Tonight I went in to my local Mini dealer to do a second test drive of their Countryman ALL4. We are ordering one and I wanted another spin in it. When I pulled up I noticed there was a special Countryman they had in for a few days to take to the local NFL game to show off. It was brown like a football and had a "football laces" sticker applied to the top of the car. Pretty funny. I asked my Mini guy about it and he said he didn't think the Mini Connected/Navi worked as this was technically a prototype. Their techie guy came out and said it did so he proceeded to give me a demo of the whole thing!

It was pretty cool. The resolution on the screen was impressive. He ran through all the options but he couldn't show me everything since he didn't have an iphone with the app on it. I've got to say it really is swaying me to want to get this option. It just makes the car that much cooler even though I know the option is only a "nice to have" for us. I snapped a pic or two but they are too big to post.

 

What exactly does it do? I probably wouldn't get the nav option but the Mini Connected dealie sounds cool...if it stays current.

 

It will most like be upgradeable with new software. I would never by Nav for 1800 when I can get a better unit for $300 and move it car to car with traffic updates. But the cool screen and being able to see album art, pictures etc makes it very coool and modern vehicle. There will be lots of cool apps soon and the driod should not be to far behind.

 

It does pretty much the typical things an LCD audio system would do but more. You can see the typical radio station info, satellite radio info, CD info, etc. The cool stuff comes when you connect an Iphone and you can have it read your twitter or read news via RSS. It should be getting facebook integration soon so it would be able to read all the facebook posts, etc. There is also a car systems screen that shows a variety of car functions and the tire pressure screen shows a little picture of a mini with the tires highlighted. That was pretty cool. If your mini dealer has a "techie" person they can show you everything. The guy I had was very familiar with the system.

But the most intriguing part is what might come out in the future via software updates, etc. It's the stuff we don't know about yet or that hasn't been thought of that might make me kick myself later for not getting it.

 

I ordered just Visual Boost in my countryman.... When there will be some interesting upgrades in the Connected software i'll buy it (if u have the visual boost, you can install connected after...)

 

In the USA there is no Boost. Just Connected or Nav or the old set up.

 

Does it only work with the Apple iPhone? I have an Android phone and I won't be getting an iPhone until it comes to other carriers.

 

As of right now only the iphone.

 

Does anyone know if it also shows as a viewscreen for a camera when in reverse? Thanks.

 

It does not

 

That's exactly why we dot the backup assistance system. We are having twins and a few years down the road I don't want to backup over anyone!

 

Hi: Is the Mini Connect interface a touch screen? People keep touching my 2005 MCS nav screen thinking it's a touch screen.

 

No, it is not touchscreen