The iBusiness is most definitely “the business.” The German-engineered, four-seater luxury sedan is the type of car for people who have drivers, and that’s a very good thing, because there’s no chance you’ll be paying much attention to the road in one of these babies unless you’re being paid to.

Each car comes packed to the gills with outstanding multimedia capabilities, including two iPads in the rear seats with matching Bluetooth keyboards for each. The iPads are capable of controlling every aspect of the S600′s COMAND system, including the radio, navigation system and telephone, in addition to BRABUS’ own custom multimedia functions. Don’t think you’ll be limited to offline or 3G use, either, because the car boasts its own wireless internet via UMTS and HSDPA connections.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a Mac mini in the back seat that uses a drop-down 15.2-inch TFT display, Magic Mouse and USB 2.0 ports accessible to both passengers for real computing power. Finally, because you wouldn’t want to use iTunes on the Mac mini or the iPod apps on your two iPads, there’s a 64GB iPod touch in the center console that also controls the whole shebang using a custom BRABUS iOS application.

I couldn’t find any info with regard to pricing, but you can bet it’s going to be more than most of us can afford. The good news is, if you already have a Mercedes-Benz s600, BRABUS will install its custom iBusiness package for you, at a fraction of the cost, but still well beyond the reach of most ordinary mortals. So, anyone picking one of these up?

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Car Data As The Next Platform For Innovation

My learned friend is far from unique in drawing analogies between computer platform affinities and religion. Back in 1994, Italian novelist Umberto Eco (writer of “Foucault’s Pendulum” and “The Name of The Rose”) published a now-legendary, whimsical piece in the Italian news weekly Espresso, contending that the Microsoft/Apple rivalry is “a religious war.” Eco was “firmly of the opinion” that the Macintosh is Catholic; “It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach — if not the kingdom of heaven — the moment in which their document is printed.” He pointed out that with a Mac you deal with simple formulae and sumptuous icons, and “everyone has a right to salvation.”

On the other hand, Eco contended, the (then mostly DOS-based) PC was Protestant, “or even Calvinistic,” demanding difficult decisions and interpretations, taking “for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation.” The PC user “is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.” When the Windows graphical user interface was added to previously command line-only DOS, there came a superficial resemblance to the Macintosh’s “counter-reformist tolerance.” “Sort of like Anglicanism,” said Eco, with “big ceremonies in the cathedral,” but “always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions: When it comes down to it, you can decide to ordain women and gays if you want to.”

Eco’s tongue-in-cheek theological analysis of the computer wars stands up well and is still entertaining 16 years later.

Scholarly Investigations

Recently there’s another flurry of “Apple as religion” in the blogosphere. The Huffington Post’s Skye Jethani writes of “the power of consumer brands to supplant traditional religions in people’s lives,” noting that “new research has shown that Apple has achieved the same impact on the human brain as religion.”

TheAtlantic.com.’s Alexis Madrigal posted a riff noting that scholars seriously study Apple fans as “religious devotees,” one even outlining a framework for assessing Apple’s mystical mythology, contending that the company is founded on at least quasi-religious myths.

A four-myth construct compiled by Texas A&M University media professor Heidi Campbell in her paper “How the iPhone became divine” posits:

• A creation myth highlighting the counter-cultural origin and emergence of the Mac as a transformative moment;
• A hero myth presenting the Mac and its founder Steve Jobs as saving users from the corporate domination of the PC world;
• A satanic myth presenting Bill Gates as the enemy of Mac loyalists;
• A resurrection myth of Jobs returning to save the failing company.

Madrigal observes that these narratives aren’t myths in the sense of being untrue, but are archetypal illustrations that help people make sense of their relationship with the world (or at least Apple). He suggests the only element of core Apple fans’ belief system compromised by “Antennagate” is the hero myth, since Jobs didn’t initially live up to his Teflon reputation. However, he thinks the Antennagate press conference followed by robust iPhone sales in Apple’s quarterly financial report not only restored Jobs’ hero status, but refreshed the resurrection myth, citing Campbell observing that “Apple weathered the storm because there is such brand loyalty through the religious narrative.”

“Implicit Religion”

Fox News’s John R. Quain weighs in on Apple as a “new religion,” likewise referencing Texas A&M’s Campbell, who told him “Implicit religion can happen when the use of, say, technology becomes a substitute for belief and behaviours once attached to religion and religious practice,….The religious-like behaviour and language surrounding Apple devotion/fandom is an example of ‘implicit religion’.”

Campbell has cut to the nub of the issue. As a Catholic traditionalist, I have clearly-defined concepts of what I think constitutes bona fide religion, and notwithstanding that I’m a consummate Mac fanboy, I find it impossible to take “Apple as religion” seriously, as more than parody or satire, or more darkly–cultishness.

