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09-26-2008, 12:35 PM | #1 |
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2009 iDrive Navigation Review
Gents,
Well, after some time behind the new navigation system featured in Gen 2 iDrive (or whatever we are calling it), I figured I'd post a review with some pics. As you would expect, the new navigation system is much more sophisticated than generation 1. Most importantly (and what all of you want to know), is that the new system allows you to search for any POI without having to pick a category first. By selecting ALL categories, you can search through a list of POIs, or you can type the POI in yourself and see what the system comes up with. It is truly handy, and we are very fortunate that BMW didn't stick with the very restrictive confines for POIs that we encountered in Gen 1. A couple of other pros/cons: PROS -Exit Ramp mode- truly sweet. I don't have a pic of this (but I know there was one in the original press release), but it is a really cool graphic that is very functional. It is amazing that the system can give you such a detailed picture of what the offramp or transition really looks like. -Route modes- the nav will give you up to three selections to choose from so that you can pick the route of your fancy. It will highlight all three routes in different colors on the map so that you can see the differences, and it will also give a route time with each selection so you can know which is faster and which is slower. Awesome feature! -Screen capabilities- besides the improved graphics, the full screen and split screen content features are really functional. You can put virtually anything on the split screen, and "night mode" is awesome too. CONS Navigation voice volume- this is a HUGE mistake on BMW's behalf. I commented earlier that the nav voice is a bit more realistic sounding in this version. However, I uncovered a serious mistake in the programming of the system today. When trying to make the guidance voice louder, I realized that the guidance volume is not indepedent from the stereo volume. As you know, the volume is adjusted by turning the knob while the lady is giving some route guidance. However, in turning up the lady's voice, you also turn up the volume of the stereo as soon as she is done talking. I tried it a million different ways by having the radio off or on mute, and there is no way around it...as soon as the CD or radio comes back on, it is way louder than you initially had it. I am going to report this to my dealership so that BMW can work on a software fix. It is incredibly obnoxious because you can never hear her voice unless you want to have the radio on very loud. How did BMW miss this????!!!!! I confirmed with a friend in a 335i with the new iDrive as well, in case you think I'm full of BS. -Traffic Info- doesn't work for me here in Germany. Something about US spec vehicles not having the right coding or something. Anyway, it is probably not a CON in the US, but I can't use it here so BMW obviously overlooked something. I don't know how to do captions on the pics, so I hope you can figure out which is which. The system is really good at finding POIs both manually (with you inputting the name) and by searching through the categories. Frankly, if you know what you are looking for there is no reason why you would not go directly to manual search and punch in what you are looking for. Anyway, hope you enjoy the shots. |
09-26-2008, 12:46 PM | #2 |
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route choices
here is a shot of when the system gives you route choices. the pic doesn't show the colors that well, but you can see that they are outlined on the map with different end times for each.
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09-26-2008, 12:57 PM | #3 |
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Don't you have to press in, hold, and turn the volume dial up if you want to increase the nav woman's voice and not turn up the stereo?
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09-26-2008, 01:18 PM | #4 |
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All of the things you've described about the nav -- all great. Of course, those all should have been standard with the original nav, because other car nav systems already had those options.
Resolution of the graphics looks 1000x better. I hope they get the volume issue sorted out (or I hope you were doing it wrong, as Xcellere suggests).
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09-26-2008, 01:35 PM | #5 |
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09-26-2008, 01:37 PM | #6 |
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@Big Windy: very much appreciate the review - helpful.
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09-26-2008, 01:37 PM | #7 |
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Thanks for the review. Sounds like they have fixed the POI issue. Ashame it involves a entirely new platform though ;-) Oh well. The price you pay for technology improvements I guess.
I'm sure the volume issue can be addressed via a software fix. |
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09-26-2008, 01:38 PM | #8 |
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What more can I say than...I am jealous.
Best regards, south
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09-26-2008, 02:12 PM | #9 | |
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09-27-2008, 11:10 AM | #10 |
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Guys,
After some experimenting and , I figured out a bit of a work around. I admit that I was partially wrong in my initial assessment that you can't make the nav lady louder. The manual outlines that the new iDrive has a menu that allows you to adjust the volume of Nav, PDC, and (OH MY GOD YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO BE HAPPY ABOUT THIS) the "gong" seat belt/warning noise. The menu basically has a volume adjustment for each one of those three settings and you can set their volume in relation to the CD/audio sound. Unfortunately, there are minimums and maximums for both (so you can't eliminate the gong altogether), but this setting is still good enough to give some juice to the navigation voice. This helps drastically in being able to hear the nav over the CD. However, it still does not make sense that when you adjust the volume during guidance that it, in turn, bumps the volume of the audio source as soon as the guidance is complete. Anyway, I definitely needed to clarify this because I should have read the manual beforehand and figured this out before my initial post. Being able to nearly silence that damn gong is a godsend, btw. I'm sure many will appreciate that... |
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09-27-2008, 12:05 PM | #11 |
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Nice write-up!
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09-27-2008, 09:33 PM | #13 | |
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You full of BS?!!?!! Naaaa, your reputation is too good for our mind to even start thinking about something like that!! On the other hand, there is one feature I really wish existed (or really wished I knew about... in case I missed in my manual too ): the reverse direction!! Imagine you are going from A to B...but A is a random location where you were when you decided to go to B... whenever your final location is C (you follow me??). So basically, I'd like to go to B, go back to A and then go to C... (that happened to me today while driving in the mountains I had to go to a dealership to get oil and then wanted to come back on a beautiful road....but could not find it anymore... just annoying). Actually, we should start a thread of the "desired features" for iDrive 3 so that wir werden ein bischen die BMW-Ingenieure hilfen!
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09-27-2008, 11:30 PM | #14 | |
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09-28-2008, 10:55 AM | #17 | ||
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09-28-2008, 12:15 PM | #18 | |
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09-28-2008, 01:33 PM | #19 | |
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There are many things that have changed, including the interfaces, the wiring harness, the fact the HD radio is now part of the CIC ... etc, etc. Then there is the issue of coding, and not just that, but the authorization keys to enable the coding and features on the car. |
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09-28-2008, 01:44 PM | #21 |
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Can anyone confirm the direction that the steering wheel up/down buttons on Gen 1 change tracks? I discovered today that Gen 2 has the up button changing to the track backwards and the down button changing the track forwards. I thought that the Gen 1 was different from when I had it on my 335i...
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09-28-2008, 08:59 PM | #22 |
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Gen 1 idrive, up moves to the next track. down moves to the previous track. Same for telephone address lists and pre-sets on Sirius, Fm, Hd radio, etc.
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