Mini Connected worth getting if I'm Android?
 

I'm currently nearing a decision on purchasing a Mini S (it's competing with a VW Golf TDI Diesel). Among the many options I am considering is the Mini Connected thingy. I like the idea of using the vast real estate in the middle of the speedometer for digital information such as navigation, but I just committed myself to a new Android device (yes - the Galaxy S3) and don't see myself moving into the iFold anytime soon. Being a committed Android user, am I just wasting my money on Mini Connected?

Until there's an Android "MINI Connected" app, yes it's a waste of money. But if you're going to keep your MINI around for a good few years, want to think positive and plan for the future, go right ahead.

By the by -- the My BMW Remote app was just released on Android last month.

From what I've read online and what I've been told by my MA; there is and will be no way to patch MINI Connected as it stands to work for Android. There was a good article I read online about it too. The guy who is in charge of the project at BMW even has an Android phone as his personal phone.

I absolutely refuse to buy an iPhone so I held off on MINI Connected even though it looks really sweet.

Didn't they say somewhere that Android support would probably show up in the next gen MINIs? I'm just hoping that in a few years I can somehow retrofit it into my R56 even if it costs a couple grand.

The thing looks amazing. Just get it so you get the awesome speedometer that is on the outside of it. Plus isn't the radio features on the screen rather than that chunk of plastic on the other speedo? I think the speedo alone makes it a must have. just me but hey

There's value in having the display screen, which provides a better interface for the stereo and other car functions. Outside the U.S., a "Visual Boost" option is available which is the screen interface by itself without including MINI Connected. In the U.S., unfortunately you must pay the MINI Connected premium just to get the display screen.

Love mine! I think you are looking at it wrong. Do you want a built in Nav?

If yes, the connect is like 1/4 of the total package. I find the only think I really use it for is Google sent to car. I have an iphone so it all works.

The deal is, you can have connect without nav, but not nav without connect.

It doesn't seem like there's a plan to ever have an android app (there's an android app coming for BMW cars, but there's some pretty authoritative "Not for MINI" statements you can find via google).

You can apparently "trick" the car using an Ipod touch connected to a 4g android wireless hotspot, if you want to make use of the features without switching to an Iphone.

MINI Connected has many features independent of the iPhone app. (I personally find that the iPhone app as rather toy-ish and more for entertainment than utility. Its novelty wore off quickly, but that's probably a good thing, because it can be dangerously distracting.)

But the big Connected screen for controlling the OBC (vehicle status, radio, phone, comfort access settings, etc.) is heads and shoulders above the archaic little digital text displays above the radio. I use it all the time.

Thanks for the replies - so it seems there is still limited functionality even without an iPhone. I guess that begs the question - what? Can I still get navigation? Also, if I get an iPad, could that work in place of an iPhone?

Again. "Connect" is really just one icon of like 6 icons that the screen had. Radio, car stats, nav, phone, office (shockingly iPhone NOT supported much here).

So the iPhone thing is really a small part. Mainly I only use the new gadge they added (mainly for fun) and "google send to car" under he "connect" icon.

Nav is an optional $$$ add-on to MINI Connected, not vice-versa.

Yes, and iPad would work, but that would be cumbersome.

Yes, it all got very confusing when MINI dropped "Visual Boost" as an option and replaced it with "MINI Connected" in the configurator, when the latter is only one of several functions of the visual display. (Even my MA was confused, not realizing that the new option included Bluetooth.)

Yeah - I must seem a bit dense about this - sorry. It is pretty confusing. So Connect is an icon in Connected? I wonder if the Mini Connected app in iPhone can be loaded onto an iPad with similar results - despite how physically clumsy it might be.

No worries mate. The WHOLE system with the screen is called MINI CONNECT. But only ONE of the icons is "Connect"

On the screen is...

Setting - Changing Setting of the car
Status - What's going on on the car
Connect
Office - (Non iphones) email / text / contants . Iphone contacts only
Nav
Radio
Media - CD player, things connected to the audio port and so on.

Those are the icons in the "circle". The iphone "mini connect app" is only useful for the CONNECT icon. There is also some functionality that you can get on the iphone under media for Pandora and MOG and alike...

The rest of the "Mini Connect" is all the other icons.

About the ipad. I do not see why you could not... but it would be a bit of a mess. I would do what someone else says and get a ipod touch and use your Android phone as a hot spot... then you have all the connect features and a great MP3 Player

yes but you cannot have nav without connect... cannot get nav alone.

Most of the articles saying MINI wouldn't support Android are all half a year or more old from what I had researched when I was deciding whether to get Connected or not on my new car.

Even still, the quote from the article below put one of the nails in the coffin for me:

http://www.motoringfile.com/2011/12/...soon-to-minis/

Here's the most recent one from MF about Android support in BMW:

http://www.motoringfile.com/2012/07/...ini-to-follow/

Ultimately the price tag was a deal breaker for me since I couldn't fully utilize the features without an iPhone(even my MA reassured me it would be a waste when I was putting together my specs at the dealership!) even though the pretty screen and the other bells and whistles seemed pretty cool. I absolutely wasn't willing to wait another year or two to get a MINI in the hopes that Android support would be coming.

I'll just have to deal with the plain Jane center console until Android support comes out with the next generation and see if it's possible or worth doing a retrofit with Connected 2.0 or whatever they call it.

The irony is that Mini Connected boasts that it features "Google Local Search" and "Google Send" yet stops short supporting Google's own Android system. And I suppose these Google services are only accessible via the iPhone app. Yet the paper blurb I have says:

Yet it seems to indicate that Google Search and Google Send are accessed via the iPhone MINI Connected app.

I've heard the built in Nav is terribly underwhelming; I'll stick with the built in from my phone, ha!

I too love the Android platform. ( I think Apple is way over-priced for the same guts, software is the only real difference ..plus Steve Job's was an AHole that I don't want to support ..but I digress) :)

I can barely get my Android to pare w/ my MINI, ...yet it works perfectly in all our other cars!! I wouldn't hold your breath for Android-MINI support.

It's all just software/firmware updates isn't it? Not sure why Connected in current vehicles wouldn't be able to be made compatible at a later date. Can someone help me understand this?

I connect to my MINI CONNECTED via Blue tooth and I mainly use it for streaming music from my HTC Incredible (which I need to upgrade, but that's a different issue entirely). This also allows my phones contacts to populate in the CONTACTS of the MINI CONNECTED. Thus voice commands are available for phone calls! There are more options for voice commands but, I have only had my car for several weeks.

I agree with everyone here.. the interface is spectacular looking albeit has a little learning curve. But once you get the hang of things.. its quite useful!

How did you do that?

I'll weigh in...I had an android for the first ten months I had my car, and felt the mini connected to be comparable to other built in nav systems. The switch to iPhone gave me some new goodies but mostly they are of the "gee whiz" variety. Tethering an iPod touch, if you can bring yourself to buy even an old used one (mine is second gen.), will give you most everything.