[gregoryw1]

How about we use this thread to post cool features others might not know about yet. I'll start it off with this one:

You know there are eight buttons you can program for favorite satellite stations or even phone numbers - but the cool part is that if you just lightly touch the buttons without really pushing too hard then the name of that button appears at the top of the iDrive so you can see which station it would change to if you pushed the button harder. try it out - pretty neat

[sfax]

When cruise control is switched on, to complement the digital set speed, you also see a green light appear next to the speedometer at the set speed. When you brake it goes red and when you resume back to the set speed, it's back to green. One of my favourite features

[lord.vater]

Originally Posted by sfax

When cruise control is switched on, to complement the digital set speed, you also see a green light appear next to the speedometer at the set speed. When you brake it goes red and when you resume back to the set speed, it's back to green. One of my favourite features

and my least favorite that you have to turn the cruise control system on before setting a speed (vs the e90)

a neat thing is the option page on the idrive. lots of hidden things and things that change when you switch to a new page, its always different.

[sfax]

That might be so that you don't switch it on by accident but I agree, I sometimes press Set and then realise that I have to switch it on first

[lord.vater]

dont forgot about music transferring from a USB

[raleedy]

This idea of running the cruise control from buttons on the steering wheel is nuts. BMW has used a stalk in the past for the cruise control. That's a system that doesn't require the extra switch. It's much easier to use. Why they change things that work just fine is a mystery to me.

[Nahoa]

Redial list in the center display at the touch of the phone button and the click wheel to select.

[drtdvl]

I like the Mobile Office features where the car reads the emails back to you and the navigation screen automatically dims over time.

[ssbrad]

More on the eight little programmable buttons - I use a few for functions like one for bringing me directly to traffic screen in Nav and another for stopping guidance in Nav.

[Beyu]

Not an actual feature that's available in the car or at least I'm pretty sure it's not but a video camera would be pretty awesome. People who optioned the tech package have views of the back and sides, the car has a built-in 80GB hard drive that houses everything from a driver's manual to your music.

It seems as if the car already has all the hardware it needs in order to record video, if they made this feature available it could add another level of security to the car instead of the current methods which are reactive and only kick in when someone forces entry into the car. The camera could be good for situations such as a crazy EXs slashing your tires, jealous Mercedes owners keying your car, or car accidents where you were innocent of causing.

[Harplayr]

Originally Posted by lord.vater

dont forgot about music transferring from a USB

Is tht standard, or do you need to buy an upgrade package to get this feature?

[MA78]

Originally Posted by Harplayr

Is tht standard, or do you need to buy an upgrade package to get this feature?

You need the tech package.

[sfax]

Originally Posted by lord.vater

dont forgot about music transferring from a USB

This would be cool if it worked properly and included album artwork.

[lord.vater]

i dont think you need any tech package. as long as you have the new idrive

Originally Posted by sfax

This would be cool if it worked properly and included album artwork.

I have never used it but CD ripping works just fine. I hear you have to JUST have music files on the USB, no other files. Album art? just use the ipod cable

[sfax]

Originally Posted by lord.vater

i dont think you need any tech package. as long as you have the new idrive



I have never used it but CD ripping works just fine. I hear you have to JUST have music files on the USB, no other files. Album art? just use the ipod cable

You do need the tech pack, or pro nav package. I don't think you get an HDD with any other packages.

It may work OK for ripping a CD but if you import MP3s, it inexplicably plays album songs in the wrong order (alphabetical by song title). It's a known bug that they still haven't fixed and renders it useless unless you rename your entire library's song titles so that they start 01, 02 etc (as I had to do) before importing.

Re. album artwork and iPod cable, yes, this works, but then why have the internal HDD at all if you're always using an iPod??

It is a good feature that BMW unfortunately spoiled by some pretty stupid coding

[Waffle]

Back to the original question, gregoryw1 and sfax I had to go check your cool little things out on the loaner I have. Couldn't agree with you more ... hard to top that.

I like the all round lighting. It's like a Christmas tree after spending two weeks in an F10 which didn't have any ambient lighting. The F25 has downlighters on all door handles, ground illumination under all doors, lights in all the footwells, ambient lighting in the door handles and door bins, reading lights all round not to mention the xenons.

[Bustofa]

Originally Posted by sfax

Re. album artwork and iPod cable, yes, this works, but then why have the internal HDD at all if you're always using an iPod??

It is a good feature that BMW unfortunately spoiled by some pretty stupid coding

Just a thought but have you tried loading up MP3s with embedded artwork? I think this is how iTunes stores artwork.
To add it to your MP3s you will first need to load them into your iTunes library. Then select the entire album, right click and select Get Info. There is a box there that you can then paste your artwork into and iTunes will add it to all the files you have selected - you should see it writing back to the disk in the top progress box.
After that you can copy the files directly from the disk to a USB stick and load onto the X3.

Apologies if you have already tried this and, if not, if it doesn't work but grateful for some feedback.

[stlgirl]

like the comfort keyless entry--keys in purse/pocket, just touch the door handle and car unlocks. no more fumbling around for keys. nice-y.

[MA78]

Originally Posted by lord.vater

i dont think you need any tech package. as long as you have the new idrive

Yeah, you do.

[sfax]

Originally Posted by Bustofa

Just a thought but have you tried loading up MP3s with embedded artwork? I think this is how iTunes stores artwork.
To add it to your MP3s you will first need to load them into your iTunes library. Then select the entire album, right click and select Get Info. There is a box there that you can then paste your artwork into and iTunes will add it to all the files you have selected - you should see it writing back to the disk in the top progress box.
After that you can copy the files directly from the disk to a USB stick and load onto the X3.

Apologies if you have already tried this and, if not, if it doesn't work but grateful for some feedback.

Thanks for this but I have tried this. The library is the same one that I load onto my iPod and iPhone and all of the album artwork appears on these devices. It also appears on the iDrive with these devices connected via USB, just not when the mp3s are uploaded. It's like iDrive can read artwork via USB but not when it's on its own HDD. I think this must be because the import ignores all non-music files (like jpgs)

[sfax]

Incidentally, the "embedded" artwork is really just some jpg files sitting in the same directory as the mp3s for a given album. They are hidden by the OS by default

[Bustofa]

Shame.