I know that if your phone is bluetooth enabled you can use a wireless bluetooth headset with the phone; but I don't understand what the MINI bluetooth option provides. Is there a speaker and microphone in the car so that you don't need a bluetooth headset? or does it provide a way to use your bluetooth headset with a non-bluetooth enabled phone? Thanks!

Tony

 

You can't use a bluetooth headset and the car's bluetooth enabled functions at the same time. There is a microphone in the car in front of the toggle switches on the ceiling. And the speakers just use your radio speakers.

Basically, synced, the car can read the phone book on your phone, and you can use the controls on the radio or on your MFSW if you have one to pull up your contacts and dial. Then you just talk in your car. In essence, your car is the bluetooth headset. You can also program the car to recognize certain names and use voice commands.

 

With either the Bluetooth/USB iPod or the Comfort Bluetooth accessory option, as Fig Faun said, the car becomes your "headset". With the "Comfort Bluetooth" option, you also have the capability of charging your phone (a plus, since using Bluetooth drains the phone battery faster), and tying the phone into the car's antenna system.

What BMW/MINI doesn't tell you is that to charge and use the antenna system, you need a phone-specific snap-in adapter that goes in the armrest (which is wired for this purpose when you buy the package). Seems this really should be included in the $1500 cost of the package, since it's not fully functional without the adapter... so I've been trying to get my MA to give me an adapter. Still waiting on a reply.

I did have my first incoming call today, and the radio faded out, the car made a "phone ringing" sound. Picked up the call, ended it, and radio came back on. Just like it should work.

If your MINI is Bluetooth equipped, you must have a Bluetooth phone to take advantage if this, and it needs to be on the "approved phones" list.

Here is a forum with a list that gets updated. Look at the original (earliest) post for the list.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...=129431&page=4

 

Should probably mention that the BT thread is not the official approved phones list, just a list of user-reported phones.

Also, there's a limited number of snap-in connectors available. Buried in that same thread there's a list of the connectors available too.

Phones that are on the official phones list are at: http://www.wireless4mini.com (Note that http://www.miniusa.com/bluetooth redirects there)


Also, the phone list in the first post of the Bluetooth thread hasn't been updated in a while and is a bit short on specifics. I'm keeping a Google spreadsheet that's a list of phone info here, that covers specifics for each phone where we know them, along with references.

Also, to be fair, the $1500 package is not just for Bluetooth prep.

 

You are amazing nicknbecka - with that spreadsheet! Very impressive and very helpful. MINI ought to pay you!

I just got my Clubman and have an LGVX5300 the only thing I haven't tried yet (due to the mistake in the phone manual as in "store" vs "save") is the voice activation call. I will report back to you and let you know if it works - everything else sinced just fine.

As a newbie to the world of bluetooth, I am so glad that I got this Bluetooth/Ipod deal. What a huge improvement over the old ways.

 

Thanks for pointing to the "official" source, and for the work on the spreadsheet.

I'm all for fairness, too, and you're right that the Convenience Package includes much more than charging capability (and I'm enjoying and using it all). But even with all the stuff included in the Package, MINI wants to charge over $100 for a cheap snap-in part whose absence limits the utility of the package to less than what the Configurator says it is. It's a question of fair representation of the product.

Sorry for the distraction, it gets my Irish up when companies pull this kind of thing. On with the relevant discussion!

 

Cool! If the address book sync works, "Save"-ing the contacts may not even be necessary. You can try just pressing the voice command button and saying "Call AddressBookName".

If you've got a USB key around, that's something you should try too

Yeah, it's a bit small. I'd heard that wireless4mini.com might be official and went to mini.com/bluetooth today to see if I could find the real official one- only to be sent away...

Hmmm- I guess I'll have to check the configurator out again, I don't remember charging being included as part of it. I think the snap-in price comes down to an economy of scale. Someone has to design the thing, test it, make a mold and make the correct bits happen electronically too. It can't be cheap.

