[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by EricFother

Impressions after 24 Hours for a NON I-Drive 6FL:

Today was my first day with the appropriate cable. I noticed that (As MajorHusker pointed out) the IPod displays "OK to disconnect". Now here is my big problem...I don't think the Ipod shuts off when you turn off the car and walk away! This morning...I got in my car...opened the glove box...and the IPod display lit up! I HAD NOT put the key in the "ignition" and I do not have Comfort Access. Sounds like we are back to the age old question:

Does the light in the refrigerator go out when you close the door?


Anyway...I'm sure there is more to this then I know. An owners manual that explains all this would have been a big help. Perhaps I'm just a moron...and I need to disconnect the IPod every night and haul it inside. To me...I only intend to take it out of the car on hot days, and when I need to update it. I would also prefer if I didn't have to open the glove box and shut the thing off, or worse yet...disconnect it and then shut it off, every time I get out of my vehicle. Maybe I'm just asking for the moon...

Could it be that the USB is hot all the time? An iPod will eventually turn off after no use unless it is being acted upon by other forces. Is it also possible that simply unlocking the car/opening the door turns it on? I agree that if it is warm to the touch, it has probably been on for awhile though.

And I would never call you a moron... not to your face.

Thanks for the info - keep it coming, especially the refrigerator test. We are living vicariously through you at the moment.

[LEDZEP]

Eric, I did the test for you. Caveat is that I don't have the 6FL cable, but with my Apple cable, here's what happened:

Open car door and gently place my taught behind into the beautiful lemon seat...

Open center console... observe iPod. Mr. iPod is dark.
A second later... Mr. iPod wakes up and light comes on.

USB power must be on the same circuit as the interior lighting, etc. It probably stays hot until the car goes into sleep mode.

[bmwvirgin]

Originally Posted by EricFother

I'm not 100% sure...but I think the reason your music works is because you imported it into ITunes as MP3. The 6FL in the car sees your IPod as one big hard drive...and you can view your music. Once again. I'm not 100% sure. I noticed that when I did the same thing you did (hooked up my IPod with the USB-IPod cable that came with my IPod) that my music was all in 4 character titles that made no sense...like GJKT and GJKU...which might sound like 2 songs in a row...but were totally random music! I had imported all my music into ITunes via the Apple Lossless...or something like that.

I imagine someone else with more knowledge on the subject will weigh in shortly.

yeah...i had the same thing with the 4 letter codes. but whtn i went to artists, it displayed them all and i could pick and choose and song names were displayed correctly. Again, no access to my playlists.

and it never shut off and always displayed "do not disconnect". for fear of draining my battery, i disconnected anyway. no issues so far. just hope that cable comes in soon.

[bmwvirgin]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

I tried again to just use the iPod cable and nothing happens. The iPod just shows me the "don't disconnect" message and if I select AUX there is nothing there. Could be because I have a lot of music in it, but I gave it quite a bit of time.

hmmmm....i get taht message on my iPOd, but songs/artists do register on the screen and i can play them fine.

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by EricFother

I'm not 100% sure...but I think the reason your music works is because you imported it into ITunes as MP3. The 6FL in the car sees your IPod as one big hard drive...and you can view your music. Once again. I'm not 100% sure. I noticed that when I did the same thing you did (hooked up my IPod with the USB-IPod cable that came with my IPod) that my music was all in 4 character titles that made no sense...like GJKT and GJKU...which might sound like 2 songs in a row...but were totally random music! I had imported all my music into ITunes via the Apple Lossless...or something like that.

I imagine someone else with more knowledge on the subject will weigh in shortly.

When you use a standard iPod USB cable the iPod does indeed look like a hard drive. The gibberish titles are because that's what iPod uses in it's directory structure. You will eventually see the real titles (5-10 min) once all the ID3 tags are read and indexed.

When you use the special BMW adapter cable, USB is converted to serial to operate the iPod serial control interface and use the iPod functionality for many things rather than the MP3 functionality thats built into the BMW radio. That means that the functionality is a lot more like the iPod when used standalone. Some benefits: Much faster indexing (since the index already exists in the iPod), better shuffle, better use of the Genre, Artist, Title hierarchy.

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by I-Won-Today

Just confirmed with our parts department that the part # is on a national freeze.

As others have already stated, it probably is due to no bulletin being distributed yet to the dealers with the part # and ordering instructions. However, the parts department here said that the cables they ordered show an ETA of 4/6. I guess we will find out in a couple of days.

I'll try to keep you posted...

Just curious if you've had any new word on the iPod cables at the PDC...

Signed: I-Lost-Today

[bmwvirgin]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

Just curious if you've had any new word on the iPod cables at the PDC...

Signed: I-Lost-Today

For what it's worth.....my parts dept just said the same thing - Off freeze tomorrow, in stock on Mon.

[bartman32]

Okay, don't kill the messenger but.....

I just got back from my dealership and I was talking to the Part/Accessories guy. He's been there for a while and seems to know his stuff. I was talking to him about getting the dealer install iPod option and he said to wait! I said I know I'd rather have the USB port but my car didn't come with it. He said that he knew some people were working on a retro-fit option for the older cars and thought that it would be out in the next few month!

Now I have absolutely NO reason to believe him especially with all I have read here but maybe.... Let's all bend down and

[LEDZEP]

You never know Bartman... it could happen. It will suck though if you wait a few months and nothing comes of it...

[theroyalwe]

fyi, at least at my dealership the cables came in this morning. best of luck everyone!

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by theroyalwe

fyi, at least at my dealership the cables came in this morning. best of luck everyone!

