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MINI owners are a tech-savvy bunch, and many have smartphones in their pockets. Your smartphone gets a whole lot smarter when it travels with you in a 2012 MINI equipped with the available MINI Connected system. This super-high-tech option connects you to a world of, well, connectedness, including music streaming from the Internet and services like Pandora^® Internet Radio, plus Google^™ Local Search^™, fun apps and the ability to read Facebook and Twitter updates to you.

 

It started with music. Not long ago, a CD changer was the height of in-car entertainment, replacing the cassette, which had replaced the eight-track, which had replaced sing-a-longs. Now, you’re using CDs for coasters and carrying around your music collection on a “device.” Back in the Cold War days, a “device” was a nuclear bomb. Today, it’s an explosion of infotainment in your pocket – a smartphone, iPod^®, iPad^® or other wireless gadget that holds thousands of songs and, loaded with “apps,” does everything but give the dog a bath.

 

When you step into your car, the smartphone has to go away so you can drive. You need something just as smart, or even smarter, to keep you connected without keeping you distracted. That’s where the MINI Connected system comes in.

 

MINI Connected puts a 6.5-inch high-resolution screen smack-dab in the middle of the car’s center-mounted speedometer. The option also comes with Comfort Bluetooth^® with smartphone pairing, plus an easy-to-use joystick that puts a plethora of features at your fingertips, quite literally. Are you one of the three billion people with an iPod? Connect it to the MINI Connected USB port and, ta-da, the display will look like your iPod’s control display, complete with iPod functions.

 

That’s just for starters. You can easily control the car’s audio system using MINI Connected, and you can monitor vehicle status including service alerts, brakes, tire pressure and even a roadworthiness test. For those who really like to tweak, you can use MINI Connected Mission Control to adjust how long your parking lights remain on after you lock the car, or the duration of the auto-shut-off turn signals.

 

Download the free MINI Connected app from the Apple App Store, and you’ll turn MINI Connected into a full-blown infotainment app-a-palooza. You can then use your iPhone to stream web radio stations from around the world including the four pre-set MINI Sounds stations. Using Pandora to play music? With the Pandora iPhone app, you can control Pandora right from the MINI Connected interface. 

 

Let’s say you’re in the office, getting ready to meet friends at a new restaurant. They can e-mail directions to you, so they’re displayed right on the screen. Or, if you’ve also added the available navigation system, you can use the Google^™ “Send to Car” app to send the turn-by-turn directions to the system.

 

Maybe you’re meeting friends, but nobody can decide where to meet. Use Google “Local Search” to find a new restaurant, for example. Or, perhaps a friend has posted the evening’s plans on Facebook. MINI Connected will read Facebook and Twitter updates aloud, and even let you respond with pre-programmed answers. (Some Facebook and Twitter functions are disabled while driving, for safety reasons.) Need to confirm the meeting time? MINI Connected can read aloud calendar entries from your smartphone.

 

If you think of yourself as an efficient driver, put that to the test with the MINIMALISM Analyzer in MINI Connected. This function will monitor an array of data from the car while you drive including how you accelerate, shift gears and use the brakes. MINI Connected gives you stars for efficient driving and lets you compare your results to others in real time. You might just find yourself in a contest to become the ultimate green MINI driver.

 

Remember earlier in this story the crack about CDs heading for obsolescence? MINI doesn’t want to see this new technology go down that road, so it engineered in the ability to support add-on functions of your connected device. Also, if you’ve opted for MINI Connected with Navigation, you can download map updates right to your phone and then transfer them to the system via a USB port in the glovebox.

 

Come in and see how this marvel makes the MINI an even more compelling car to own.