MINI Connected Updated with New Features
Today MINI is officially rolling out three new and or updated features for MINI Connected we’ve previously covered: Dynamic Music, Mission Control and an enhancement of the current Facebook and Twitter integration. The update is version 2.0 of the app and is ready for download in the iOS app store.
Official Release: MINI Connected gives drivers an even more intense experience of limitless driving fun, and allows that experience to be tailored to personal preferences and even shared with other users. Now the intelligent link-up of the driver, the MINI and the outside world has reached a new stage. The extended MINI Connected App gives Apple iPhone users access to innovative functions designed to enhance driving fun, entertainment and social networking. MINI therefore takes the lead once again in the intelligent link-up of the car with the outside world.
With the Dynamic Music function, every journey in the MINI can be enjoyed to the soundtrack of specially arranged songs, whose rhythm and sound volume adjust to the driving style at any one time. Added to which, the new MINI Connected App now gives the globally unique in-car infotainment function Mission Control two different angles.
To use the MINI Connected App, owners need to specify their MINI with the MINI Visual Boost radio or MINI navigation system, plus the MINI Connected option. Functions integrated into the car via an Apple iPhone can be operated using the joystick, the steering wheel buttons or the on-board monitor. Innovative technology designed to aid the integration of the Apple iPhone into the car gives owners the option to access a wide range of updates and extended services. And the latest version of the MINI Connected App – available from the Apple App Store – allows the latest functions to be transferred into the car. All of which means that MINI Connected customers have a clear road ahead of them when it comes to accessing in-car infotainment innovations both now and into the future.
Always in contact thanks to extended use of Facebook and Twitter.
Among the functions unique in the MINI segment are access to the Googleâ„¢ local search and Googleâ„¢ Send to Car services and reception of user-definable RSS news feeds, the content of which is displayed on the on-board monitor and can be read out using the optional voice output function. Added to which MINI enables the use of web-based social networks in the car. MINI Connected customers can receive Facebook and Twitter posts inside the car, display them on the on-board monitor and have them read out using the optional MINI Connected voice output function. In the same way, preformatted text messages can be sent out directly from the car using either service.
The new MINI Connected App now allows posts composed on an iPhone to be accessed inside the car. A list of the posts already stored in the iPhone can be shown on the on-board monitor during a journey. Updated vehicle data, information on the driver’s destination and the outside temperature can be added to posts and then posted on the desired network at the touch of a button.
More driving fun with Dynamic Music.
The Dynamic Music function likewise featured in the new MINI Connected App contains a selection of exclusively composed music which can be played back through the audio system of the MINI. These pieces of music adapt their rhythm and dynamic flow according to the driving style. The driver can choose from a wide variety of tracks and genres using the on-board monitor and joystick. The desired sound is then modulated according to factors including the car’s longitudinal and lateral acceleration. All of which allows MINI Connected customers to create a MINI-specific soundtrack for the hallmark MINI go-kart feeling according to their mood and driving style.
The MINI Connected App also offers customers variety unmatched in this segment when it comes to tailoring their music selection in other ways. The web radio function allows users to pick up their preferred stations, regardless of their location, while on the move in the MINI. The station database available through the application contains thousands of radio stations whose programmes can be accessed online.
Typically MINI and unique: Mission Control with new functions.
As an alternative to the web radio function, MINI Connected customers can also use an Apple iPhone to activate the Mission Control function. Another feature of the new MINI Connected App, this service offers a further innovative in-car entertainment option to make your driving fun even more varied, in keeping with the unmistakable character of the brand. Mission Control analyses numerous signals relating to the vehicle, the driving situation and the vehicle’s surroundings to provide the driver with relevant information and advice, all generated in dialogue form. These dialogues are based, among other things, on input regarding safety and comfort settings – ranging from a request that the driver and passengers buckle up their seat belts to instructions on the use of the air conditioning system – and also incorporate up-to-date information on driving conditions and the current status of the vehicle, such as the outside temperature and the amount of fuel in the tank.
The system’s extensive pool of comments ensures variety in the interaction between the MINI and its driver, even when situations on the road recur on a daily basis. And now the new MINI Connected App gives the Mission Control function’s repertoire two different angles. The range of advice can be varied by the driver as desired. Among the features supported by the Mission Control function are the use of the MINIMALISM Analyser included in MINI Connected. Once again usable in conjunction with an iPhone, this function generates visible and – thanks to Mission Control – audible alerts to give drivers tips on how to make their individual driving style even more efficient.