Apple Products and Traditional Religion

Not that Apple products aren’t having peripheral impact on real, traditional religion. In June, Fr. Paolo Padrini, a consultant with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, launched a free expanded iPad version of his iBreviary app, a daily prayer book for iPhone. iBreviary’s iPad variant, iBreviaryPro, contains the complete Roman missal — all that is said and sung at Mass throughout the liturgical year, plus commentaries, suggestions for homilies, and musical accompaniment, allowing priests to celebrate mass without hard copy Bibles and liturgical missals.

What sets iBreviary apart from other religious apps in the App Store is that it’s the first app with approval of the Vatican. Fr. Padrini has reported some 200,000 downloads of the iPhone version, and expects priests who travel a lot to find the application most useful.

Cult of Mac’s Nicole Martinelli reports that at least one Catholic priest switched to an iPad for officiating at outdoor masses in place of heavy books, commenting to The Apple Lounge (in Italian) that device is really easy to use.

That’s the sort of technology complimenting religion that even religious traditionalists can get behind.

The product was a bluetooth Apple trackpad similar to what is built in to every Apple ntoebook, but would essentially replace the Magic Mouse that currently ships with the Mac mini, Mac Pro and iMac. Some people prefer a mouse but I prefer the trackpad and we all know that Apple makes the best trackpads in the world. If you don’t believe me, visit a Best Buy and try using similar trackpads on currently available PCs and you’ll be amazed at how bad they are.

A Bluetooth trackpad that I’ve eloquently dubbed “MagicPad” (Magic Mouse = Trackpad) would be Apple’s next step into a buttonless world that it so desperately is striving for. The Magic Mouse has fewer buttons than the Mighty Mouse and this would be one button as the entire trackpad is, exactly like we are used to on Apple’s notebooks. It’s a more portable form factor than a mouse and gestures would be standard to the ones that already exist for the today’s trackpad.

I hope this device is real and I hope it ships soon because I really would like a choice between mouse and trackpad and think this small peripheral would be a huge hit. Maybe I’m just dreaming and we’ll never see it because it was a two hour Photoshop job submitted to Engadget the evening before the keynote.

Would you buy a MagicPad? Would it replace your Magic Mouse?

True, I’ve written before about some of the missteps that Apple has taken, but even with its faults, the company never stops and keeps striving to make a difference in the minds of its customers. So what makes an Apple Store so great? It’s all about the experience.

Certainly, one can argue that the reason why people will wait in lines that are hours long for a new telephone is because the telephone must be pretty frackin’ cool. Some of you may have done this before, waiting outside of a Best Buy or Walmart for a chance to get a Nintendo Wii or Playstation 3 when they first launched. But if you did, I bet your experience was nothing like it was at the Apple Store.

First, the stores have Wi-Fi. That one may seem a little cheesy, but when you’re camped outside at 3AM, it’s nice that a company that, despite all its talk of being energy-efficient and going green, still decided to leave its wireless routers active at night so you can watch Hulu while waiting in line.

Second, the stores take care of those who are waiting in line. During both the iPad and iPhone 4 launches, the two stores I visited had partnered with a local Starbucks and California Pizza Kitchen to provide food and drinks to those who had been waiting — at no expense to customers. How many places do you know of that do that?

Third, the experience with the employees is, despite the occasional misstep, phenomenal. Employees are not on commission so there’s no pressure for them to sell you everything and the kitchen sink. They’re in the business of building a relationship. They’ll shake your hand, call you by your name and really take personal pride in being able to help you with the right solution every time. Not only that, but it’s not just about selling you on the products. Apple is one of few companies who really wants you to return to the store and learn more about how to use their products, even if you’re not buying anything else. It’s all about the experience -– with the products, with the people and with the stores.

If you’ve ever had a chance to visit the Ritz Carlton, this type of service will be familiar to you as it originally started with its gold standards. The Ritz Carlton credo is the guiding philosophy of Apple’s own credo.

“The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission. We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience. The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.”

Even its motto, “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen” speaks volumes to how Apple treats its own customers. Have you ever walked into an Apple Store and not been treated like royalty? (As an aside, I strongly suggest you do not walk into a store and demand to be treated like royalty.)

Apple calls its service “surprise and delight.” It aims to surprise its customers by seeking opportunities to deliver on its customers wishes and needs and then delight them by going above and beyond, if you give them the opportunity.

Again, look at the recent iPhone 4 launch. After waiting in line, I was then taken into the store where I had a chance to play with the iPhone while I waited for the next Specialist who could help me with my purchase. When I’d finished purchasing my phone, it was switched over on AT&T’s network (rendering my old phone inoperable) and another Mac Specialist was there ready to help me plug it into a Mac and finish the activation process.

