[Official Release] The AUPEO! Personal Radio iPhone app will soon be available for all current BMW and MINI models. Following the launch of the Pandora and MOG music services for the US product range in 2011, the BMW and MINI Connected Apps options will allow customers in Europe, too, to enjoy their own personal music service.
AUPEO! is a customisable internet radio service that uses a recommender system to allow music to be matched to listeners’ individual tastes.
AUPEO! enables customers to listen to personalised radio compiled from a database of almost one million tracks. When they enter a genre or artist, an algorithm developed by the Fraunhofer Institute recommends tracks that match their own personal taste. Or they can use the Mood Tuner function, which selects tracks according to mood. Alternatively, they can choose from more than 150 channels specially pre-compiled by AUPEO!’s music managers, such as “80s Best” or “Rock Classics”.
The AUPEO! app for the Apple iPhone will be downloadable free of charge from the iTunes App Store at www.itunes.com/appstore. It can be used in all current BMW models equipped with the Apps option, and in all MINI models equipped with the MINI Connected option.
The BMW Apps option provides extensive, application-based integration of the Apple iPhone into BMW models. A host of infotainment functions can be integrated seamlessly into the car, where they can be operated easily and intuitively using the iDrive system.
In MINI models, the Apple iPhone can be integrated using the MINI Connected App. The extensive MINI Connected functionality, supplemented by third-party apps, allows MINI customers to stay connected at all times, in ever new ways, and so enrich their driving experience.
“Our aim for the future is to cooperate with further infotainment providers in order to give our customers seamless in-car access to services they are already using,” says Andreas Schwarzmeier, Product Manager BMW ConnectedDrive.
<p>i wish they would work with netflix or hulu so i can watch those videos on my screen. (while parked of course)</p>
<p>I really dislike the “Driving Profile” and “Audio Profile” choices forced upon users. Unless I’m mistaken if I’m currently using “Driving Excitement” MINI app and want to switch to Google Local Search I have to disconnect the phone, go to the MINI Apps “App profiles” screen, mess with the settings there, then reconnect the phone. e.g. there’s no way to do it simply using the car’s buttons/controls. Ridiculous.</p>
<p>So I just wish they’d get the current feature set working in a coherent fashion rather than bolt on more features.</p>
<p>The whole system is always available. You don’t dead end into just one app. You can either back your way out of any particular app, or there is a button to take you to the “top,” if you will, of the system. As for audio apps, they’re essentially treated as audio sources. For example, last time I was using this system, I was able to switch from FM, to MOG to the music on my own iPhone as seamlessly as I’d change audio sources when the iPhone wasn’t even plugged in. Likewise, with audio playing from any of those sources, I could use Google Local Search or the Navigation system without ever having to unplug the iPhone. I would just back my way out to the home screen and go down one of those other paths.</p>
<p>Not true. There are two profiles AND the choice of car sounds or web sounds within each profile. Some apps are ONLY available under a specific combination of profile AND sounds</p>
<p>I am perplexed as to why you are doing that, the system is very user friendly and open ended. You can go from one section to the next without touching the phone (the whole point of the system).</p>
<p>Let me start by saying I have an iPhone 3GS. Are you using a 4 or 4S? Perhaps my phone is somehow more limited than yours? My MINI connected app is up to date.</p>
<p>When I fire up MINI connected (and my phone is not connected to my MINI) I can tap the bottom rightmost button (labeled MINI apps) and then tap the button on the top, right hand of the screen (a graphic icon of a MINI). Doing this brings me to a screen titled “App profiles” that has “Profile settings”. On this screen is written the following:</p>
<p>“Here you can configure your app set for use in the vehicle. The selected profiles define the apps that are active in the vehicle. These are marked accordingly in the iPhone app list. For technical reasons, it is unfortunately not possible to use all functions in the the vehicle simultaneously.”</p>
<p>So, when I’m in the car, phone plugged in, the set of apps that appears in the MINI connected display menu system is a subset driven by the choices previously made in the “App profiles” screen. I cannot back out and navigate to those apps that are not part of that subset.</p>
<p>No, Mysticeti is correct.</p>
<p>The Driving Excitement profile does limit the set of apps that you can access in the system. For instance google and twitter are not available for selection while using the Driving Excitement profile. You have to change profiles on the phone to access those apps.</p>
<p>It works the same for 3g, 4, and 4s iphones.</p>
<p>No, Mysticeti is correct.</p>
<p>The Driving Excitement profile does limit the set of apps that you can access in the system. For instance google and twitter are not available for selection while using the Driving Excitement profile. You have to change profiles on the phone to access those apps.</p>
<p>It works the same for 3g, 4, and 4s iphones.</p>
<p>Thanks Greg.</p>
<p>Although now I’m bummed again as I my hopes had risen that a newer iPhone would help with this limitation.</p>
<p>I have no idea what the “technical reasons” are for this limitation but if they could let people choose the MINI apps they want to use in an a la cart fashion (up to a certain maximum perhaps?) that would suit me.</p>
<p>The whole system would be much better if Mini just released the connected SDK to all software developers. Like Apple does with IOS4.
Then you would have much better interface design and more software to choose from as well as support for Android OS smartphones.</p>
<p>I am sure mini has a limit for the apps based on internal system memory or limitations of mini connected running in IOS. But yeah, an a la cart mini-connected app allowing the user to chose the preferred apps would be nice.</p>