss ideas, but no concrete plans, a Volkswagen spokesman told the Associated Press.

They even admit it. They haven’t the foggiest clue in hell what’s going on. Apple CEO meets Audio Chariman. For all we know, Steve could be thinking about buying a VW and wants a customised dashboard, with a built-in iPod secondary, auxillary screen. Maybe Steve Jobs just wants to grab himself a leopard-painted Beetle as subtle promotion of the launch for OSX Leopard. Would it surprise me? No… I hardly think a fully blown Apple car (let alone one called the ‘iCar’) is about to hit the market. More likely that an Audi car with a boatload of integrated Apple features is coming, but BRANDING it an Apple car? I just can’t see it happening.

According to the article, Frank Weith, ‘technical strategy manager for Volkswagen of America’, in an interview with CNET, parent site of Crave, last week said that…

Its customers can expect to see some interesting things in this space in the near to long-term future, said Weith. “I look at the vehicle as being static in a sense where you can create an environment where the vehicle can be connected to your home system. You can download your iTunes. We have a navigation companion on our Web site. You can download your trip, where you’re going and, eventually, depending on the access, to download a movie. You can create the environment that you would like to have but make it static, download a week of your Internet,” he said.

I hate to be the killer here, but I’m having trouble seeing a static vehicle travelling at 70MPH down the motorway. Sounds mighty like a car with a built in iPod (or maybe just a dock?) with a GPS and additional mini screen too, all no doubtedly touch powered. And whilst I’m at it, I’ll jump on the trend and place my bets on an ‘iSat’ from Apple. A GPS/satellite navigation device for cars, running the same mobile Google OS we talked about yesterday.