The on-board technology assesses a variety of vehicle data during a journey, allowing tips to be passed on to drivers while they are at the wheel to help them reduce fuel consumption. The MINIMALISM Analyser also gives MINI drivers the option of swapping information with fellow owners to draw up an efficiency ranking list. The tips generated by Mission Control to promote an extremely efficiency-focused driving style take an entertaining route to helping drivers improve their position on the MINIMALISM Ranking list.
<p>This is so cool! Not that there are games or facebook nonsense but the fact that you download the update on your phone and not have to go to the dealer! Technology is an awesome thing indeed, and sorry for all the non iPhone users who can’t get this yet, you will just have to convert or wait.</p>
<p>Could be a nice feature … BUT … Mission Control ONLY works with the Snap-In. Im waiting for the Snap-In for the iPhone 4 since January… :-(</p>
<p>Try this part number #84-21-2-199-389 and check your local MINI dealership to see if they have it in stock.</p>
<p>Hi Lee,</p>
<p>thank you for the information. I now have this part:
The radio recognizes the sound files, the covers of the music files are displayed, but there is no sound :-(</p>
<p>Cheers Frank</p>
<p>What are you driving? Mission control works fine for me via the Y-cable. I don’t have the snap in adapter. I’m driving a 2011 Factory JCW.</p>
<p>I have a 3GS and 2011 Cooper S and it wants a snap-in also to run</p>
<p>this morning when I got into my Countryman, I opened the (newly updated) MINI Connected app, hooked up my iPhone to the Y cable, and started the engine. I navigated to Connected, then selected Mission Control.</p>
<p>I was then greeted by a female voice that said hello, and “checked in” with a male voice who appeared to be the engine. The female voice reported how cold is was outside and asked if the engine was warmed up yet. “uh, not quite coach, I’ll check in again when I am” is a rough quote.</p>
<p>about 5 minutes later, the male voice came back on, almost clearing his throat “I’m all warmed up now”.</p>
<p>when I got to my destination, parked the car and switched off the engine, the female voice chimed in “We’ll be waiting here when you get back!”</p>
<p>it’s totally fun. very MINI. I’m loving it.</p>
<p>(I did have to make sure to download the 2x 100Mb data files on the iPhone for Mission Control before I went for a drive)</p>
<p>You know, it seems like a neat idea. But tell me you won’t get sick of this after…about 3 sessions?</p>
<p>Pardon me, but this is another substitute for real life. In case you haven’t noticed, you can only listen to one song at a time, and some of those songs may not be perfectly aligned with ambient mood or the temperature outside or inside or under the hood–or an algorithmic average of all 3, further factoring the upswing in the dollar/pound interface value on the international market. MY NEW MINI with MINI CONNECTED has only one voice, a dominatrix whose mantra is, “I can’t understand you. I can’t understand you. I can’t understand you.” Then she cuts me off. Maybe I should buy her a house and send her monthly payments. Does anybody anywhere remember the sheer joy of a radio, heater and white sidewall tires? Now that was cruising.</p>
<p>With MINI Connected, and NAV, do the voice commands have the ability (like Ford Sync) to respond to commands like “Play Eric Clapton” to automatically select music from the iPhone?</p>
<p>Yea, I have modified a 2 G iphone snap in for my iphone 4. It works in my MINI but I don’t have MINI Connect.</p>
<p>What I can tell you is I talked to people at MINI (last year) about the new snap in and they did not tell me anything. I guess BMW AG is a little slow as MINI comes second, BMW first.</p>
<p>The snap in was released but to BMW side europe first.</p>
<p>I have torn apart the snap in and tested the leads. They are the same for the iphone 2G and 3G as far as the contacts.</p>
<p>If the y cable works as people stated that great.</p>
<p>This thus eliminates the snap in need. Hence why have the snap in for looks i guess?</p>
<p>I can tell you the full bluetooth kit for r50, r52, and r53 has trouble picking up my voice and keeps saying sorry in a female non british voice. It also have a bunch of feedback on the phone once connected. I believe the mic is a little far away, but on the r57 MIN convertible the mic is near the column, have not really tested this.</p>
<p>To have MINI connect in full mode in a convertible is going to be a chore for the Mic pick up for selection , as there is too many outside noise factors. There should be a noise reduction in the convertible system to allow the Mic pick up. I believe this will inhibit the future of MINI connect in the convertible, but it the hard tops, this should be fine.</p>
<p>Found some pics overseas. Looks like if finally went BMW/MINI.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=507155" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=507155</a></p>
<p>If its that costly, then Y cable is the way to go.</p>
<p>275.00?</p>
<p>I dont like the pressure buttons on the back. That will wear.
