Raighne

I found this BMW NA pdf giving more details on the USB port on the new X5.

The strange part is the included cable which is "required to fully integrate an Apple iPod"
On one end it has a USB cable and a male AUX plug, in the middle there's a kind of dongle and on other end an iPod dock connector. It's one ugly cable and will look just lovely dangling out of the rear console.

Any idea what is going on here?

Greg530

Uh oh, that looks strange!

Anyway, the document says that "is also compatible with some non-Apple MP3 players and USB flash drives; allowing for access to music files".

I'm fairly familiar with the ipod interface and it's either accessed as a mass storage drive (like a flash drive) OR as an ipod (for controls, like today's solution).

Either way, connecting the audio jack should not be required.


I can think of only one explanation: BMW built some kind of non-standard, "dual" mode USB socket which functions as a USB host (for flash drives) AND as ipod controls (in this mode it's wired to the CD changer port and is not a real US. The black box on the supplied cable would tell the computer to switch to "ipod mode" instead of USB.

While this solution would allow playing DRM content (iTunes purchases) it would be equivalent to today's sssslllloooowwwww technology.


Regardless, if I had that USB port, I'd just stick in a huge external hard drive, like 120 GB, and forget the ipod.
(Or get a power brick so I could use an external 3.5" drive in order to reach 500+ GB

I say this while I'm a huge Apple fan (got most of their products!).

Greg

aybeesea

A sibling for the iDrive?

ABC

vji6697

The cable looks way too small, it seems as if the ipod will be left dangling.

I have ordered this option and was going to go the USB HDD route tucked away somewhere.

Raighne

The current MOST iPod adapter is looking much more attractive that the overpriced, poorly designed USB port. At least it allows you to protect/hide your iPod in the glove compartment. Let's hope that solution still works on the LCI and that they have not disabled it in software somehow.

hinckley

On the LCI E60, if you don't order the new USB option, do you still get the Aux-in jack at the rear of the center console?

Scandic24

Great info!
Thanx!

JSpira

The cable is needed because the iPod audio will go thru the aux-in jack and the digital data goes through the USB jack.

Heiss5

I was thinking that too, but I have to ask why? The USB jack could handle both the audio and the data, so why seperate it like that?

JSpira

The fact that the iPod can only send music out in analog might have something to do with it - or another guess, the iPod has more data traffic so the audio is offloaded to a separate channel.