You mean to tell me they're trying to charge you $140 for what amounts to a charger in the armrest? (I know, they say you'll get better reception. Yeah right lol). I guess if they can charge $700 for an iPod wire/hookup (that doesn't work) they can up the price for a Razr charger from $8 to $140. Let's hope it works. I think I'll just leave mine in my pocket thank you. I get 3-4 days with one charge, BT or not.

The bluetooth connection will drain your battery so you need to have it charging one way or another if you are driving a long way. My battery didn't last 8 hours on my last trip from Phoenix to Vegas. I, however, went the 29.95 route and got the regular phone charger. Works great too!

You can get a new charger for just about any phone for about $8 shipping included on Ebay. I've bought them at the stores too for $20-30 but never again. iPods too.

iPhone with 1.1.1 firmware, unlocked on T-mobile.

Armrest connection has a charger and the connection to the external antenna. I just got the cradle for the Razr. Haven't noticed it charging my phone when it was in it though. Didn't see any mention of it on the phone itself.

T- mobile MDA III compact aka HTC 3300 Pocket Pc Phone edition works like a charm. (it has GPS too)

For all of you that have not decided for the NAV option it is a a very clever solution.

You can run TOMTOM and Garmin (and probable many other GPS progs).


The OEM NAV does not offer maps for good part of Europe (where I am situated) so it is useless for me.

I have the BLUETOOTH/ Audio USB option and it works like a charm.
(If you want to integrate ipod you just need the Y-cable from BMW cca 50 Euros : Part. Nr 61 12 0 431 424 BMW Group // works with the new iPOD Classic 160GB and Ipod Nano 8 GB(3rd gen)

I just received my Mini Cooper S yesterday and tried the above - works better than expected !

For those who have paired a KRZR, did the address book transfer over? I'm due for a new phone next month and I want to make sure I get one that is fully compatible. At the moment, the only phone on Verizon's website that is listed as having full OPP (the Bluetooth feature that pushes the phone book) is the RAZR. I'd like to have a couple of options to choose from.

I really hate that the Verizon sales reps are ignorant as to the different aspects of Bluetooth. Just because a phone has some BT features does not mean it has all BT features. It would be nice to be able to go into a store to ask a question and receive an informed intelligent answer in return.

You're right, it would be nice, but let's face it: the people at the stores don't know much beyond how to get you into a contract. You should start a separate thread asking about the KRZR compatability after doing a search in this Nav/audio forum first. Somebody has tried to pair it.

LG EnV Orange VX9800 Works fine with Bluetooth. My address book took 2 days but finally it ported over. Seems to work fine.

Samsung A737 from AT&T
 

Here's another one that seems to work well with the Mini - Samsung A737 'slider' from AT&T. Nice full-featured phone, got it on sale for $25.

Nokia 6310i works flawless
 

I've got the cradle for Nokia 6310i and tried the phone today both ways

a/ in the cradle (the phone uses the car antena and being charged!)

b/ without the cradle

In both cases the phone-MINI works excellent.

In case a/ the signal is significantly stronger though...
(if the cradle is worthwhile ? It costs here cca 100 Euros !!!!. I think yes - although Nokia has very good battery life - the bluetooth sucks the juice quite quickly - so charging the phone is imperative !)

T-Mobile titanium Curve w/ no problems.

BlackBerry 8830 - Works like a Champ
 

BlackBerry 8830 - Works like a Champ

I am going to be switching from my Motorola Razr to another phone in a couple weeks. My Razr works great with the bluetooth. Has anybody else switched phones with their Mini? I'm curious what will happen to the stored information in my car. Will it be overwritten? Will it transfer information back to the new phone? Hmmmm....

Maybe there is a thread that addresses this question already and I missed it in my search, but the 2008 MINI comes with "bluetooth prep" when you get the convenience package. What does this actually mean? Is there something else that is required to actually be able to make calls? If so, where would I get it and how expensive is it? I haven't ordered my MINI yet, but I'm planning on getting nav and I have an iPhone if that makes a difference.

No, the Bluetooth prep package has everything you need. Confusing I know, but I guess they call it that because it doesn't come with a built-in phone. i.e. it "prepares" the car to make wireless Bluetooth calls, but you still need to provide a phone to make the actual phone calls.

