Has anyone evaluated using the USB/iPod Adapter with an iPhone (smartphone) and an iPhone Navigation App - such as one from TomTom or the recently available free Nav App from Mapquest?

Given the ready availability of Navigation Apps with voice-guided, turn-by-turn, GPS-style directions on an iPhone/smartpone - I was wondering that if you purchase the $500 USB/iPod adapter option - do you really need a separate navigation unit (such as a Garmin or TomTom)? Or better yet - do you even need to spend the extra $$$ for the factory Nav?

I suspect what we would want to know is if the voice directions from a connected iPhone will temporarily mute the audio from a radio station and then play the audio from the navigation voice instruction through the cars speakers. I'm assuming that if you connect an iPhone and run the Navigation App and iTunes simultaneously, the Navigation voice over will "cut into" the iTunes audio correctly since they are from the same source (i.e., an iPhone). But I'm guessing that unlike the factory Nav, the MINI iPod interface isn't 'smart' enough to mute the radio when receiving audio from the iPhone nav app since you are likely using a different input channel (Aux?) for the iPhone that's unrelated to the radio. So, you may not be able to hear the Nav voice commands if you want to listen to the radio while running a Nav App on an IPhone. But maybe I'm mistaken.

 

Yes, this works as you mentioned except for the fact that the nav voice actually plays at the same time as the iPod music (it does not pause the iPod music). And of course you can't listen to FM/AM/Sat audio sources while expecting to hear the nav voice through the car speakers.

I actually have this setup in my 2012 Cooper S complete with a ProClip mount. Only complaint is that sometimes the volume nav voice is too low in comparison with the iPod music. I used MotionX Drive.

 

I have my iPhone with the Tom Tom app, and the Mini/BMW iPhone cord. While playing music from the iPhone through the stereo, the Tom Tom app lowers the volume of the music and the speech comes through the car stereo speakers, and then the music returns to normal until the next direction.

 

+1. It does lower the volume when its giving instructions/direction. It even has a setting where it lets you set the volume of the voice. Homer Simpson is funny. Hopefully they add more voices!

 

I assume that the iPhone app and interface is only able to lower the volume of music coming from the iPhone - not the MINI's radio?

 

Correct, it will not lower radio or cd volume.

 

And if Radio or CD are playing it will "NOT" play the Nav Directions thru the speakers in the car

 

And you don't need the MiniConnected option to do this? Just the iPod adapter/iPhone adapter option? I assume there's no native iPhone/Apple app that will do this, you have to get a 3rd party app like TomTom.