HI folks, I sit here typing this after some real madness trying to get our new 2008 335xi hands free phone service up and working. When we bought the car our salesman paired up our T-Mobile Dash cell phones to the car and initially it appeared to work wonderfully! Incoming and outgoing calls worked like a snap. But the street addresses did not come over from the phones for the Nav System so that we could use the Nav system to direct us to an address in the phone book. Seemed odd but certainly not a show stopper - I can mention it to the service dept when I bring the car in for its upgrades. When I brought the car in to get satellite radio and the alarm system installed I mentioned this to the service rep and he asked what cell phones we are using and he told me we were NOT using BMW approved phones. "Approved Phones"??!!! HUH????!!! Not only that but if we continued to use these phones we run the risk of corrupting the computer and a $1,200.00 repair bill!!! YIKES!! The salesman most assuredly should have been MUCH clearer on this issue!!!! We immediately unpaired our phones and so began the madness of finding something that IS compatible. We just got back from trying to find a compatible PDA style phone from T-Mobile who is our current service provider. NONE of their current offers work! I went to the wireless 4 BMW website and they list the Blackberry Pearl, the 8700 and the 8800 as compatible with the 2008 335xi. T-Mobile no longer carries the 8700 & 8800.The Pearl (the old one - not the new one with wifi) and the 8820 won't bring in the addresses - phone numbers only. BMW assist says that indicates an incompatible phone. Danger Will Robin DANGER!! We even went so far as to try a friend's iPhone and that did the same thing - it brought in phone numbers just fine but NO addresses for the Nav system!! grrrrrrrrrrrr I'm beginning to think that this whole hands free phone thing on the BMW is an overly fussy piece of crap. Should I take the car in for BMW to try to fix? Since both the Blackberry Pearl AND the Apple iPhone failed (both of which are SUPPOSED to work) I am now suspicious of the car itself. Quite frankly I am so annoyed by this that I am giving serious consideration to just pairing up our T-Mobile Dashes and calling it good. We love our Dashes! ARGH!! Are there any 2008 335 owners out there who are also T-Mobile subscribers that are having a better experience than this??? If so what phone are you using? Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks folks!!
I forgot the mention that I also tried my work issued Verizon Razor and it too only brought over phone numbers - no adresses. More arghiness!!!
They "fail" by not presenting the cell phone address book to the Nav System. In talking to BMW Assist, my local BMW Dealership and Wireless 4 BMW all have told me that if I am not able to access the address book of the cell phone via the Nav System then the phone is not pairing correctly. According to the above mentioned sources not being able to access the address book of the cell phone via the Nav System is NOT good and indicates an incompatible phone. Do know that in all other aspects the above cell phones appeared to work fine. Is this incorrect?
When Jonathan is his stories said Bluetooth is a complex standard he meant it's an incredibly complex, multifaceted set of standards, and there are lots of ways little things can go wrong. Or rather, you can get a not fully complete implementation of the features in your phone transferred to the car. One area where Jonathan and I disagree with BMW is in its approval publicity. BMW only tells you if a phone has passed its tests. It doesn't tell you if a phone has not passed the tests, lumping them in with phones not yet tested by BMW that might well work. Some automakers tell you both. It's probably small consolation, but BMW is regarded as the best at working through Bluetooth compatibility issues. It's all downhill from there. I did an electronics show discussion a couple years back with Lexus' head of customer satisfaction and she said the No.1 issue wasn't acid rain on the paint or ride ... but Bluetooth. And, she said, when something goes wrong, who do customers call: Samsung? Verizon? Lexus? Everybody calls the automaker. I personally would be dubious that a not-100%-compatible cellphone could cause problems with the car leading to repairs.
Completely incorrect. The satnav system does not receive any information from the phone. Are you sure they said that the information would be accessible via the nav system and not just the phone system? Regardless, it's wrong.
I was too - UNTIL I saw Beewang's Samsung phone crash his iDrive system when we tried to pair his mobile to the car at the Welt on 23.10.2007. The iDrive would not reboot (using local equiv. of C-A-D) and the technicians had to take the car down to the Workshop to get it working. One of the technicians came back up and said (in German to me) "You're not using Samsung are you?" (we were). Now, this was an anomaly but it did happen.
Any info on what works with the new 135i. I have ordered one and it is due in next month but I can't really get any info on which phones are compatible. The BMW website does not include the 1series yet. Currently I have Sprint service with a Samsung M510. The BMW web sit indicates that the Samsung M610 should work but Sprint doesn't sell them anymore. Any suggestions? Also, my car will not have I-drive or Nav so is bluetooth capabilities diminished? Thanks.
