[bacampbe]

I'm confused by the recent BMW press release about new iPhone apps for BMW Apps. It says they will add Audible, Glympse, Rhapsody, and TuneIn Radio support.

I was under the impression that BMW Apps connected just with the BMW Connected app, and that the currently integrated apps are "features" of the BMW Connected app. But I gather from the PR wording that they mean that each of these stand-alone apps will add BMW Apps support.

I haven't played with the BMW Connected app for a while, but I recall it required you to manually launch the app, and if you switched away from it (e.g. if you received a call), you had to manually switch back. That was bad enough with a single app, but how would that work with multiple separate apps?

[TheDuke83]

With Mog, you just launch the Mog app. You don't have to launch the connected app first, so I assume they will work similarly.

[bacampbe]

Interesting--I don't have Mog. Does that mean you have to touch your phone to switch from "Mog" things to "BMW Connected App" things? What happens if I get a phone call?

I was just digging around in the BMW Connected App and noticed they say the internet radio part was developed with help from TuneIn, so maybe that part really has been integrated through the connected app. OTOH, I've been able to use the TuneIn iOS app over bluetooth since day one, so I'm not sure what is expected to change with that part of the press release.

[ad78]

i havent tried mog but i always use pandora. you only launched pandora then it will show on your connected drive. on your iPhone/ipod it will sync together. like a hybrid (pandora/bmwconnected) the problem here is as soon as you hit the home button you are done! i hate it.. im hoping bmw will update this and you can run it on background...

[joewalton]

Originally Posted by bacampbe

I'm confused by the recent BMW press release about new iPhone apps for BMW Apps. It says they will add Audible, Glympse, Rhapsody, and TuneIn Radio support.

I was under the impression that BMW Apps connected just with the BMW Connected app, and that the currently integrated apps are "features" of the BMW Connected app. But I gather from the PR wording that they mean that each of these stand-alone apps will add BMW Apps support.

I haven't played with the BMW Connected app for a while, but I recall it required you to manually launch the app, and if you switched away from it (e.g. if you received a call), you had to manually switch back. That was bad enough with a single app, but how would that work with multiple separate apps?

Your assumption is correct.

These four apps are "BMW app ready" (like Pandora is now) but aren't actually part of the BMW apps bundle (like Facebook is now). So just like almost any other app for iPhone, when a call comes in, Angry Birds stops, you take the call, the call ends, and you have to re-launch the app from where you left off.

There doesn't seem to be a BMW protocol. The individual app developers seem to make sure that it works over iDrive, but after that its up to them to sweeten functionality based on how much they care.

[joewalton]

Originally Posted by ad78

i havent tried mog but i always use pandora. you only launched pandora then it will show on your connected drive. on your iPhone/ipod it will sync together. like a hybrid (pandora/bmwconnected) the problem here is as soon as you hit the home button you are done! i hate it.. im hoping bmw will update this and you can run it on background...

Again, it's not BMW writing the app, it's Pandora. And Pandora plays by iPhone rules and right now certain apps and certain implementations over Bluetooth have limitations such as not running (or more accurately, not playing music) in the background.

[bacampbe]

Originally Posted by joewalton

Your assumption is correct.

These four apps are "BMW app ready" (like Pandora is now) but aren't actually part of the BMW apps bundle (like Facebook is now). So just like almost any other app for iPhone, when a call comes in, Angry Birds stops, you take the call, the call ends, and you have to re-launch the app from where you left off.

There doesn't seem to be a BMW protocol. The individual app developers seem to make sure that it works over iDrive, but after that its up to them to sweeten functionality based on how much they care.

The issue here isn't that we necessarily need each app to auto resume. It's that we need the ability to launch or switch to it via iDrive. Case in point:Glympse integration will be very close to useless if you have to activate it first on the phone. You might as well just do the whole thing on the phone.

[bacampbe]

Originally Posted by joewalton

Again, it's not BMW writing the app, it's Pandora. And Pandora plays by iPhone rules and right now certain apps and certain implementations over Bluetooth have limitations such as not running (or more accurately, not playing music) in the background.

The stand-alone TuneIn app works perfectly fine over Bluetooth. It resumes after phone calls, and runs in the background. (There are some bugs, but it generally works.) It even displays titles.

But do BMW Apps work over BT? I thought we were talking about wired connections here.

[joewalton]

Originally Posted by bacampbe

The issue here isn't that we necessarily need each app to auto resume. It's that we need the ability to launch or switch to it via iDrive. Case in point:Glympse integration will be very close to useless if you have to activate it first on the phone. You might as well just do the whole thing on the phone.

Right now, that's not how it works. BMW doesn't have a protocol for iDrive to independently control apps. BMW apps requires you launch an app just to get some functionality. And then you have the app developers who would need to write code just for iDrive. Very daunting.

Originally Posted by bacampbe

The stand-alone TuneIn app works perfectly fine over Bluetooth. It resumes after phone calls, and runs in the background. (There are some bugs, but it generally works.) It even displays titles.

But do BMW Apps work over BT? I thought we were talking about wired connections here.

Lets not confuse things. BMW Apps (the suite of Facebook, Twitter, etc.) does not work over Bluetooth. Needs a USB wire.

"Works with BMW" standalone apps do work with Bluetooth. For example Pandora, you can see titles and skip, but no album art and no ratings. For those advanced functions you need to USB wire it.

Apps are not ready for primetime. It's good that we have that $250 option in the hope that it'll rock in the future. But for now, it's not very good.

[Ron Scott]

BMW has to be the worst when it comes to digital interfacing.

They should just go for green on a black background, call it retro, and have done with it...