Good news for anybody who has a BMW bluetooth handsfree kit and snap in adapter for the iPhone. I have found a gadget which allows you to connect to the AD2P bluetooth connection on your iPhone and to play music or internet radio on your cars FM radio. I have bought one and it does work although there is a little fiddling around to be done. Its not a solution I would recommend for very short journeys or if you are in a mad hurry but if you have a couple of minutes to set up before you depart you should be more than happy with it. The device you need is made by Satechi and you will find the details here http://www.satechi.net/satechi-item.php?item=B000NVYVRO

I have found that you can get both the Satechi device and BMW bluetooth to work at the same time. However when you try to connect initially the Satechi will knock off the BMW Bluetooth connection. However in the Bluetooth connections section if you reconnect with your BMW Bluetooth system the connection does come up again supporting both devices simultaneously. I have found it can take a couple of attempts to get it going. However I have succeeded in making and receiving calls. The Satechi connection is suspended while this is happening and restarts when the call finishes. However you will need to retart the music from the iPhone. I have found that there is a slight bit of background noise ( a ?zizz?) but nothing excessive Incidentally if you wish the Satechi device will also function in its own right as a handsfree device playing out the voice of the person you are speaking to on the same FM signal in your car. However you will lose the phonebook displayed on the iDrive screen etc.

Although this not absolutely 100% perfect I think this is quite a good solution. As I understand it the next iPhone update this month includes some enhancements to Bluetooth functionality and it will be interesting to see if support for simultaneous connections improves to the point that you do not have to reinitiate one or other of the connections at startup which would be fantastic.

Satechi also have other enhanced devices which could be worth a look at also.

In the meantime I am now listening to crystal clear reception BBC Radio 4, World Service etc in my car driving through Dublin over a 3G connection with no connection drops. This is something I have wanted for a long time. Up to this I could only receive it on Long Wave and reception in Southern Ireland has been appalling. Although my focus has been on internet radio it works perfectly well with MP3s etc.

I hope this is helpful.

 

So in a nutshell, this is just a wireless FM transmitter using BT for connection. You still need to pick a FM frequency to hear music.

 

Correct. The attraction is that it will work with the phone cradled, secure and charging. Other FM solutions depend on access on the headphone jack or the connection at the bottom of the phone. Neither of these are possible when the phone is placed in the snap-in adapter. And you can make and receive calls via the BMW bluetooth system.

As I said it's not perfect, it is a little fiddly but if you can live with this it does function quite well.

 

Have you considered the Dension 500? More money but it does this & then some.

 

I haven't because I didn't know about it. I spoke to a local Dension dealer this morning and the cost is over ?500 ($714) fitted plus a BMW dealer needs to enable your iDrive for iPod/iPhone integration which is another cost. He also said they haven't had much success installing in BMWs although the Dension 500 seems to work well with Mercedes and Audis. I think my $69 investment looks better for the moment. I am sure there will be more developments in this space shortly so happy with what I have got for now.

 

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