Rónán in München

I’ve posted before on MINI Connected in general. The app does a lot of fun things in-car if you have a new MINI with the correct extras attached. However, what if you don’t have such a car or the right extras in your MINI?

As the app is designed to complement the setup in the car with further web- and location-based services, the iPhone-only interface is by design not as comprehensive as the functionality when connected in the car. However, my favourite update in this latest version 1.3.3 is that the webradio function now receives an iPhone UI (it used to work only on the display in the MINI), so that you can use the app to listen to webradio anywhere - jogging in the park, at the gym, or driving your car - regardless of which manufacturer.

I use webradio all the time when driving. I simply plug a normal 3.5mm audio cable from the iPhone’s earphone port into the Aux-In in my BMW. I don’t need any other extras in the car to support the app.

You can do this too! Anyone can download the apps, for free - you don’t need to be a BMW or MINI owner. And webradio now works in any car with audio in, or even without a car! Obviously, when running the app in a non-supporting car, you need to operate it via the iPhone UI - nothing comes up on the display in the car. So only use it when safe to do so.

But in-car support is coming to BMW too in March 2011. You can even download the BMW version of the app already. It has a similar interface to that of MINI Connected, with a BMW skin. And you can start listening to webradio today regardless of the manufacturer of your car.

Personally, I am a big fan of this webradio app versus others available in the AppStore today. It’s not just because I worked on the development team =) The advantages are obvious:

• Variety built in: one app for all stations, instead of downloading various apps per station. Take advantage of radiotime.com’s massive webradio database from within one app
• Quality: in my experience, the mass of webradio apps I have collected from various stations has had widely varying levels of quality. Some apps crash all the time, or keep losing connection, some others have bad interfaces. Many stations get an app developed by an external company, and over time it develops bugs which don’t get fixed. MINI Connected and BMW Connected have a development team concentrated on the stability of one single app
• Price: you can pay over €5 for other webradio apps. MINI Connected and BMW Connected are free
• Design: the UI is clean and slick, and very intuitive to use

Found this in my Gmail archive. I put this little tutorial together on 19/01/2007. Please bookmark and forward this page - the more people armed with this information, the less money the clampers can sucker out of people.

Based on my newly learned experience last night, I’m sending around this short tutorial on removing car wheel clamps, should any of you be subjected to such ill-fate.

FYI, as far as I can gather from various sources, the removal of clamps attached by a private clamping company is indeed perfectly legal - as long as you return the clamp to them without any damage. Beware that they will threaten you with a fine of up to 3000 Euro for tampering with it, and may prosecute you for theft for being in possession of an object that was inconveniently left attached to your car, but this is, for the most part, all huff and no puff. Be warned however, that you more than likely will be successfully prosecuted by removing a clamp attached by a public body, like Dublin City Council.

Removal:

1. Firstly you will need to jack up the car (verify that you have a jack, wrench or some implement for removing the wheel bolts, and an inflated spare wheel).
2. There is normally a bit of play on the clamp - just enough to be able to get the wrench in to access at least some of the bolts
3. For the ones you can not access you may need to release the handbrake and rotate the wheel. Remember to re-apply the handbrake before going back at the bolts
4. Once all bolts are removed, you should be able to, simply enough, lift off the entire wheel with clamp attached.
5. Re-attach the spare wheel and let the car off the jack and you are ready to drive straight away
6. Removal of the wheel from the clamp looks daunting enough, but is surprisingly easy. You will need to entirely deflate the tyre to create more play on the wheel. The clamp is composed of various bars which make things awkward, but there is usually enough freedom of movement in these bars to wiggle them around and eventually using 2 hands and a food, to wedge the wheel free.
7. To be legally in the right, you should notify the clamping company straight away that they may have their clamp back. They will normally threaten a fine and suggest you leave it where you were parked. Be warned that dropping it to the Gardaí could result in them suing you for theft, and you may also have to leave your name at the Garda Station. I called them from my mobile with private number switched on but a recorded message requested a contact number, so I had to use a payphone. Well, one needs to be as elusive as possible when threatened with €3000 fines

Overall it took 1 hour to remove, and would have been quicker, only I hadn’t had much practise changing a wheel on my car before. 1 hour’s tough effort at night and under rain, getting filthy. Despite this, it turned out to be well worth the effort in the amazingly satisfying feeling of saving myself from paying €120 to a company who had interfered with my car without my permission and left me reliant on Dublin Bus and the overpriced Luas.

Good luck in your respective struggles and feel free to forward this on.