Sorry for the dumb question here but I bought my 2001 530 last year from a private owner and I never really thought about whether or not to try & connect for a iPhone. I have the talking head icon on my steering wheel along with the R/T button on the wheel and the "Telephone" button on the radio. The only thing in the owner's manual is it talking about seeing the specific owners manual regarding this and I don't have that. How do I know if I'm able to use my phone or not? Thanks in advance!
No bluetooth for YOU! ;-) The simple answer to your question is no - in it's current configuration I would figure the car does not have bluetooth built-into it unless the previous owner took the time and expense to have one installed. I have the same buttons on my '02 525i steering wheel but I believe, with the technology of the day 10 years ago, the phone would have had to be hard-wired to the car for those buttons to work. And I would believe (though I couldn't or wouldn't say for sure) that today's smart-phones would not sync well with a 9/10 year old car unless some $$$$ and time were spent to upgrade the "innards" of whatever "device" was installed into the vehicle back then to enable hands-free phone use. Suggestion? Go to your local mobile phone vendor and pick up a bluetooth device. My pick - the Blue Ant. For around $99 it's worth it. It clips to your visor, and it should be very easy to connect to an iPhone (I have a Blackberry and it works GREAT!). It's fantastic to be able to make surprisingly clear (on both ends) hands-free calls. You can do this without touching your phone OR the bluetooth device, and while safely driving - and staying one step ahead of the "fuzz". Let us know how it works...
phone Q&A Thanks, this is helpful to me as well for my 2001 530 (which I LOVE). Now I am off to Verizon to get my Blue Ant
Blueant S4 I took your advise and bought the Blueant S4 (Amazon $65.00). I JUST got it and so far seems pretty cool. I have a 5 speed so holding a cell phone is quite impossible while shifting. I'll run the Blueant through its some test over the next few weeks to see how it performs then I'll write a short review. You can see a pretty good review on this YouTube site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8sDoXHrDoQ
I replaced the oem radio on my 1998 528i with a Kenwood KDC X895 and my Blackberry works great with it, and it even works with steering wheel buttons. It's worth the $400 I paid; I'd do it again.
OK, just to keep this thread alive and to give "props" to the inventors of the DICE Media Bridge. Put this into my '98 540. Is is really cool to be able to play my 4000+ iPhone music library wirelessly through my DSP system, controlling it with the buttons on my steering wheel and seeing the name of the tunes scroll on the head unit. And then be able to take an incoming call which properly pauses the music, uses the loud speakers in the car and be heard clearly through the microphone hidden in the rook panel. Took about 3 hours to install and very worth the $300 spent. Also lets me play Pandora, so with a big enough data plan and decent 3G coverage, it beats satellite radio. Which I could also install and feed through the media bridge if I were a frequent cross country driver. HIGHLY recommended.
^^^ i also highly recommend the dice media bridge. i installed this in the e46 (super easy to install) and love all the BT audio streaming and hands free phone. I like them so much, i rarely ever use the ipod, for which I originally intended on using with the Mediabridge.
