Just a quickie, here, folks; you know how Uncle Steve is always so fond of comparing Apple's under-5% market share to BMW's slice of the automobile pie? (Mmmmmm... automobile pie...) Basically, his argument is that BMW only makes one out of every twenty cars sold, but the company serves a respectable niche market, cranks out some great products, and makes a healthy profit-- which is why people should stop obsessing about Apple's single-digit market share and just feel good about the company's continuing profitability and growing cash stockpile. (He's got a point, but we'd feel a lot better about the analogy if BMWs used different fuel than every other car on the road, and if that fuel were still available at every gas station. Software, anyone?)

Anyway, if you always thought it was just a handy analogy that Steve keeps on hand for use during CNBC interviews, faithful viewer Rune is here to set you straight. As it turns out, there's a deep and fundamental connection between Apple and BMW-- a connection whose threads are only now starting to reveal themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to introduce what is evidently the first fruit of a top secret Apple-BMW collaboration: the iDrive Controller.

The iDrive appears in BMW's 7 Series vehicles and appears to be a Jonathan Ive-esque metal dial in the center console that serves as the input device for controlling the car's "comfort features." Interestingly enough, it sounds a bit like an iPod's scroll wheel on steroids; instead of just audibly "clicking" as menu items are scrolled on the in-dash screen, the iDrive actually has a tactile feedback system so that you feel the clicks as you advance through the menus. To choose the selected item, you push the iDrive down after twisting it to scroll. It sounds elegant. Simple. Apple.

Now, we're sure that, if asked, both BMW and Apple would deny any sort of cooperative effort on the iDrive. But honestly, doesn't the name itself give the game away? Subtle it ain't, folks. Which means that, before long, we wouldn't be at all surprised if the Series 8 turns out to be a Series VIII, and that it'll feature a full Mac OS X desktop splayed across the widescreen windshield in heads-up display mode. The only tricky bit is, where do you stick the mouse pad?