Has anyone figured out how this actually works? After playing around with it for an hour or so tonight, the only thing I see that's new is if you click the joystick to the right while in MINI Connected, there's a new menu called 'Available Services'. There's nothing listed there, and if you click the joystick on Available Services, it says that there's nothing available.

I'm thinking one of three things is happening:

1. The app is half-baked. The app-switching simply wasn't enabled properly when the app was put together.
2. The individual apps themselves need to be updated to work with switching. (MOG, Pandora, Stitcher, etc.)
3. I'm missing something blatantly obvious!

I'm leaning with a combination of the first two. As per the update info:
"Important for AppSwitcher-capable MINI Connected-ready apps: Before they appear in the menu under ‘More Apps’ and are ready for ‘switching’, you must start them once manually in connected status.
Please note: The tab ‘Info’ ‘MINI Connected-ready’ shows you all the MINI Connected-ready apps, including those that are not yet ready for use with the AppSwitcher."

The Info tab in the MINI Connected app doesn't mention anything about app switching, and there's no menu option anywhere for 'More Apps'. I tried starting the apps directly from the MINI Connected iPhone app (before plugging in the phone into the MINI), but that didn't make any difference.

Anyone have any luck?


-Paul

 

I updated and tried to get this working as well. I couldn't even find the Available Services menu you're talking about. I tried looking online as well but nobody had posted anything about it yet.

Does anyone know if it's just for switching between MINI Connected Apps or is it for iPhone Apps?

 

Good question. I *think* it's for iPhone apps compatible with MINI Connected, and not just switching quickly between the apps within MINI Connected, but who knows?

-Paul

 

So what other apps are there?

 

Yea I'm lost with the app switching as well.

I'd love to be able to play pandora while using the driving excitement app at the same time.
Hopefully someone knows how this works.....or maybe it doesn't.

 

Seems to require the individual apps to be updated to support it. It works with TuneIn.

Napster and Deezer are marked as AppSwitcher ready too.

 

Huh, weird.

So taking into account what Primus84 posted (thanks! ), I went back to the Info tab on MINI Connected, and I don't have Napster or Deezer listed. So switched the store to Canada, and they showed up, and sure enough, they say 'AppSwitcher ready'. Switched back to the US App store, and different apps show up?! (again). Among them are TuneIn Radio Pro ($5 radio app, no thanks. Tried the free version, and it enters into a 'Connected' mode, but nothing actually pops up anywhere on the MINI...) and Rhapsody, both of them listed as AppSwitcher ready.

So I download the two apps and start up MINI Connected. Sure enough, a new menu item appeared called 'Additional Apps'. While in the MINI Connected App, it had TuneIn & Rhapsody. Now here's the crappy part: as soon as you select one of them, it says that it's now shutting down MINI Connected and opening up the selected app. And when I'm in the app I selected, all of the MINI Connected apps now show up in Additional Apps.

So, in other words, the AppSwitcher is exactly that, a method to switch apps inside of the MINI Connected app using the on-screen display instead of directly fiddling your iPhone.

That's it.

So, using the example above, you could *not* use Pandora and Driving Excitement at the same time. It's still one or the other. It's just a different way of starting up the app.


-Paul

 

Where does it say that? Is there any way to tell if an app is compatible with the MiNi AppSwitcher?

I have downloaded and installed Audible, Glympse and Stitcher (via the United States App Store). But while Glympse and Audible show up under Additional Apps, Stitcher does not. Is that the experience of others here?

 

In the MINI Connected App on the iPhone, tap on the 'Information' button on the bottom, then tap on the 'MINI Connected Ready' option (should be near the top). This gives you a list of apps that are compatible with MINI Connected. It also USED to tell you which ones were App Switcher ready, but it doesn't seem to do that anymore....

TuneIn Radio, Rhapsody, and Glympse are App Switcher Ready.

If an app doesn't show up in the MINI Connected app, I wouldn't worry about it too much. You can always go directly to the app store to download the app. You could also try switching the app store country in MINI Connected to another country, then back to your country. That should make the list of apps 'refresh' itself.


-Paul

 

Thanks, Paul. That's exactly how I discovered the MiNi Connected-compatible apps - via the Information button at the bottom of the MiNi Connected app. But the app switcher is important because frankly I don't fancy fiddling with my device while driving. App switcher allows me to glance down quickly then put my eyes back on the road while I count clicks on the joystick (one of the reasons I like joysticks over touch screens in cars).

Is Stitcher appswitcher-compatible? It is the one app I have that I must always initiate at the level of the device. Maybe it's app-switchable from another region app store (rather than United States)?

 

Does Anyone know about MOG? Is it app switchable
Pandora is fine, but I prefer something like MOG or Spotify.
There may be other music apps, I have never tried Rhapsody, but how does it compare to MOG or Spotify?

 

I switched from MOG to Rhapsody due to Rhapsody having radio stations and app switching. As of about 4 months ago, MOG didn't have app switching.

The music selection seems about the same. The radio stations are good, but not great. The artist/album/song search function through the MINI Connected interface was better on MOG.

I'm really not entirely satisfied with either app. My favorite is actually Slacker, but it doesn't have a MINI Connected interface (a deal breaker for me).

Oh, and as a quick note, iOS 7 breaks the app switching altogether.


-Paul