It'd be nice if they would have just gone for a simpler plug-type wiring harness adaptor, but that doesn't really give the BMW aesthetic.

Well, $140.00 is hardly reasonable, and the options themselves are already pricey- I just wouldn't want someone to think I'd pay $1500.00 for just a Bluetooth headset.

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I can also start the car while keeping my keys in my pocket.

 

I'd read how you described this before but wasn't clear on it. Do you mean I should try saying "Call AddressBookName XYZ" as in XYZ being for example David? or David/M - it seems to show a /M after someone's name if it's their mobile #. That would sure save time if it works!

What is a "USB key"? I've inherited my daughter's old iPod mini and haven't even tried hooking it up yet - she'll be home from college in about two weeks.

As I said, I'm very impressed by your work on all of this. It's really great to know ahead of time which phones work and to what degree, especially if one were considering buying a new phone.

I do notice that it appears that not too many phones show "Yes" for all the options and am hoping that this is because you just don't have any reports that they do - and that it's not 100% sure that they don't. Otherwise it really is a limited choice of full functioning phones.

 

From what the MA said, the voice recognition software is supposed to extrapolate what the names in your address book should sound like based upon their spelling, and to recognize that speech pattern when you say "Call [Name]" (where [Name] is the actual name in your phonebook, e.g. Fred, Tom, Betsy, Mom, etc.)

In practice, everytime I try with an iPhone, I get a pleasant voice telling me "Phonebook is empty." I had to manually save the names and numbers of my frequently dialed contacts in the car's memory, itself, after which it'll pull them from that and relate them to a listing in my phone (for Caller ID purposes).

 

Gotcha - the trick is how to manually save them. The manual says to say "Store.." but apparently it's "Save..." and from what you and nicknbecka are saying it apperas that if the phonebook has sinced - then it appears that one can use the voice command one by one (is this what you meant by "manually"?) to save them.

I'll give it a shot later today. Even as it is, it's a big improvement. I don't tend to make too many phone calls while driving but certainly if one needs to, it's a huge plus to have this.

Thanks for your help!

 

Fig Faun's description's got it. You'll get the "Phonebook is empty" message if the phone doesn't have any contacts in it, or if it's a phone where the MINI can't read the address book.

Sorry, "USB Drive" is probably a more common term. Something like this

Thanks, it's not just me though, there's a bunch of other people helping out. I'm just trying to gather everything into one place and keep it updated. The reason I started is because I was planning on getting a Treo 755p, when I found out that it breaks the Bluetooth module.

Yeah, I've been putting "No" where it's confirmed not to work, or "Partial" where there's some complications. Blank just means that there's not a specific report.

Hmm- I hadn't heard that before about the iPhone.

 

Ah, yes, I should have warned you about that. I got so frustrated, I was actually yelling at my car trying to figure out why it wouldn't listen to me.

I had to eventually just say "Help..." and listen to all the options to figure out the command is "Save..." rather than "Store..." as they have written in the manual.

Yeah, I was frankly surprised, too, with how hard Jobs has worked to put them in everyone's faces. It may be that the big firmware update next month will solve it. We'll see.

 

And of course the two bluetooth phones we just got aren't on any of the lists. No biggie, I'd just have to go an install the BT stuff in the Mini (already have the MFSW). So I'm saved the trouble!

 

LG VX5300 does indeed work with the voice recognition done name by name. I'll try again tomorrow to see if it will recognize what's in the phone book that uploaded...but thus far it seems I have to enter them name by name w/ the number.

Nicknbecka, inn looking at your google document it seems there are not too many that have "Yes" across the board. This is all food for thought if one is thinking of upgrading their phones.

 

Yeah- it seems that most people have the same types of phones and also people tend not to use the voice dialing, so reports end up being a bit incomplete.

EDIT: I also just realized that I hadn't completed columns based on the office compatibility either. I think it's safe to assume that the address book will sync if the official notes have a warning about syncing more than 1,000 contacts....