Where did you get a cradle?? There are none listed, and if you call MINI USA and ask them, they never herd of a "cradle". ??? I'd pay BIG money for a cradle??

Mini USA gave me a list of cradles that are available about 1 month ago, which was only 5 or 6 six of them. They mentioned next year they'll have one for the iphone too. My dealer also had a list of them, with a few more than what Mini USA said.

What kind of phone are you looking to get a cradle for?

Hi

Herewith a list of phones/cradles (snap in adapters) . Attachment 27273.

I got mine in Europe . My mini dealer had no idea about the existence of cradles as well, so I turnd to the local BMW dealer and they gave me the above document.

First you check which phones are supported. Than you check a phone with the possibility of an external antena. Finally before buying the phone check again if BMW will ship such cradle (in my case BMW was able to ship just few cradles (snap-ins) from the list of phones as laid in their document (see attached)).

I happend to have Nokia 6310i . After digging it out from oblivion I upgraded the firmware version to the most recent one and voila it works like charm. So having two SIM cards, I leave the Nokia in the car at all times.
A retro phone in a retro car !

Should anybody need the cradle for Nokia 6310i the part nr. is :
84 21 0 304 651.

This is good news!

~Neal

The document lists my phone (Blackberry Pearl 8100). It already works. But how do I find out if there's a sleeve/adapter for it? Do I have to call BMW USA? Thanks for finding this stuff.

I believe that you can get most (if not all) of the cradles from Bimernav as well:

http://www.bimmernav.com/store/catal...products_id=96

You might want to check with them before you order, but I'm pretty sure that they are identical across the board (i.e. all the BMW cradles should work just fine in the MINI). Looks like they run anywhere from $75 to $130 depending on the phone model.

I just checked for you with our local BMW dealer. (I am in Europe)
As far as they can tell it is not planned cradle-ing blackberry's (also if you have a look at the document : several Blackberry Models work but there are no cradles available for them - page 10 and page 11 (your Perl model) under column "Verfugbarkeit Snap-in Adapter" it says "Nein" which means No (not available) - sorry the document is in German) .
But again the document might be old - best thing you check MINI-USA or BMW - USA.

Some Blackberry machines are too wide to fit in the armrest but Pearl should be no problem. I am not aware if Pearl has external antenna plug (if not I would not put it in the armrest). As far as I can see from the BMW paper looks like they are more inclined to make cradles for phones with external antenna plug. Also if I am not wrong your machine has GPS. So if you use GPS in the car you shoud position your machine under the windscreen.

I think you can find some not too obtrusive suction plug solution + charging the phone (you can have a look at this thread https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=121933
here the machine is powered via USB wire which pugs into the lighter (it is well hidden - you just need a small piece of velcro to fix the wire behind the rpm display.

Here in Europe you can also buy refurbished Nokia 6310i (probably other phones for which there is a cradle as well) quite cheep - cca 100 Euro. And if you can obtain two SIM cards - you can have such a phone always in the car and your Pearl when you are not in the car. I am using Nokia 6310i (always in the cradle - always charged in working through the car antenna - I can only recommend it!
Maybe this would be best solution. Knowing BMW they have excellent engines but are kind of slow addopters of up-todate communication technology ?!

Hope this was of some help !

Blackberry Pearl BMW Snap-I- Adapter
 

I googled some and look what I found :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6qG5...products_id=96

Have no idea if it will work in the MINI .

Cheers !

I'm trying to use the Samsung Blackjack (or Blackjack 2 which just came out). I doubt mini/bmw will make an adapter for it, the connector is on the side, not the bottom of the phone. BUT, I want to be able to utilize the cars external antenna and more importantly, the charging (+12v). I don't understand why they don't give us a normal universal plug for these instead of this "snap in adapter". We could then easily make our own "adapters" to plug into what we want (antenna, +12v...). The way it is now, we can't do anything with it.

And worse, I asked them for the info (pinouts, type of connector), and they would not give it to me. So I have to cut the wires in the armrest, and try and figure out on my own what wires are.