You son of a bitch! (j/k) No clue yet from my dealer. I told you that they will be doled out on a priority basis - with smaller dealerships and customers who already have their cars getting royally screwed.

Time to call BMWNA again and yell I guess.

[LEDZEP]

Just talked to my SA. He checked on it for me and they are still saying it is frozen.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[I-Won-Today]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

Just talked to my SA. He checked on it for me and they are still saying it is frozen.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Diddo... No cables today for us either. Parts says they still show frozen.

[EricFother]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

Just talked to my SA. He checked on it for me and they are still saying it is frozen.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Don't see how that can be...if they can be had by some in the U.K. or Germany. Unless the U.S. are frozen.

[LEDZEP]

Called BMWNA. Told the girl I wanted an update on the situation and gave her the part number.

She called me back about an hour later, and said they are still frozen and she had NO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION or ETA. How the fuck can BMW have no additional information????

Meanwhile, some customers get them with the car and some don't. Some dealers are getting inventory now and some aren't.


BMW - YOU CAN BLOW ME

[theroyalwe]

led... when I get back to work (3pm) I'll go over to parts and see what their screen says. if I can I'll find out the price and you are welcome to come up and get one tonight if you would like.

[I-Won-Today]

Alright... Parts just told me that they now show released this afternoon, so we should get them the begining of next week.

[theroyalwe]

I don't know for sure if we have any additional ones or just the ones I paid for... but we'll see what happens when I get into work. I'll see how many we have (considering I have a delivery on monday that needs them.

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by theroyalwe

led... when I get back to work (3pm) I'll go over to parts and see what their screen says. if I can I'll find out the price and you are welcome to come up and get one tonight if you would like.

That is certainly considerate of you, very much so. But I have no interest in paying for what I should have already. It is amazing to me that customers waiting for this part are given no priority at all.

Originally Posted by I-Won-Today

Alright... Parts just told me that they now show released this afternoon, so we should get them the begining of next week.

God only knows when my dealer will be able to get it. At the least the folks doing PCD will treated right. Too bad that BMW is doing so well that they can mistreat customers just like the Big Three used to do. How did that 'poor customer service' thing work out for them, by the way?

[EricFother]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

Eric, I did the test for you. Caveat is that I don't have the 6FL cable, but with my Apple cable, here's what happened:

Open car door and gently place my taught behind into the beautiful lemon seat...

Open center console... observe iPod. Mr. iPod is dark.
A second later... Mr. iPod wakes up and light comes on.

USB power must be on the same circuit as the interior lighting, etc. It probably stays hot until the car goes into sleep mode.

Confirmed with 6FL cable!

I left the IPod out of the center armrest...locked the car...came back about 45 minutes later to see that the IPod was completely off. I unlocked the door...nothing. I opened the door...IPod woke up. I'm glad to know that the IPod will not remain on...or worse yet...drain my battery.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

I got to use the IPod for about 4 hours today on a trip from Lakenheath to London's Gatwick Airport to pick up my sister.

One of the things I noticed is that there is no option to go directly to Podcasts. You have to look them up via the Album menu on the stereo screen. Not a big deal...but you have to know what your looking for when you start to scroll through the list.

Speaking of the list...I noticed that the stereo doesn't go into "turbo" mode like the IPod does. Anyone notice how your IPod (I have a 5th Gen...60GB Video BTW) will scroll quickly through lists (like albums) and display the letter of the alphabet to help you stop? Not that I would expect the BMW stereo to do that for me...but if you want to get to an album that starts with letter M...your going to be cranking the small wheel on the stereo for a little while.

For me personally...Playlists are the way to go. I like to listen to a select number of songs from a certain artist instead of the whole album. Narrowing down those songs I like and putting them on a playlist is the way to go for me. Also...having playlists reduces the number of items I have to scroll through to get to the music I want to listen to. I only have about 8GB of music on the IPod.

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by EricFother

Confirmed with 6FL cable!

I left the IPod out of the center armrest...locked the car...came back about 45 minutes later to see that the IPod was completely off. I unlocked the door...nothing. I opened the door...IPod woke up. I'm glad to know that the IPod will not remain on...or worse yet...drain my battery.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

I got to use the IPod for about 4 hours today on a trip from Lakenheath to London's Gatwick Airport to pick up my sister.

One of the things I noticed is that there is no option to go directly to Podcasts. You have to look them up via the Album menu on the stereo screen. Not a big deal...but you have to know what your looking for when you start to scroll through the list.

Speaking of the list...I noticed that the stereo doesn't go into "turbo" mode like the IPod does. Anyone notice how your IPod (I have a 5th Gen...60GB Video BTW) will scroll quickly through lists (like albums) and display the letter of the alphabet to help you stop? Not that I would expect the BMW stereo to do that for me...but if you want to get to an album that starts with letter M...your going to be cranking the small wheel on the stereo for a little while.

For me personally...Playlists are the way to go. I like to listen to a select number of songs from a certain artist instead of the whole album. Narrowing down those songs I like and putting them on a playlist is the way to go for me. Also...having playlists reduces the number of items I have to scroll through to get to the music I want to listen to. I only have about 8GB of music on the IPod.

Excellent Eric! Glad that you were able to confirm with the cable.

Gee, must be nice to have that cable.

[EricFother]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

Gee, must be nice to have that cable.

Sorry...don't mean to rub it in. It is pretty much all I expected it to be. Nice to have the only model of car (that I know of) on the planet that will let you fully control an IPod without actually touching the IPod.