|
There are two problems for me with the iPhone and USB: first, I forget to plug it in; second, I forget to unplug it from the car.
So, I have bought a very small 32GB flash drive for use in the car. I can make a "car music" playlist in iTunes and copy that (after formatting the flash drive to FAT32) to the flash drive, where it does a fine job of displaying tags and album art, and allowing search by song, artist, album, etc. My only quibble is that sometimes it forgets where I left off with the music.
(I also bought a USB charger that fits in the 12V socket in the center armrest, so I can charge the phone if I need to.)
What you get if you plug your phone in, though, is access to BMW Apps. I have yet to find a use for them. There are some car monitoring functions, and ways to chew through your monthly data allotment from your iPhone service provider.
Another music solution would be to stream from the phone, using bluetooth. I have yet to try this so I don't know exactly how user-friendly the iDrive interface is in that case. I assume it is very much the same as for the USB connection.
And I agree that the short-cut buttons on the dash can be very useful for iDrive functions of all kinds. So far, I've found uses for only three -- a couple of FM stations and my "Car Music" flash drive. For the rest I'm still learning, after two months.
The best iPhone thing I've found so far: the BMW remote app, which allows you to do a google map search and send the resulting address to the car for navigation. (You can also send to the car from the Google maps web page from a computer or other browsing source.)
|