Hey all,

I'm speccing a new mini cooper s, and one of the options is "media connect" (part of the convenience package), which i gather includes bluetooth and usb. I've looked through the forums a bit but the info on the USB part of it isn't altogether clear to me, sorry if this has all been covered

What i have at the moment in my current 2002 mini is the Dension Ice-link, which works with both my ipod 60 gig and my iphone. I love the way it works, basically i navigate to an album/playlist without it connected (the ipod/iphone in my hand), press play, then slide it into the cradle and presto, it starts playing on the stereo and i have forward/back control right from my steering wheel!

Does the USB option in media connect also give me this ability?

Also, where exactly does this USB connector reside, in the dash somewhere?

I'm assuming it doesn't come with an iPod cradle, can i buy a cradle separately and have it mounted so i get basically have the same behavior i currently have?

Any info is much appreciated, and again, sorry if this has been beaten to death, i've read through some related threads but it seems everyone already knows some details i'm not privvy to!

Thanks!

 

Well, I'm not sure if I have "media link", but, in my Clubman I have a USB and an AUX port. The MINI came with a Y-cable for the Ipod (the single end to the Ipod, the double end to USB and AUX) which allows complete functionality through the steering wheel (if you have MFSW). The Ipod info is displayed on your radio and you can scroll through your music or playlists that way without having to physically touch the Ipod. You can buy a cradle, but with the Y-cable/integration with the radio, you really won't need it- unless you just like to look at your Ipod, lol.
The Y-cable also works with the iPhone- access music with the cable and phone with bluetooth.
The USB and AUX ports are in a small "cubby" at the botom of the center stack.

 

Thanks for the info! One thing i'm worried about, scrolling through a rather large music library on a car stereo is probably not going to be as seamless as doing it on an iPod or iPhone, both of which have a very well thought out UI interaction, which is why i prefer to choose my music on the ipod, press play, then plug it in. Does this work with your system or will it only play if you find the music through the stereo itself?

 

If i recall right, the issue of scrolling through large playslists has been resolved.

I for one use a 8GB SD card in my Garmin Nuvi and don;t mess about with an ipod. With out Nav, the radio display is somewhat too small for my tastes.

 

If solved means that it works, yes. If solved means that it isn't a pain, no. Using the iPod as a baseline, as you start to scroll, you have the individual entry's and eventually it will kick over to just the first letter. Nice.

With the MINI implementation, you remain in the individual entry, with a pause now and again to buffer up the next tranche. Painful if you are looking for the Zombies.

 

with this set up will the iphone accept an incomming call while your listining to music or will it force the iphone into airplane mode

 

physonect - you can do the same thing as with your Denison system now. That is, perform the initial navigation with the iPod unit itself, then plug into the "Y" cable.

The headunit and/or MFSW controls can handle the "micro" controls from there.

As mentioned the navigation/scrolling "works", but could be improved! I think I mentioned in another thread that I would really like to see an intermediary control when searching by Artist or Album that would "scroll-by-letter" first - much like how the Bluetooth phone book works. So if I wanted to listen to "The Ting Tings", I could scroll to the letter "T" first; thus shortening the current method.

 

If you don't like controlling the iPod with the radio screen (many don't, I don't like it on headunits that "take over" the player either because they're slow and harder for me to read) you just use a simple iPod dock to Aux port connector and bypass the usb part. sounds the same, but you use the iPod controls. You can't skip to next song with the MFSW I just touch the clickwheel without looking.

 

Thanks benty and newt, actually the situation benty describes is exactly what i'd like, and i'm glad it works with it. I'd like to start playing the playlist/album from the ipod/iphone itself and then use the steering wheel to go back/forward through tracks, so it sounds like it's all good with that Y-cable that comes with it.

The thing with using just the aux port is that maybe with an ipod it's easy to skip tracks because of the click-wheel but with an iphone you have to slide it out of lock mode (or i think you can double-click the home button to bring up the track navigation controls), then there's no texture to feel your way to the right button since it's a touch interface so it requires a bit more attention than is probably safe