Volkswagen and Apple Unveils iCar; iBeetle

Volkswagen will unveil the "iBeetle" this week at the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show. The iBeetle will be one of the first cars in the world to have a genuine integrative interface for the iPhone that was coordinated with Apple," according to the company.

iPhone fans and gear heads shouldn't get too excited, however. This isn't the mythical iCar. It's a Volkswagen Beetle with an integrated docking station and specialized app. The app offers a number of features users already have an their iPhone, like Spotify. It also offers social features, like the ability to take a picture of yourself while the car is driving and post it to Facebook, or send "postcards" to your fiends from the road with maps of where you are.

The app also offers some more car-like features like Expert mode, which makes the iPhone "an extended on-board instrument of the Beetle, such as a G-Meter (for measuring lateral acceleration), oil and coolant temperature gauges for the engine, a chronometer, and a compass" and Trainer mode, which "can be used to compare driving times, distances, and fuel economy values for different routes between any two destinations."

I know what you're thinking. How is this different that any other third-party car docking system? Well...it's not really. But since Volkswagen has officially teamed up with Apple to do this, the iBeetle will feature equipment that is "stylistically linked to the Cupertino-based US company, bringing its iconic smartphones into harmony with what is certainly one of the world's most iconic automotive designs."

That means that if Apple makes a yellow iPhone, we should see a yellow iBeetle. Of course that also means if someone custom paints his iBeetle fuschia, rumors sites are bound to report that Apple is set to release a fuschia-colored iPhone 6.