MMI Navigation Plus / Online Services / Mobile Phones

[sunders]

So, I picked up my A7 on Saturday. It's pretty much specced up with every available extra, so I had a great 300 mile round trip to try out the Adaptive Cruise, Side Assist, Lane Assist, Air Suspension etc. etc.

Totally awesome car. Definitely the best all rounder I've ever owned. If you're considering buying one and have any specific questions let me know and I'll do my best to help.

However, there is one niggle which I don't know whether it's down to me or the car and that is navigation and communications.

When I picked up the car I paired my iPhone 4 very easily and was immediately able to make and receive calls hands free, see my contacts and missed calls on the dash etc. I could also stream audi from the iPod or Spotify apps via bluetooth which is very convenient compared to having to dock in my previous car (which would work fine for the iPod app but not Spotify).

Anyway, when I got the car home I thought I'd try out some of the online services functions such as using Google Earth as the navigation map and the in car wifi hotspot. Neither would work with my iPhone connected via bluetooth. So, I took the SIM card out of my laptop dongle and slotted that straight into the socket in the dash. This immediately made the Google earth work and the wifi hotspot, but caused the iPhone to disconnect via bluetooth.

So, my conclusion is that the you can't use a SIM card and a bluetooth handset simultaneously, which just seems dumb.

Clearly, I want people to be able to call me on my usual mobile number when I'm in the car and so I want to use my iPhone via bluetooth. Also, I want to be able to use the car's tech to the fullest, which it appears I can only do by using a seperate SIM card.

Does anybody else have any experience of this on the A7 or the other cars that provide Online Services?

[shabazmo]

Hi Sunders,
Firstly congratulations on your new A7. It reads like a great speced car. From what I know we are the only 2 people on the forum with A7s. Please post some pics and detail the extras that you have. Ideally on your signature.

Regarding the phone connection, i am able to use the phone and google maps at the same time. Although I am not an expert, i know that there are 2 ways of setting up your phone, "handsfree" which gives limited functionality or "carphone" which has fuller access. My old blackberry did not allow me to set it up as carphone but my new one does, so maybe the iphone is not fully compatible. If you have a choice of connecting handsfree or carphone choose carphone on the MMI. Perhaps you could disconnect the phone and try again.
Although I have had the car for 6 weeks, I have not had much time to play with all the gadgets, but am reading the manual so i can understand every feature.
Let me know how you get on and i will experiment with my car and give you feedback.
PS. Do you have the Homelink facility? If so, does it work. I am having problems with mine.
Regards

[Architex_mA8tey]

Hi Sunders and congrats on your new A7!
Im looking at speccing mine at the mo with a view to October delivery (hopefully 3.0 tdi quattro se or sport)
Im wondering if this is to do with needing tethering set up on your iphone so that it can share the wifi connection with the A7 whilst the phone still works as a phone? I will look into this as I am in another A8 soon which has this and have tethering set up already
As Shabazmo said - lets see pics pics pics!!
Do either of you have a HUD on yours ? Id love to see more pics of what the dash looks like when you have it and what features you get on the screen etc

[shabazmo]

head up display pictures on prevous post below. You are welcome to test mine.

https://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/s...?117299-New-a7

[aurora7]

Hi Sunders,

Have you found out any more on this? I've experienced exactly the same thing in my new A7 (iPhone 4 paired fine, but disconnected when I put the SIM from my 3G dongle into the SIM card slot). Really annoying, in what is otherwise a technically feature rich and fantastic car. But I want to be able to use googlemaps and online services at the same time as receiving calls on my connected iPhone 4 and this doesn't seem possible unless I've missed something??

Thanks.....

[agw82]

I think you are going to be a little bit out of luck I'm afraid guys still waiting for final confirmation but having a SIM in the dash will override the Bluetooth handset.

Whilst I agree to a point that this is possibly an oversight on Audi's part, this is also an iPhone issue. If our dear friends at Apple weren't such control freaks they would have given the iPhone rSAP and you wouldn't be having this issue..

[AndyMic]

agw82 is correct.
I have had this confirmed by an Audi dealer.
There are three options I can find.
1. Replace the iPhone with an rSAP enabled phone such as the Samsung Galaxy 5
2. Use the Orange 1Number service (only available to business users)
3. Get an additional SIM and forward your calls to it when in the vehicle.

Bummer really.
I've tried to get information on the iPhone 5 and IOS 5 to see if they'll be implementing the SAP bluetooth protocol but I've not had any luck getting sufficient detail.

Andy

[AndyMic]

For clarification....

Orange 1Number gives you two SIMs on the same number.

[agw82]

iOS 5 does not support rSAP I'm afraid so it's very unlikely the iPhone 5 will support it.

I can definitely recommend the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II for anyone thinking about switching...

[IkaMega]

The latest update to the iPhone iOS 4.3 now has 'Hotspot' which is a tethering facility which enables 4 other devices to use the phone as a standalone base station.

This is done simply by activating the feature on your phone.

However, although this is now possible with the latest iOS 4.3 it is dependent on you Carrier allowing tethering on your package.

In the UK the Carrier '3' will allow tethering but some others do not.

I have not personally tried to use this latest feature on the iPhone but I believe that it would work.

I have just bought an iPhone 4 for my daughter and ordered the latest Audi A6 Avant for my wife, but I will have to wait until November before the car comes from Germany.