Also from the snap in , it will wear on the metal band. Like the iphone 4 bumper.</p>
<p>Peiker again.</p>
<p>Dumb question lads – with all this talk of snap-in adapters, is the wiring already there if you have the armrest, or how is that done?</p>
<p>Where is the Android version of the Connected app? If Mini is going to support only one phone operating system, it looks they bet on the wrong horse. From the San Francisco Chronicle, 4/25/11:</p>
<p>Android Accounts for Half of New Smartphone Sales, Nielsen Says</p>
<p>April 26 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc.’s Android operating system powered half of all smartphones bought in the U.S. in the past six months, according to a survey by Nielsen Inc., a sign the software’s market share continues to grow.</p>
<p>Android’s share of new smartphone purchases was double that for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, at 25 percent, the research firm said in a report today, based on a survey in March about devices bought during the past six months. Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry had 15 percent, Nielsen said.</p>
<p>Two reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>First iOS has <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/14/ios-gains-ad-share-from-android-in-march-remains-hottest-app-pl/" rel="nofollow">greater share</a></li>
<li>Second the iOS market isn’t fragmented like Android’s OS market.</li>
</ul>
<p>The article you refer to is about sales of mobile advertisements, not sales of smart phones. The number of potential customers for Mini Connected depends on the number of people buying phones with compatible operating systems, not on advertising revenues. On that score, Android is outselling iOS 2:1 in the US.</p>
<p>By fragmented, do you mean that Android is available on phones from multiple hardware makers and multiple cellphone carriers? Why is that a reason to not develop a Connected app for Android? Most Android apps are not particular to one type of hardware or one carrier; they can be run on any phone using Android. I think that would be a plus for Mini – they would not be putting all of their eggs in one basket, especially important when that basket is losing market share.</p>
<p>Gabriel: the article you posted is regarding AD SHARE, not market share – they’re referring to users of devices accessing advertisements. From the same article:</p>
<p>“Android smartphones still lead iOS devices in terms of market share, with the bad robot now accounting for 48% of the market and Apple devices picking up 31%.”</p>
<p>As far as OS fragmentation, I call BS. As of April 1, 93.6% of all Android devices are running a 2.x version of the OS (63.9% on 2.2 alone). Best stats I could find on iOS were from January, but show that iOS fragmentation is roughly the same as Android fragmentation.</p>
<p>MINI needs to get it together and make with the Android support.</p>
<p>Sources:
April 1 Android breakdown:
<a href="http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html" rel="nofollow ugc">http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html</a></p>
<p>January version breakdown iOS vs Android:
<a href="http://insights.chitika.com/2011/61-of-ipads-already-running-ios-4-january-ios-and-android-os-breakdown/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://insights.chitika.com/2011/61-of-ipads-already-running-ios-4-january-ios-and-android-os-breakdown/</a></p>
<p>Will connected work using an iPad?</p>
<p>Where is the Android version of the Connected app? If Mini is going to support only one phone operating system, it looks they bet on the wrong horse. From the San Francisco Chronicle, 4/25/11:</p>
<p>Android Accounts for Half of New Smartphone Sales, Nielsen Says</p>
<p>April 26 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc.’s Android operating system powered half of all smartphones bought in the U.S. in the past six months, according to a survey by Nielsen Inc., a sign the software’s market share continues to grow.</p>
<p>Android’s share of new smartphone purchases was double that for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, at 25 percent, the research firm said in a report today, based on a survey in March about devices bought during the past six months. Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry had 15 percent, Nielsen said.</p>
<p>Hi. I bought the armrest dock (Snap-In) for the iPhone 4 for my 2011 Countryman. When I was using the 30 pin connector the Apple Out feature was working flawlessly. But when using the Snap-In, I get the response that “No Plugin compatible device connected.” Â Do you know why that is? Is there a fix? Thanks.</p>
<p>Hi. I bought the armrest dock (Snap-In) for the iPhone 4 for my 2011 Countryman. When I was using the 30 pin connector the iPod Out feature was working flawlessly. But when using the Snap-In, I get the response that “No Plugin compatible device connected.” Â Do you know why that is? Is there a fix? Thanks. -Paul.</p>