[jyhash]

Hi Forum Fellowes,

My wife and I just bought our first BMW yesterday, and I have a few questions about the Audio Setup that I am seeing an how best to make it work for me.

First, Equipment. We own an:
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 3G
- iPod Classic (Essentially the 8th Generation 120GB version)

We also plan on buying new iPhone 4G's when they come out next month.

We just bought a preowned 2007 BMW 328i sedan.

Now...

At the dealership I tested the built in USB port with a regular iPod Dock cable and almost all of our Apple Devices. When I plugged in my iPhone 3GS, it wasn't recognized by the iDrive. When I plugged in my iPod, it said it was synching briefly, then said it was connected on the iPod screen, but nothing came up on the iDrive screen (the option for USB was still greyed out on the iDrive interface). We didn't try my wife's iPhone 3g, but I'm assuming it'll do the same thing. Now the car salesman had a 1st gen iPod Nano, which was recognized by the iDrive, but it didn't give any track names, just the file names which were illegible (basically a string of 4 letters, and no album names).

So my question is this, do I need to get a specific iPod cable from BMW to get it my devices to hook up correctly? Because, the BMW website says that Apple Devices later than 4th Gen are supported on my vehicle's iDrive. Is there a problem with the USB port on the car? Or are neither of the above correct, and I need to have an aftermarket connection installed to make it work?

I talked to a guy at a local car stereo store, and he said that the iDrive may need a firmware update to be able to function with the later Apple Devices. Is this true? And if so, is there a ball park figure on price to update it? Is it something I can do myself at home?

Anyway, I am grateful for any help anyone can offer, as this is driving me batty.

Thanks!

~JYH