If you give them a chance, and don’t exploit it, every team member at Apple will not stop until they’ve given you the best experience they can. Unfortunately, however, as the busy consumers we are, we like this attention and tend to expect or even demand it sometimes. There are times when a Genius Bar appointment may not be available until the next day or that hot new iPhone just isn’t in stock. Getting frustrated at this point is understandable, but take a few moments to understand how the team at Apple really wants to help you and be sure to treat them with that same level of respect. Even though the stores are busy, politely asking, “How can we find a way to help me get my Mac working as soon as possible?” is just enough to, if they haven’t offered already, allow them to look at Genius Bar appointments at neighboring stores and go ahead and schedule the appointment for you. Or, if the store traffic permits, check in your Mac for repair and diagnosis at a later time so you don’t have to wait for the appointment.

The moral of my story is this. The Apple Store is a great experience and that’s a big reason why people love to buy Apple products. For many, it does start with their first iPod or iPhone and later they return for their first Mac. So don’t forget the little things that make the experience so great (the attention, the people) and appreciate them because Apple’s formula for success is something you just won’t find at Best Buy or AT&T or really any other retail store for that matter.

There you have it. Yet another reason why many of us Apple users are called “fan boys.” Have you had your own surprise and delight experience at Apple? Tell us about it in the comments.

That decision actually inspired Ars.Technica to hold its own ADAs (Ars Design Awards) celebrating Mac OS developers and their work in the past 12 months. Developers gave their opinions on TUAW.com and this quote from Justin Williams of Second Gear Software gave his opinion:

“Whether it’s intentional or not, Apple is saying that the Mac is not an important platform compared to the iPhone and iPad. With great Mac-only software still being released by many top notch companies, I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t find it in the budget to generate a few more of those glowing ADA awards.”

Of course, this is all old news. iPhone 4 is out, iPad is still getting great new apps and Snow Leopard will only be a year old this August. Most of the developers who gave their thoughts on WWDC’s lack of Mac specific tracks stated that Leopard shipped in 2007, Snow Leopard shipped in 2009 and that’s three years of tracks dedicated to a largely unchanged operating system and it’ll just be more of the same from Apple if you do attend those sessions. Besides, iPad is new, iOS 4 is hot and Apple should do everyone a favor by devoting more resources to it. I agree.

But, there’s the argument that I still want to make. The iPhone was released in 2007 running iOS 1.0 and now, in 2010 we receive our fourth huge update to iOS where Apple’s Leopard and Snow Leopard are largely unchanged from a feature perspective and only maintain system improvements, speed enhancements and other changes. Snow Leopard was a welcome update and priced appropriately at $29 but I’m still using the same features in Dashboard, Spaces and Finder that I was in 2007, and that irks me a bit.

[inline-ad]When I sounded off on Twitter about this, the replies were all over the place. Most notably, people were saying that Apple has to compete in mobile and the competition (Google, Nokia, Palm) hasn’t stopped innovating just so Apple can update its Mac OS with new features. Apple had to be happy with its desktop OS as is, maintain it and focus on mobile in order to maintain its competitive advantage and continue innovating beyond competition and it shows. Apple is the most profitable mobile company in the world, but why did it have to do one or the other?

Steve said at the D8 conference a few weeks ago that Apple is the largest startup in the world, and we all know that Apple keeps teams small so innovation moves quickly and Apple maintains huge profitability with very low R&D costs compared to competitors. For that, shareholders must be proud and the big picture shows that Apple is doing a great job. Mac sales are still booming and Mac OS is still ahead of the competition, but that doesn’t mean Mac users don’t feel a little left out by Apple’s choice to dedicate more resources to mobile.

My second point is Apple doesn’t have to act like a startup. Keeping teams small and focusing all of the best talent (which, according to Jobs is everyone at Apple) on a single product at a time is working for them but there are thousands of qualified people in the world who could do great things for Apple and help them simultaneously change the world both in desktop and in mobile without either product suffering. Even in 2007, Apple delayed Leopard’s release because it was busy getting iPhone out the door.

My fear is that Apple will continue to spend all of its time and money on what’s hot right now. Those of us who were Mac users before the Intel switch and before the iPod know that Apple runs like a startup and thus what’s not hot will suffer while it promotes and innovates in one area. iPod was the highlight of the majority of Apple events starting in 2004 and now the iPhone and other iOS devices get Apple’s love but we have to ask, “where would Mac OS be if the iPod and iOS were never made?” Well, part of us knows that Apple wouldn’t be at the size it is today without those products but we also know that the Mac OS could be light years ahead of where it is now if Apple only focused its resources on it.

