I am very uneducated about all this. I have a Motorola phone with US cellular service. What does bluetooth do for using the phone? I plan on getting the steering wheel with cruise control and phone function buttons. Do I need to get something to connect the phone to those buttons or is that what bluetooth does automatically?

 

Bluetooth will automatically "recognize" your phone every time you enter the car (the phone must be turned on, of course). The car then "takes over" your phone, and you can then drive hands-free.

Before using Bluetooth, though, you have to synch the phone to the car's Bluetooth system first. The dealer will be able to help you with that, and it only has to be done once.

Good luck!

 

I have a motorola phone and I am having a tremendous amount of problems with maintaining the bluetooth connection in my new Mini. It has been suggested that the problem is my service provider or my phone uses one of the non-Mini bluetooth forms (apparently there is eleven different forms of bluetooth). I have an appointment on Tuesday to take my Mini in and let the audio/phone guy for BMW look at it, because I am also having issues with the iPod connection.

 

Why would it be the service provider? Bluetooth is a short-range wireless connection between the phone and the device (in this case, the Mini). The model of phone and specific Bluetooth specification could have something to do with it, but whether it's running AT&T or Verizon or whoever shouldn't matter a lick.

If you're having problems with the iPod adapter, too, I'd guess the fault's with the car.

 

I'm just repeating what the first service guy at my Mini dealership (Mini of San Antonio) told me. And I am the first to admit that when it comes to technology, I'm way behind the power curve--Give me a dead body and I can tell you age, sex, probably ethnic affiliation, life history basics and a fairly educated guess into cause of death...

When I looked at Mini's suggested/supported phone list, my provider isn't even listed (Nextel, part of the Sprint family) and lists only two phones for Sprint. And I am guessing this is why I was told that it was my provider (the guy who told me this was another salesguy). Like I said, I have an appointment with their guru (since I just got my baby on Thursday) to see what we can do

http://www.wireless4mini.com/phones.html

(I understand that this list isn't from Mini proper, but it is where I was sent).

 

I followed the instructions and was still a bit confused. Eventually, I did figure it out [I didn't realize that it was asking for a code number to put into the phone and match up with the car]. I have to say, it is awesome and easy to use once it was matched up!

 

If your phone works completely with the MINIs bluetooth connection, it would allow you to control calls with the steering wheel and voice control (answer, hang-up, and dial), display your phone's contact list when it's connected to the car, plus there's a few other minor features like displaying your missed calles, muting the radio when a call comes in- things like that.

Mini USA's phone compatibility list is dismally out-of-date. The phone compatibily varies based on the model of phone, and in some cases the firmware/software versions on it. I suppose it's technically possible that one provider's firmware (eg: Verizon) wouldn't work where another's would, but so far there hasn't been any reports of that being the case.

Not all phones work or support all of the functions- if you know your phone's model you can check the Mini Bluetooth Compatibilty thread, or post here to ask if you like. Some phones don't work with the voice dialing, but let you dial and answer calls, others need OS updates or software to work completely.

The pairing process is the same as with other Bluetooth pieces like headsets or computers. You put the phone and car in discovery mode and type the same PIN in to both for them to connect.

 

Yeah- some things have a pre-set PIN for pairing (like "0000" in the case of my Sony earpiece), but the Mini will let you choose whatever PIN you want... then you just use the same PIN on your phone. It can be confusing if you've only ever done it the other way, since the car's manual is a bit ambiguous.

 

I have an Motorola T731c which is several years old. Will it work?

 

I haven't seen anything either way, the only other posts I can find on it is for a version without Bluetooth. The only way to know for sure at this point is to try it out