I have ordered my car 'bluetooth ready'. I have a phone (BB Pearl) which is Bluetooth ready. Is that all I need? Do I need a cradle? What is the use of a cradle?

Thanks for your help

 

That's all you basically need, a cradle is only to make a charging and (where availiable) external antennae connection

 

Your Pearl should work fine except you will not be able to download your phone book to the car. However you will be able to see it in the iDrive after it pairs. BTW there is no cradle for the pearl.
Good luck with your new car.

 

Thanks chaps.

What is the difference between "downloading to the car" and "see it in idrive". If I want to make a call to someone in my addressbook can I use idrive/voice control to do it?

 

If the address book is not downloaded to the car, you won't see it in the iDrive. You can download the address book as long as you are using BB SS 4.1 or higher (check under Options/Advanced Options/Applictions).

Another option is to create shortcuts with voice control (I think - I don't have it!), but you need to do that manually (vocally?) entry-by-entry if the address book is not downloaded.

Also - if you have a very large address book (1000+) it may not all fit in the car's memory. Mine stops around ~1200 entries.

 

Yes thats all you need and yes you will be able to see your phone book on your I-Drive. It will not load your phonebook into the cars Voice memory. That you will have to do manually if you want to save entries. You can save them by pressing the Voice Recognition button on your steering wheel and holding it for 2 seconds then letting go of the button you will hear a beep after the beep say "Save Name" it will ask you to say the name twice then it will ask you for the number say the number and and after it repeats the number and it is correct say "Save". The entry will be saved in your car Voice Memory. Then if you want to dial that number. Just hit the Voice Recognition button on your steering wheel for 2 seconds and hold it and then let go, when you hear the beep say "Dial Name" it will ask you for the name then say the name and it will repeat it back to you. If it is correct say "Dial" and it will dial the number. If you just want to dial a number thats not in your phone book and you know the number by heart you can also use the "Dial Number command. Once again hit and hold the Voice button on the steering wheel for 2 seconds and let go after the beep say "Dial Number" it will ask you for the number, say the number , it will repeat it back to you if its correct just say dial. That should cover it.

 

The Save Name procedure is not needed on CCC (nav) cars. If the phonebook transfers to the car, which will work fine on the Pearl, all names can be dialed by voice using a speech-to-text system. In other words, you don't need to "teach" the car any names, it'll understand them just from how it's entered in the phone.