All we can do as the Mac faithful is trust that Apple will make the right choices and not let us down. We might be the most vocal bunch of Apple customers but we’re also the most loyal. We stuck with Apple through the dark years, through the OS X switch and the Intel switch and we’ll stick with Apple while it spends 90 percent of its time head first on the iPhone. I just hope this “phase” doesn’t last forever. I want a new Mac OS and more breathtaking Mac OS computers.

When Steve Jobs announced that the new iPhone 4 would have HD video capabilities, and that Apple would be releasing iMovie on in the App Store, everyone’s first impression was that the Flip was dead. What was not expected was that within the first few days of the product being available to the public, such a well put together movie short would be comprised entirely on the iPhone using the new iMovie App.

If you have not already seen this, you have to check it out for yourself. “Apple of My Eye” is a movie short shot and edited entirely on an iPhone 4. That’s right, full production on the iPhone. Watching the behind the scenes clips that follow the short, you will see that the folks over at Majek Pictures do have skills. They did have some sophisticated rigging that was used to maneuver and hold the iPhone steady, but still. In an exhausted testimonial, the editor Anna Elizabeth James admitted that it only took her fourteen hours of tedious pinching and tapping to get the whole thing done. Perhaps she should have checked out TheAppleBlog first to understand what the potential health risks were before she started. All the same, I am glad she didn’t.

On Tuesday, June 15, Apple will begin taking pre-orders for iPhone 4. The new device will begin shipping on June 24 to the U.S., France, Germany, UK and Japan. By sometime in September, Apple plans to be shipping iPhone 4 to 88 countries around the world.

Not just mimicking the current 3GS storage sizes of 16 and 32 gigabytes, the (subsidized) pricing scheme will be the same too, at $199 and $299 respectively. It appears that both models will come in either black or white colors, which incidentally, is visible on the front as well as the back of the new iPhone.

While iPhone OS 4, now dubbed iOS 4, is being released to developers today in Gold Master form, there was no official mention of the ship date for current iPhone users. However, it seems likely that the update would be available along with iPhone 4 come June 24.

In the meantime, check out the iPhone 4 design video. Seeing it in such detail, and all the behind the scenes technology is really breathtaking!

Here in San Francisco, the WWDC line started no earlier than 6:30PM last night…over 15 hours before the event starts. By 10PM last night there were over 20 people in line, and by 4AM this morning, the line started wrapping around the building.

Below are some photos from the action, and by “action” we mean “people standing around.” Enjoy.

Be sure to follow our live keynote coverage at live.theappleblog.com and @theappleblog!

But Jobs has an opportunity to open his keynote, or at least the segment where he rolls out the new iPhone hardware, with one of the best lines he could deliver.

“So, this developer walks into a bar…”

Of course, the line refers to the Apple engineer who was testing a prototype of the next-generation iPhone when he lost it or it was stolen, only to land in the hands of Brian Lam and Gizmodo. But it’s so much more than that. The line is a variant of one of the most-used first lines of a joke ever. It is instantly recognizable as such. Humor should only be used in presentations when you know you’re going to get a laugh, or when your expectations for a laugh are infinitesimally low. This line is certain to draw a good laugh.

The line is also an opportunity to be self-deprecating. Jobs was asked about the incident at the D8 conference last week, and while conversational, he took a pretty hard line, referring to Gizmodo as guilty of extortion. That’s a big, bad word, and it may or may not be true. Jobs should let his legal team handle the heavy lifting on this one, and delivering this line is an easy way to hand it off.

Delivered correctly, it could also actually help to take some heat off of the engineer in question. See, that guy is just like the thousands attending WWDC. He’s one of them. And nothing could make a stronger statement to developers than to give this guy a break in such a public way.

Lastly, this is a tech conference. Developers will be walking into bars in droves over the next few evenings. So Jobs would be speaking directly to his audience in a very personal, timely way. Oh, and I don’t think I’d follow it with anything. Deliver the line, offer up a pregnant pause, then move on to topic du jour. It is so obvious and works on so many levels that it doesn’t need to be propped up with any further comment.

Come on, Steve. Let us have it.

Follow our live coverage of the WWDC 2010 keynote, photos and all!

I stopped by after work on Friday to snap a few photos of Moscone West receiving the finishing touches of the giant three-story tall Apple logo and snap photos of banners hanging inside the conference center. Unfortunately, there were no exposed banners of any unannounced products and instead I could see promos for iAds, folders and mult-tasking which are all features Apple has announced will be a part of iPhone OS 4 that is rumored to ship at WWDC or shortly after with the new iPhone. The two banners on Moscone’s 1st level did contain previously unannounced news that Apple has sold its four billionth app on the app store and they now have over 200,000 apps available for the popular iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Check out the full set on Flickr.