I’m glad this is finally coming to pass. A little disappointed it took so long...hard to believe it was 3 years in development, and with it being installed on 2011 models, there’s a good chance there will be more software updates on iPhones that may possibly make some of this technology obsolete. Now that you will be able to see album covers, when will contact photos be available?
I’m still waiting for text-to-speech so I can get my text and/or email messages read to me while driving, and vice versa...would be great to be able to dictate a message and send from the car. Ultimately, getting the iPhone touch screen into the iDrive screen would be a big win...but of course will bring with it more potential for distraction which can cause a lot of problems for a lot of people. I'd love to be able to get Google maps on there as an alternative to the regular iDrive navi and be able to pinch/zoom/swipe around like on the iPhone.
I’m sure the quality won't be as good but bluetooth audio seems like another option that should be available now. Sometimes I get lazy and don't want to have to drop the iPhone into my cradle.
Hopefully this will be available as a software update. Free is probably wishful thinking, but I'd definitely be willing to pay a little.