I am very intimate with Dinan and several of their engineers. Yes, this IS a FLASH and furthermore, it is tied to the VIN number of the car so it is NOT transferable to another car. You could, In theory, have a person who codes cars, Copy your existing ECU config, flash it to BMW stock settings, get your warranty, then flash back to Dinan. But it isn't necessary as very few people will even know what a Dinan tune is on a car. The dinan Intake might be of concern to someone looking at the car, but again, 99 percent of the time, no one will ever know.
Besides, Dinan does EXTENSIVE EXTENSIVE testing on these cars with their mods, and they do it to CALIFORNIA standards, which are the strictest in the nation. So the odds of the Dinan items causing a catastrophic failure are minimal. Further more than that, if someone was to deny a warranty claim, they would have to PROVE it relates back to any mod on the car, and THAT is very difficult to prove. Another words, if one of your turbos fails, they would have to prove that slightly higher boost from an Authorized BMW mod company caused the problem over just a OEM seal going bad for example.
I would not worry about it. Play dumb to the warranty company and don't suggest any information to them. I doubt they will even visually inspect the car since it is under warranty currently.
Then, BECOME FRIENDS with your local BMW dealer or independent mechanic. Bring donuts, bring coffee. Chat with them. It goes a long way for repairs that are questionable.
Finally, CHECK the fine print of your extended warranty. Many warranties will only include repairs that TOTAL the CURRENT value of the car, and as that gets older, it becomes worth less money.
So, If you have a 2011 BMW F10 and Kelly Blue Book says it is worth 20 grand, then you have a turbo, need engine seals, new transmission and some suspension parts at different times over the warranty period, the second you get a total that exceeds the Kelly Blue Book value, YOUR WARRANTY IS OVER! I found this out the hard way with my old Cadillac STS. Pretty standard on a lot of warranty companies.
But look, these motors are built rock solid. Change the oil every 5k miles. The dealer does it at 10k miles under their maintenance program, but if you constantly shop for synthetic oil at Advance Auto, auto zone, etc, you can get the oil with rebate for 2-4 dollars a quart, and these babies take 8 quarts if I remember at this late hour. Also, change your plugs every 30-40 thousand miles, They are quite easy on the 550 and even easier on the 6 cylinder, at at 10 dollars pop from
www.rockauto.com, not too expensive. The Bosch plugs ARE IDENTICAL to BMW plugs, trust me, I bought a set of both to dismiss this myth.
Other than that, make sure you run premium only, run some ChevronTechron fuel injector cleaner once in a while, and I doubt you will every have any mechanical failure on the car.
Also keep in mind, many after market warranties will cover an engine replacement for example, but not a door unlock servo. Just something to keep in mind.
Again, I would not worry about the Dinan software, very few people even have a clue what it is or how to detect it.