MINI Navigation V27 Makes it to the Web

Nice to see that BMW/MINI is taking steps to bring their Nav system to the 21st century – or at least closer to it. The Nav system on my wife’s Acura is far better than the system in my ’05 MCS. It defintely gets the job done, but not nearly as well. Aside from her system having a touch screen, searching is far easier as you can search by name versus having to know the category it is in first – which I rarely know what category the developers decided to put something into.

So does the new system upgrade give better overall functionality or simply better views with the 3D, etc?

I understand it however – Japanese car companies have catered to a public that likes the gadgetry, etc. European car companies have catered to drivers who could care less about the gadgetry and they have been playing catch up to make the North American market happy.

all in good fun . . . and I prefer Roxio Toast.

I think you can blame me for the M$ jab, Edge. I do it whenever I can. Apparently, it’s rubbed off on Gabe.

hi gabe,

if i toast the two files:

bmw v27.mdf bmw v27.mds

as a data disc will they be recognized by the nav system? am not familiar with the file format. if i use the disc utility will the files be mounted? thanks for your help.

best,

m

Anyone know if you need to have the v26 Nav installed before doing this upgrade? And does this install affect the US/British voice option at all?

Hey guys, I havent been able to find out definitively, but will this update work on a 2002 MINI Cooper with a CD Based NAV System? I just want to make sure before installing it. Thanks, Jorge

I did the upgrade last night — works fine. I’m not much for testing Beta firmware, but this is NOT a beta, it is the final released version of V27 that can have the Perspective Mode turned on by accessing the Nav hidden settings menu.

The MINI logo doesn’t disappear — nothing but benefit.

Several others on NAM have upgraded without issue, also: http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63345

> Dale Mar 13th, 2006 Link > Has anyone here done the upgrade yet?

I agree with you, Kurt. But what if you’re dealer WON’T do it?! When I had my Mini Convertible in the shop a few months ago, I asked them to update the Nav and they told me that “It’s still not recommended by MINI Usa so we won’t do it.” WTF?

So I’m still driving around with the old cruddy version. I’ve been too chicken to do it myself…Maybe this time, that perspective looks pretty darn cool…… Steve

Don’t even get me started on crappy dealers. I’ve had too many run-ins lately with my latest MCS.

To help answer some questions.

This can only be done to MINIs/BMWs with the MKIV Navi. Which means your car uses DVDs for the map discs.

You can upgrade from any previous version.

Legals…As some folks have told me this is a legal thing to distribute because its not copyrighted like a disc with the maps on it.

Mike,

I think you’re being a little too paranoid about it. This is firmware that is completely and utterly useless to anyone unless they already own the intended hardware.

And if you are thinking that BMW/MINI will be concerned about “trade secrets” in the firmware, that’s a bogus answer too, because there’s nothing stopping a competitor from obtaining an already upgraded nav computer and downloading the firmware image anyway.

Seriously people… this is like a BIOS upgrade for a PC, or a firmware upgrade for other computer hardware. It only has one purpose – to improve the functionality of that hardware, to make it better… and more competitive with competing navigation products. BMW HAS to do this in order to continue to sell their Nav products to the general public. Companies like Garmin, Tom-Tom and Magellan have done their jobs (not to mention Japanese manufacturers like Lexus and Acura) and are keeping BMW competitive.

The only reason that dealerships won’t do the upgrade is because they are paranoid of breaking the Nav in the process, and therefore being held financially accountable for it. Think MINIUSA will gladly replace a Nav computer that wasn’t broken when the customer showed up? Nope. The dealer thinking is simply: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Distribution of the map disc… THAT will get the black car coming to your door… not necessarily a BMW either – whatever the NavTech police use. :)

Apple? Well, they always were overly and fiercely protective of ANYTHING of theirs… they have to be able to keep charging that high mark-up, don’t they? :) (Note for the record: I consider Apple products high quality… AND high priced, both at the same time. Whether that quality is worth that price is a personal decision.)

I did the upgrade last night and love it. Sadly though I have now lost the twaek that I had done to the previous release that swapped the usa and gb voices. I tried a half a dozen burns and never got the system to recognize a tweaked disk.

If anyone else has had success please let me know. I already miss my “straight on to join the motorway”. :(

http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/173304 Re: V27 is now available

Think anyone will incorporate the British female voice into this image? I love this firmware, but it reverted my “v26 British woman hack” back to the USA accent that my ’05 Mini Cooper came with.

-Ed

—> V27 can be hacked the same way as V26 was :) Author: ucrewx5 Posted on: 2006-03-13

Also, http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showpost.php?p=860782&postcount=29

Hey all – just applied V27 to my UK Mini and it went without a hitch. Took about 3 mins and another 20 secs to activate the perspective mode. Very nice looking but not sure if it is as practical as the other map views for navigating :) Not had a chance to drive it around much yet so no idea if thre are any other imporvements. See my site for pics – http://spaces.msn.com/rakh1/ Cheers – Rich

Quote: “Distribution of the map disc… THAT will get the black car coming to your door… not necessarily a BMW either – whatever the NavTech police use. :)”

But if you live in an area not covered by the crappy map data, can they actually find you? ;)

Thanks rkw.

My point EXACTLY! :-)

To the folks who installed it and lost the GB voice, were you running a previously hacked version to enable that voice? I’d hate to lose the accent. Got an ’05 with the GB voice an option already enabled from the factory.

BTW, for those that don’t already know…

Another HUGE advantage to installing the V27 update on your MINI’s factory nav system is that it has a really cool new feature that automatically dismisses the silly Accept (or Nag) screen for you after about 3-5 seconds.

No more pushing the Accept button each time you get into your car. This is the way that it should of been from the get go.

WAY TO GO BMW!!!

Gabe (and mdsbrain), the ISO file really shouldn’t be called the “Mac version”… ISO is a standard that is cross-platforms.

In fact, ISO is every bit as PC standard as it is Mac… the original MDF files are application-specific (i.e. you MUST have Alcohol 120%), but ISO can be burned by ANY CD burning program.