[J3 L U N T]

Hey fam,

So as an iPhone user, I love the aspect that I can plug my phone in to my car for music and handsfree phone calls. However I have been baffled by the user interface for quite sometime. I DO NOT have navigation only the 2 line display.

My Question:

Why can I search through my CONTACTS on my iphone alphabetically (a,b,c,d, etc...) first, then drill down to the contact I want to dial whereas with searching through my MUSIC I do not have that option?

With a good amount of music it would be nice to go to ARTIST or ALBUM then drill down by first letter (a,b,c,d, etc..) then go to the artists or album that correlate. Is there a software upgrade I need? How can I suggest this to the BMW developers?

It is such a pain to access an ALBUM or ARTIST starting with Z for example. Please help me!!

Thanks.
J3

[Ramos]

Your fault for not getting idrive... What do you want BMW to do for you?

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by Ramos

Your fault for not getting idrive...

+1
BMW is investing its UI design efforts in iDrive, not in two-line displays (which are really only in its entry-level vehicles anyway).

[J3 L U N T]

haters.

im just saying... if they spent the time to implement the nice UI in the CONTACTS why can't they do it with MUSIC.

[Omnia]

Originally Posted by J3 L U N T

haters.

im just saying... if they spent the time to implement the nice UI in the CONTACTS why can't they do it with MUSIC.

Maybe because they didn't want to spend any more money in R&D on an interface that is already outdated?

[Ramos]

Originally Posted by J3 L U N T

haters.

im just saying... if they spent the time to implement the nice UI in the CONTACTS why can't they do it with MUSIC.

Not hating, as I have the nice UI with music with idrive

[02fireman]

Even with Idrive I still don't have the option to go from A,B,C etc.. I still have to scroll down all names or albums for music.SUCKS

[J3 L U N T]

Originally Posted by 02fireman

Even with Idrive I still don't have the option to go from A,B,C etc.. I still have to scroll down all names or albums for music.SUCKS

i guess you know what im talking about then. so its not different in the idrive? i would think its a simple line of code that they can reprog the car with.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by J3 L U N T

i guess you know what im talking about then. so its not different in the idrive? i would think its a simple line of code that they can reprog the car with.

No, not that simple, as it's an apples to oranges comparison. In one case you are using OBEX to transfer data so it can be managed locally, in the other, the data resides on a remote storage device.

[J3 L U N T]

i guess what i could do is create a bunch of "smart playlists" named A,B,C,D, etc.. and have itunes sort them out.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by J3 L U N T

i guess what i could do is create a bunch of "smart playlists" named A,B,C,D, etc.. and have itunes sort them out.

Ja, that is probably the best idea.

In fact, that is what my suggested workaround was for some other limitations on the original MOST bus iPod retrofit kit when it came out in 2006.

[E39hijinks]

your first problem is that you bought an iphone.

get a blackberry

[jlstyle]

Yea even with idrive it's hard to go through all my music stored in the hard drive.
Your best bet is to make your own play lists and play that.
That's what I do as well.

I hope they reprogram the idrive so I could random play the whole hard drive.

[J3 L U N T]

Originally Posted by E39hijinks

your first problem is that you bought an iphone.

get a blackberry

gahahah. wanna be iphone owner

[HermesRider]

Originally Posted by J3 L U N T

gahahah. wanna be iphone owner

+1 on that. I have an iphone and a crackberry for work. No comparison.

[souldriven]

Originally Posted by 02fireman

Even with Idrive I still don't have the option to go from A,B,C etc.. I still have to scroll down all names or albums for music.SUCKS

spin the dial fast, & the screen will jump proportional to how fast you spin. After a couple times, you'll get the feel to jump through your artist playlist a lot faster.

[JmanND]

Originally Posted by J3 L U N T

haters.

im just saying... if they spent the time to implement the nice UI in the CONTACTS why can't they do it with MUSIC.

+1 I was just thinking this the other day. Having music with a couple hundred artists is impossible to scroll through unless you want somebody that starts with A. And I totally agree because they solved it very nicely with having a lot of phone contacts, why couldn't they have done it with music.

[roadkillrob]

It isn't BMW - it is apple deciding what they will let you do and works the same on other interfaces with the ipod. Apple just does whatever they want, bends the standards rules and does really give a shit about you as you will just buy another ipod anyway like the rest of us.

Remember when the f'd everyone by introducing a standard interface plug, every third party used it to integrate their devices, then on the iphone 3G decided to change around a couple of wires in the plug and old charges didn't work, broke phones etc etc.

Do yourself a favor like I did, buy an $8 USB Memory Stick, put all your music on it and it will work 100 times better than the ipod interface - you can drill down by artist, album, song, use playlists - everything works awesome for a lot less than the ipod costs!