Ipod Adapter No Nav Question...

[stampchez]

Is there a faster way to scroll through a whole list? Trying to pick a specific artist takes forever. I wonder if you can go by first letter somehow.

[amybang]

There's a suggestion to edit your songs in iTunes to put the first letter of the artist's name in the Genre field. Then you can scroll through Genre by letter in the car and then find the artist within. I haven't tried it yet.

amy!

[jeremyc74]

I've been wondering the same thing, and so far I haven't found any way to go through them other than just turning the knob forever.

The suggestiong about putting a letter in the Genra field sounds like it would work, but man that's going to be a PITA to do if you've got a large collection with a lot of varied artists.


I've been making Smart playlists for artists I listen to frequently and that helps a lot, but getting to the others is a pretty slow process.

[MadisonOne]

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

I've been wondering the same thing, and so far I haven't found any way to go through them other than just turning the knob forever.


I've been making Smart playlists for artists I listen to frequently and that helps a lot, but getting to the others is a pretty slow process.

I have the Ipod/No Nav setup. If you think about it, the BMW interface is exactly like the Ipod itself. On the Ipod, you can't type in the first few letters to get to the artist you want: you have to flick your thumb on the scroll wheel to get there, press the center button to select, scroll to the album you want, press the button again....

Exactly how you do it with the BMW interface. So why are people say it's tedious and takes forever with lots of artists? If you were listening to your Ipod with headphones, you'd have to do the exact same steps. Only difference is, you're not driving :wink:

[amybang]

Originally Posted by MadisonOne

I have the Ipod/No Nav setup. If you think about it, the BMW interface is exactly like the Ipod itself. On the Ipod, you can't type in the first few letters to get to the artist you want: you have to flick your thumb on the scroll wheel to get there, press the center button to select, scroll to the album you want, press the button again....

Exactly how you do it with the BMW interface. So why are people say it's tedious and takes forever with lots of artists? If you were listening to your Ipod with headphones, you'd have to do the exact same steps. Only difference is, you're not driving :wink:

The iPod interface fast forwards by the first letter of the artist if you scroll fast. It's adaptive to how fast you scroll. The BMW interface is the same slow speed no matter what you do. It's much, much faster on my iPod.

amy!

[john970]

^^Agreed, the ipod wheel is much better. The idrive wheel is a user interface nightmare, it stutters and is generally a pita.

Apple UI engineers: 1, BMW embedded programmers: 0

[amybang]

Originally Posted by john970

^^Agreed, the ipod wheel is much better. The idrive wheel is a user interface nightmare, it stutters and is generally a pita.

Apple UI engineers: 1, BMW embedded programmers: 0

Well, I don't have iDrive, it's just painful through the base radio.

But your final assessment is harsh when you don't consider how bad the car interface could actually be. I ran screaming away from Audi/VW because of the iPod option they wanted me to pay for that didn't even show song titles. Given that the BMW guys probably didn't have a hardware choice and were trying to adapt what they got from Apple to the hardware BMW gave them, they did a fair job.

I'd say:
Apple UI engineers: 1, BMW embedded programmers: 0.5+

amy!

[john970]

Originally Posted by amybang

Well, I don't have iDrive, it's just painful through the base radio.

But your final assessment is harsh when you don't consider how bad the car interface could actually be. I ran screaming away from Audi/VW because of the iPod option they wanted me to pay for that didn't even show song titles. Given that the BMW guys probably didn't have a hardware choice and were trying to adapt what they got from Apple to the hardware BMW gave them, they did a fair job.

I'd say:
Apple UI engineers: 1, BMW embedded programmers: 0.5+

amy!

I'm a programmer, and they get a zero. BMW picked their own hardware and software, which are both more powerful than what apple has to work with.

BTW, the bimmer uses Java on top of VxWorks and would never get past our Java code review process (we do similar software but for airplanes).