 

So far for the LGVX5300 voice dialing works wonderfully and all contacts are in the address book and I seem to be able to add them individually but it does require me to say the telephone number that matches the name in the phone book. There may well be an easier, more direct way for me to do this - believe me I've only added 3 names to voice dialing - but I haven't figured it out yet.

It seems if they're in the address book one should be able to scroll to it, push it and the little voice icon and that should be it - but maybe that would cost more $$.

If there is any easier way that would be great, if not - I'm thrilled with what I have so far.

 

For the record my iPhone phonebook synced with my mini. The phonebook from your phone should show up under "A-Z" vice the "Phonebook", which is the onboard Mini phonebook. Try voice commands, "phone", then "A-Z" to bring it up. "Dial Name" has then worked well for me.

Cheers

Jim

 

Okay I'm pretty much sure that my phone (Samsung SGH-A707 refurbished) is just not going to work with my R56 that I picked up on tuesday (as I have already posted that it does NOT work on the offical "unofficial" list thread) but I'm wondering if maybe I'm just not doing something right, or maybe need to be more patient, so if someone could help me out that would be great!

So step by step, here's what I do (more or less)

1. turn on bluetooth on my phone
2. scroll to the "phone" menu in MINI
3. hit "pair" or something like that -now MINI will "search for pairable phones."
4. my phone recongizes the mini and pairs with the correct passcode
5. MINI and phone say "connected" or "pairing successful" something to that nature....
6. Now my phone name "A.B." and all the options such as #, A-Z, missed calls etc show up on MINI

-here's where is gets confusing-

7. I press A-Z to see if it loaded my address book, and MINI says "please wait..." for about 5 seconds, and then just returns to the original phone name screen with options, and nothing ever happens.


Do I need to press and hold that button in order for MINI to keep "searching" for my phonebook? Do I need to "send" something from my phone to MINI? I've heard some phones take quite a long time to pair originally, so could this be the same for address book loading?

Also, MINI will call out when I hit the # button to dial a number and mutes the radio etc and I am able to talk with someone, but then when the call ends, the MINI is stuck in a loop or something where it says "Connecting..." along with the phone number and an "end" option. No matter what I push it either says "connection in progress" or if I push "end" nothing happens. In order to get out of the loop I need to fully turn off my phone or just turn off the bluetooth connection on my phone.

sorry, also, does the MINI read the address book stored in the phone, or stored on the SIM?

Any advice or help will be grately appreciated!

 

Sounds good so far...

I haven't seen any reports of phones taking a long time to pair- but there have been people saying that the first sync of the address book takes some time. People mix the terminology a lot though, so I could have just assumed that's the case... One person posted that they noticed the address book showing up a couple days later, another after a long drive. Can't hurt to try letting it sit for a while, but the car will need to be on, of course.

On phones that work, this happens seamlessly- no need to do anything for it to happen, other than wait for it to complete. My RAZR with ~100 numbers takes five seconds or so to read all the numbers and display the contact list.

Yeah, that sounds like a deal-breaker- no advice here, sorry

This probably depends on the phone itself, using whatever would be available through the Bluetooth OBC profile- in the case of the RAZR (and I'd guess with most other phones) this is the phone's contact list only, no SIM card access.

 

thanks, nicknbecka! Yea it seems to me that it just isn't going to cut it, no matter if my phone book eventually loads () Or not... just for the simple fact that it gets stuck in that loop! You've been great help for everyone regarding bluetooth and I'm sure a lot of other things as well!

One last question, do you think it could be because my phone is a refurbished phone, therefore, it's older and maybe needs an update of some sort?

 

Glad I could help!

I don't know that being refurbished is to blame, there's other Samsung phones with similar problems. The only other person I've seen with the problem hanging up is also a Samsung, and the person who took a long time to sync was too.

It's not impossible, but I'd doubt it. I checked around for updates with your first post of problems and didn't find anything. The only firmware updates were for a later model.