Mobiles which work with other BMWs we tested here should work with the 1er. Did you read the tests here? Also, in terms of Sprint mobiles, we are in the midst of testing the Instinct. Yes. Your car will come with the low version of the car's computer and will not support speech-to-text (STT) for placing calls. Technically that's not a Bluetooth function per se but it is part of the overall package in terms of using the phone.
I read your summary but haven't seen the individual test reports. Guess I'm missing something. How do you access the individual test reports? I don't mind changing phones if necessary but if the m510 will work then why change. Any idea on its compatability? I would hate to just wait and try to pair it if as some reports seem to indicate that certain phones may cause damage to the car.
I have an 08 m3 and use a Samsung Blackjack 2 (Att) with my idrive system. The best way to describe the pairing is "mediocre". The phone links to the car no problem, and all of my names show up in the car, but if I attempt to use the idrive to initiate the call I hear my own outgoing audio as an echo (ie-I say "hello bob", immediately I hear my own voice echo, then without fail the person I am calling says "Um...you sound terrible and all echo-y." it is actually unusable, and makes having my phonebook on my idrive totally useless. However, if i link my phone, then initiate the call from the phone itself, everything works fine. Also, incoming calls work no matter what. Does anyone else have this issue? When I asked at my dealership I was told that it is due to my phone using Windows Mobile. I am likely going to upgrade my phone next month to either an Iphone2, or a Nokia N95. Anyone have any issues with idrive and Nokia?
Hi folks, I think I have a better understanding of how all this bluetooth synching with the BMW's works. All along I've been making what seemed to me to be an easy assumption: There is only one address book in the computer system of the car. This it turns out is NOT correct. New entries in the Nav System address book do not show up in the cell phone address book and NO entries from the cell phone show up in the Nav System address book. This is the basis of my assumption of TWO address books. In talking with the various elements in BMW (my service rep at the local dealership, BMW Assist & wireless 4 BMW) they were all refering to the cell phone address book NOT the OTHER address book for the Nav System. This caused LOTS of confusion because all along I was assuming they are one in the same. And they are not. There is no cross polination of these two address books. In my mind they ought to be one and the same but hey I'm just the dude behind the wheel!! Wouldn't it be cool if one could find that awesome new resturant online, create a new Outlook contact with the phone number & street address, synch one's cell phone then go out to the car and bring up that address and navigate to it? It all seemed so straight forward to me... Oh well... What we DO have is the concierge service via BMW Assist which will look up the address for that awesome new resturant and in realtime download the navigation info straight to the Nav System! That's damn cool!! Now know that all of the above is based not on true data from BMW but on my own demented logical summation of what I have observed in my car's system's behavior. So if yall think I'm all wet please do so in a kind and generous manner so as to not damage my fragile ego! I've done more than enough head bangin trying to understand that there are TWO address books in the car!! LOL!! Oh for those of you out there with a T-Mobile Dash PDA cell phone it appears to work just fine with our 2008 335xi - once I ahem "understood" the inner workings of the BMW Bluetooth Madness!!
I utilize Sprint and find it very interesting that the "approved" BMW Vendor for cell service is not a Sprint vendor and all the "Approved" Sprint phones are old. Guess I am a bit paranoid. That being said, I have just picked up my 2008 335xi with the Idrive. I have sucessfully paired my Motorola V9m ( just make sure to get the extended battery) and my wife's V3m. Both work well with the 335xi. The V9m works pretty well with my 2007 X3 (with Nav) except being able to voice dial from my phone book. The phone book transfers correctly but when I try to dial by name, it tells me phone book is empty. I can dial by saying the number.
Thanks for clarifying. Actually, I think you brought up a really good point. In thinking about it, wouldn't one expect addresses to transfer over when one accesses the address book. Alas, for Bluetooth telephony, the answer is no, just multiple phone numbers (which come in various guises depending on your mobile, optimially labeled as "home" *or "Privat" ) or "mobile" etc. or in some cases, not labeled very well at all. I would like to also point out that BMW now offers connectivity between Google Maps and the car's satnav system - see my article here. This is sometimes even more convenient than using the Concierge.
Not sure what you mean exactly. I have not changed the phonebook in my phone. It has remained pretty static for the past week (as I just got the phone last week just before I took delivery of the 335xi). I think the problem is the 2007 X-3 does not have I-Drive. It is not such a big problem as I can scroll down the numbers on the screen and dial that way.
The X3 has a separate phonebook and no TTS capability. To clarify further, given the separate phonebook and lack of TTS, you have to train the system and this occurs via the separate phonebook where you create the individual entries manually. You can find out how to do this in the manual and probably via the HELP command in Bluetooth.
