550isport

As far as I know, all E60s have a shark fin roof top antenna for use with cellular devices. But tying into it requires hard wiring. I spent a good chunk of change to get the V3 snap in kit for my 550. It seriously boosted reception...I could make calls in blackout areas etc... Just because of Bluetooth, interest in the cradles seems to be dying out. Can't someone please make a cradle with an apple ipod style plug that simply charges the iphone and untilizes the shark fin antenna? There must be a sizable market for it?

Anyone have the skills but not the clams? Let's talk...
DRP

bruce_miranda

This is one cradle I'm sure BMW will produce but when is the question. Probably when the world is on iPhone3.

I don't have the iPhone but does the phone have an external aerial socket? Also is the charging socket at the bottom straightforward to put in and remove. If yes then a cradle can be made for it.

550isport

The iphone uses the same exact style plug as an ipod. I have no experience with electronics, but I believe that it is the mere physical connection with the antenna that serves to boost the signal (such as with a radio antenna whereby you simply stick a wire in the antenna outlet and it boosts reception). To power the cable is where the you must know the electronics of the car to tie it in correctly.

It seems easy enough for someone with some experience molding plastics and a basic understanding of electronics.

DRP

550isport

I just found this....

bardel

Thinking of getting an iPhone myself (they come out tomorrow in the UK).

I too think a cradle would be ideal, but it needs to do 3 things in my view.

Charge the phone
Connect to the shark fin antenna
Connect to the USB iPod functionality if you have it installed.

At the moment, if I do decide to get an iPhone, I'm also going to need to buy the iPod adapter cable so I can use it for music in the car (as well as a phone). I'm not going to want one cable for iPod functionality and then another (cradle) for charging / antenna improvements.

bardel

Oh and meant to say, if they come out with the cradle soon enough, then I'll be able to save the money spent (?50) on an iPod cable and put it towards the cradle!

acribb

I have the iPod adaptor on my older 2004 530i and it works great with my iPhone. I just plug in the phone in the glovebox and it interfaces with stereo through the cd changer controls and also works with bluetooth and charges the iPhone. When I make or receive calls through the iDrive, it fades the music out out to take the call. After the call the music fades back in right where it left off. Not a bad solution for such an early build E60, especially since i've heard the new usb ipod interface won't even charge the iPhone.

The only drawback is that it is in the glovebox and that it won't play the on-the-go playlist I make on the iPhone itself. It will only play playlists I set up on it via iTunes.

I would like to get that center console snap in above.

However, it would probably be better if the iPhone was mounted out in the open with a ProClip. You can actually still use the iPhone to surf the internet, email, etc. while it is hooked up to the car. I can even stream sat radio through the browser into the sound system (my home computer serves up the sat radio internet stream through Orb to the iPhone). It actually will play it through the iPod functionality through the stereo. The only problem with that is that the iPhone with EDGE is not quite fast enough to keep up with a 64K/sec music stream so it doesn't work that great off of wifi. Maybe on the next version with 3g this could become workable....

Anyways with the iPhone out in the open you could also use google maps, etc... (I don't have nav).