[Professor Peach]

Having been fiddling about recently with IPOD's and whatnot, I had an idea last night to try dragging some music onto a memory stick and plugging it into the USB port in the MINI to see what happened.

I should probably point out at this point that the only reason the car has a USB plug is that it came as part of the Bluetooth car kit (and I only ordered that because I was having the centre armrest and multifunction wheel and was going to fit a car kit anyway, so it wasn't much more to upgrade to Bluetooth). I never would have ordered a USB connection of my own volition, couldn't see the point.

So anyway, I had a 2GB stick kicking around, so I dragged half a dozen albums onto it off of my PC (I have all my music on there, mainly so I can burn compilation CD's).

Plugged it into the MINI expecting it would just play through the tracks in turn and that would be about it (bar the possibility of skipping through tracks with the left/right buttons).

But how wrong I was. The result was amazing!

Firstly, it recognises the album names, artist, and track (song) names and displays all the info on the stereo.

So, (via the stereo buttons and control nob) you can scroll through all the albums in alphabetical order, choose the one you want and press enter and you have your album playing just like a CD (with same ability to skip through tracks etc).

But it gets better still! You can choose to scroll through artists, choose the one you want, hit enter and it will play whatever tracks are performed by your choice from any of the albums on your memory stick (even if the tracks are on "various" style mixed albums). Or you can scroll through all his/her tracks to find the one you're looking for.

You can even specify a music type. So if you're in the mood for rock, or R&B, you press the genre button, scroll through to the style you wish to listen to and press enter and it will play them (or again you can seek out a specific track by simply scrolling through the list).

All the while you can choose for it to display the artist, album name and track name of each track it is playing.

It is absolutely incredible! Sound quality is (I'd say) as good as CD too (I select maximum quality when I rip my CD's to PC despite them taking more memory this way because I don't want any loss of quality when I burn compilation CD's).

I've just ordered a 16GB memory stick and I reckon I'll have my entire CD collection on it in the car and immediately accessable! Kind of makes the 6 disc CD changer I specced somewhat redundant!

I'd also mention that the Bluetooth car kit is equally superb. The phone can either stay in my pocket and it links automatically, or if I prefer I can slot it into the dedicated cradle in the centre armrest where it's hidden from sight and connects up to the roof aerial and charges the phone. All of the phone memory is then accessable through the cars computer, it's a simple job to scroll through ABCDEFG etc, then when you have the letter of the name you're looking for you just hit enter and it scrolls through the list. So if looking for "Simon" I scroll to "S", hit enter, scroll to "Simon", hit enter and it calls him. I can also access the 8 last dialled numbers, 8 most used numbers, 8 last incoming numbers, 8 last missed calls. And I can link up to four blue tooth mobiles so if someone else regularly uses the car, when they get in it recognises their phone, pairs automatically and puts their phone book on the car computer.

I'm really blown away by the whole system. It's intuitive, easy and quick to use and very effective.

And as I say, I ordered it basically on a bit of a whim when I realised it wasn't going to cost me any more to Bluetooth the phone as I was ordering the other bits anyway. I'm so so glad I did now.

[brett]

yep best thing I ordered for my car

[shedracer]

Me too, very happy I went for the Bluetooth and USB option.

[cbpete]

yep I am happy to, its even better when you have put all the numbers and names into the voice activation section, takes a bit of time but well worth it. Just don't know how to delete a entry from the phone book.
cbpete

[Washy]

Quote: Originally Posted by cbpete (original)

yep I am happy to, its even better when you have put all the numbers and names into the voice activation section, takes a bit of time but well worth it. Just don't know how to delete a entry from the phone book.
cbpete

I use the voice activation to call people all the time but didnt have to program any numbers into the car...just works off the phone.

[airbusA346]

Sounds a good system, it is just a shame they put the price up when they released the "Basic Bluetooth & USB"

[cbpete]

Hi washy, I have a Sony k800i phone, which according to BMW all function are available on the car. But had to put all the name in to the car voice phone book so it would recanise my voice when i say the name, I don't any other way to do it.
cbpete

[Union Jacks]

My R56 MCS has the 3.5mm jack plug fitting below the centre console - does anyone know if you can get a usb retro kit?

[brett]

No .... sorry

[dukey1679]

Out of interest, if you spec either of the Bluetooth/USB options, where abouts in the car is the USB port located?

[scillyisles]

Underneath the central row of rocker switches in the centre console.

[dukey1679]

Thanks

[Benny No.1]

Don't MINI offer a USB to iPod cable to use with the USB port. So you get the tracks and album info up in the same as mentioned above with a USB stick.

[airbusA346]

Quote: Originally Posted by Benny No.1 (original)

Don't MINI offer a USB to iPod cable to use with the USB port. So you get the tracks and album info up in the same as mentioned above with a USB stick.

Yes they do offer a cable, which I think is about £40.

[L1UNK]

im so pleased with my USB controller! got a 8 gig sandish usb stick from pc world for 15 quid (they had it priced wrong in there till) it just works so well!!

[brett]

plus the IPOD will go flat if you don't diconnect the Ipod and switch it off. where as the Memory stick it doesn't matter

[cbpete]

Hi Guys, I use my USB memory stick all the time, but I find if I leave the car for 3-4 hours when i start the car it goes back to the radio. but if i leave it 30 mins or so it starts where it left off on the USB. Do any of you have the same thing happen. I would of thought it would remember.
cbpete

[brett]

no I don;t have that issue ( I have a sandisk usb) I can leave it for a week or 1 and a bit months and not have the problem. it started not problems where i left off

[deanquartermaine]

This is a great bit of kit and I have a 4GB USB stick plugged into my car atm, works amazingly well!

[scottp7]

how much does this kit cost? its a good safety tool as well as a great gadget