On the R59 with Mini Connected/NO Nav is there a way to set up a voice-command speed dial?

My goal is to push a button, say something like "Call soandso" and be on my way. Currently the only method I have found is "Choose name.....name.....yes.....entry#"

Other HU seem to allow one to do a "Save Name" command, but I cannot get that to work for me, it doesn't recognize the command.

 

Also, would some one point me at the proper iPhone 4 snap-in adapter for the arm rest? I'd like the one that allows full media playback.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get one or not, but I'm not confident that Mini is going to figure out a way to get everything working with the iPhone 5's new connector, either. Not sure if I'm going to keep the 4 or accept iPhone 5 my work has offered to buy me.

 

I skipped the whole Connected thing because I have Android phones, not iPhone. I'm glad I did now. I used the voice command thing about twice in my 2007 S, and I've tried it once in my (non-Connected) R59, and will probably not bother again.

With my Android phone I can use the voice-dial and speech-to-text on the phone even with the aux jack connected, so if I used voice dial at all I would just do that. My main method of calling from the car is a "car home screen" that lets me have a few big icons on the home screen, one of which is a big "Call Home" button...

Apart from calling home I don't really make calls from the car, I just receive them, answer quick questions then and there or arrange a call-back when I'm not driving. The Roadster on the highway isn't a great place to do a hands-free call with the built-in Bluetooth. It works, but I find myself shouting at the steering wheel quite a bit and the other end doesn't hear me too well.

 

have the same question cant figure the voice button out

 

I'll throw in what may be a different problem that was stopping me calling contacts even manually - the Contacts section of the car's screen only recognised phone numbers if they were in the mobile/cell category and not the numbers in any other categories ('work', 'home', etc) on my Nokia phone. For contacts with a number in another category, the car's screen did not offer the option to call them.

So I spent an exciting hour or so transferring all numbers in my mobile/cell into the mobile/cell category, even if they are land lines, and now I can call any number in my phone via the car.

 

I wonder if this might be a problem with your Nokia phone syncing its contacts with the car. With my phone (a Samsung Android model) I do see all the multiple numbers for each contact, with little icons to the left of each number representing home, work, mobile, etc. Not sure if it's relevant, but I do have MINI Connected.

 

Agree that this may be phone-specific. My iP4 w/MINI Connected also gives me all numbers for each contact, along with the different icons for each type.

 

On my iPhone, everything shows up just fine. I just want to say "Call Jeff Mobile" and have it freaking do it. I don't want to say
Choose name -> Jeff -> Yes -> Entry 2 -> ENTRY 2 (because it never seens to hear me) -> yes

 

Can you just talk to the iPhone directly? On my Android phone that's Bluetoothed to the car and also has the headphone jack connected to the Aux port I can still use the voice recognition to compose text messages.

 

I'm not sure if that would work with Siri or not, I have an iPhone 4 - so no Siri :(

Can Siri (or your android) voice command be initiated by any of the buttons on the car or do you have to do it on the phone?

 

I have to do something on the phone to initiate the voice recognition.

 

In the 2013 model year MINI removed the voice command system.

I can use blue tooth but it stinks and I'm stuck using the radio controls or the phone to make calls.

Really happy with the car but the blue tooth

 

Agreed I expected a little more from the blue tooth.

I did however follow one of the tech threads and re- adjusted the volume that seemed to help a bit.

 

I'll hunt it down and give it a try

Thanks

 

Ok I give up, I looked at a bunch of the threads in the audio area and now my head is swimming and my eyes are going cross eyed....

how do I re-adjust the blue tooth volume?

Thanks,

Andy

 

Andy, the trick is you have to be on a call to adjust the volume to the microphone I turned mine almost completely up and it did help a bit but the quality is definitely improver by turning the vent closest to the speedometer off.
Again far from perfect but it does make it more useful

 

Thanks Noreen99,

I'll give it a try,

Andy

 

A quick follow-up on this thread. I had an HTC Thunderbolt when I first got my roadster. Could not get much working. Contacts never synched to car. Voice dial never worked - always got wrong people, etc. Just renewed my contract and got the iphone 5. Instantly much much better. All contacts synch. Siri works great for dialing - You initiate it through the phone by holding the button but it talks through bluetooth/car and appears to understand me quite well. Siri looks for close matches too - If it misunderstands me it says something like: "I don't see a Sam Cordoba in your address book - did you mean Sam Corolla?" The HTC phone seemed incapable of that. I've been an android guy for a long time. Resisted the iphone but tested the roadster with my wife's iphone and realized how much better it would be since clearly Mini has designed to the iphone.

The only thing I wish they would do is have the steering wheel phone button activate Siri instead of activating the car's voice command.

For Bluetooth in general, I am fairly happy. I know people don't always understand me great but it works for short calls. I switch to my bluetooth headset if doing a long call or if I am doing a lot of the talking. I don't find the bluetooth speaker phone in the car to be any better or worse than what I have experienced in my other cars. We have a honda pilot with bluetooth and I think they are about the same in terms of quality.

ps: No mini connect in my car - just standard blue tooth.

 

Why don't you take it back to your Motoring Advisor and have him/her explain it in real time and show you on your own car? 5 or 10 minutes of explaining and showing could be all you need. That way you can use the functions of the car to their maximum and you get to use it properly That is what the Motoring Advisor is there for.

 

My Samsung Stratosphere died a few weeks ago. I get Smartphones for work. They give you the one that Verizon has free at the time. This time it was an iPhone 4.

I must say the sound is much better while talking on the Bluetooth in the car.

Still don't have voice control, at least I sound less like a tin can to people.


Andy

 

Hi Andy. Try this experiment. Push the voice command button and when it beeps say "phone book". If it says the phone book is empty, you have voice command.

 

Hi WeaverNH,

Nope that's a no go, I push the voice command button and nothing...

Andy

 

My wife took me out in her 2011 Hot Chocolate Cooper tonight to buy me a Kayak. She was all excited....

Anyway she called our sister in law to plan a trip and used her voice command system.

She has A Motorola Razor HD.

All she says is "dial by name xyz"


Presto..



Boy it irritates me that MINI turned the voice command system off in my roadster.

There's got be a way to turn it back on...



Andy

 

I'll try that dial by name trick, but i have a feeling it's a different system then i have in my 2013. A lot of hte commands I was told to use don't work because i have 2013 Connected.

to clarify, is 'xyz' the name of the person, or is she spelling the name out, or ?


In my system all I've figured out is pushing the button and saying "Select name" *name please?* "David" *Did you say David?* "Yes" *car displays his contact on screen* "Call" *Select number* (if more than one) "One"

Seriously, its that much crap. I really hope the Dial by name command works. There has GOT to be a way to just say "Call david mobile" like every other car, right?

Zulu, I'm not gonna lie, if you weren't made aware that they had taken away voice command (or they gave you the impression that you would be getting it) you might have some avenue to complain and get something. Even with the hassle it takes on mine, I would be ticked to not have it.

 

Yes "xyz" is the persons name. She doesn't have connect and it was the first time I've seen her place a call..

If it understands it will just dial. If it doesn.t understand it will ask

If there 2 phone numbers, it will say which number and give you a choice.

By the way for some reason it doesn't understand Anne, strange...

Boy I wish MINI would listen to us about this......

Andy