View Single Post
      09-15-2011, 08:37 AM   #1
Dominguezh
Registered
3
Rep
3
Posts

Drives: 2011 BMW 535i Sport
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Austin, TX

iTrader: (0)

Talking Full Office integration with HTC Surround running Mango

I took delivery of my 2011 F10 on Monday. I have spent most of the week trying to get my Motorola Atrix to connect to the car and use all of BMW's capabilities with it. I was only able to connect the phone via bluetooth to make phone calls and download the address book. I talked to BMW of America customer relations a few times as well at Motorola support and AT&T. Yesterday I got a call back from BMW saying that officially, the only phone supported 100% in the USA is the HTC Surround running Windows Mobile.

Now, let me put this out there ... I am a phone whore. I change phones very often. I have tried every flavor out there. I am also a huge Apple fan and only own Macs at home and work. I have tried Windows Mobile phones over the years including the new Windows Mobile 7 and I was not impressed. However, I was dead set in seeing the full capabilities of Mobile Office on the car. I browsed Craigslist yesterday and found a guy that was willing to trade his HTC Surround for my Atrix. Good trade for him, bad one for me. But I did it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the guy had already loaded the latest version of Windows Mobile nicknamed "Mango". The interface is much better with this version (7.5). Right away, I was very impressed. The phone paired right away without issues and EVERYTHING worked! Music streaming, text and emails were read out loud by the system, phone book downloaded. Beautiful integration.

However, I went to bed late because I was wondering if this phone was going to "cut it" for me. This morning, I found out that Microsoft actually has a free connector available on the Apple App Store. I was able to sync music from iTunes and even pictures from iPhoto. I am VERY happy with this phone. The more I play with it, the more I like it.

Considering that my car is over 60k, switching to another phone was no big deal. In fact, I highly recommend you switch. You will be a safer driver.

I know I have read a few posts of other phones working as well. As far as BMW says, this is the only phone that is 100% supported. I will continue to research on the reason why only this phone and not any other Windows Mobile 7 phone. It doesn't make sense to me but I am glad I am now setup.

The iPhone 5 better be an awesome phone for me to switch back. It is great that Apple has competition.


Hector
Appreciate 0