New apps added to BMW ConnectedDrive AppCenter

BMW has just added a whole bunch of new apps to its BMW ConnectedDrive service, which allows you to control certain Apps on your Apple iOS device natively through the iDrive interface.

Apps have been supported in Malaysian cars with the 6NR option since mid 2012, around the launch of the F30 3-Series. The BMW Connected app made it’s debut on the App Store at the same time in order to support the 6NR option in the cars, and allowed you to access apps such as Web radio, News, Twitter, Facebook, Aupeo, Pandora and etc.

Here are a list of the new apps that have been added to the list. There are some other apps like Rhapsody but as these apps aren’t available for Malaysians to use it’s pretty irrelevant to us.

Deezer

Deezer is a music streaming service that so happens to be available for Malaysians to use. A Deezer subscription costs about RM14.90 a month and allows unlimited high quality streaming of music, which you’ll then be able to control and pipe through your BMW’s sound system.

TuneIn

TuneIn allows you to stream music from over 70,000 radio stations around the world. It’s free of charge and BMW ConnectedDrive basically allows you to browse the TuneIn catalog through your iDrive controller.

We already had internet radio in ConnectedDrive before TuneIn though, through the Web radio function – see our previous ConnectedDrive story. We found that Web radio included a huge database of radio stations including some local favourites such as BFM 89.9.

Audible

This is a service by Amazon which allows you to subscribe to audio books and other audio content. Audible also happens to be the exclusive provider of downloadable audio books through Apple’s iTunes store.

Glympse

This is an interesting app – it allows users to share their location temporarily with other people. The time duration can be set from a matter of minutes up to four hours. Instead of fiddling with the Glympse app on the phone, accessing it through ConnectedDrive means you’ll be able to control it through the iDrive interface.

You get options to share, pause or cancel sharing location information, and you can choose whether to send your location to other users via the app, the telephone contact list or their personal social media feeds.

Just remember that using all of these apps on the go would mean you’ll be using your mobile phone’s data plan, so if you end up being a heavy user you might find yourself running out of quota pretty quick. If you use Deezer I recommend using offline mode and letting the app cache your playlists on a Wifi connection so you can play the downloaded files in the car instead of streaming them.

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