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I had a chance to play with the iPod interface with the latest iDrive in a 2009 BMW 1-series.  One of the differences with the previous iDrive is that there are a number of quick access butttons next to the central iDrive wheel.

I especially focused on the quick search function. If you have a full iPod with a 60GB or more storage capacity it can be quite frustrating to have to scroll through a long list if you want to go from your ABBA artist to your favourite ZZ  Top Album.

BMW solved this with a quick search function. A dial is displayed on the central screen and a search term can be created by rotating the central iDrive control to select letters. Click OK and the system will present the search results which can then be selected for playback. The search results will return all albums (or artiss, etc) containing the search term even if they are only partly in a track. Searching for the term "Stone" for example will return the Angie Stone albums but also the Rolling Stones albums.

The system works very well. The one thing I noticed and that was annoying was the fact that it took a very long time for the audio system to get ready to select and play my music when hooking up my 160GB  iPod for the first time. Apparently, when hooking up a new iPod, the system sort of indexes the content of the iPod to allow fast search afterwards. I didn't test the speed when you connect the iPod after this first indexation but I was told it should be much faster. I certainly hope so or the advantage of quick search is countered by a slow system startup.

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