If any of you spend even a mild amount online and have a Facebook and/or Twitter account, the new MINI ‘Connected’ system which is built into the new MINI Countryman (launches late November I’m told) will blow your head off. So 2oceansvibe Radio in the car is one thing, but how can you watch news feeds whilst driving? Not to worry, the car reads it out for you!

Oh, and did I mention that the car is All Wheel Drive?

No spice.

The All-New Mini Countryman

Check it out:

MINI Connected allows your iPhone to Connected the outside world to your MINI. The option adds a new 6.5” hi-resolution screen (the same as on the 2011 Nav system), Comfort Bluetooth (6NE) with Smartphone prep (6NF), a Combox control box (interface the iPhone with the car), Voice recognition (620), and a joystick controller to access all features just as the MINI Navigation uses. Currently, only the iPhone is supported, but the Android and Blackberry Smartphones are being planned as well for a later launch.

Also, you can disconnect your iPhone or iPod from the cable and still listen to your music via Bluetooth wirelessly. This means you can literally walk away from the car and control your music with your iPhone from 20 feet away. And with the new system, the only cable you need is the standard iPhone cable that came from Apple.

Diving deeper into MINI Connected’s online functions, let’s take a look at what can come through to your car. A audio feature called Webradio allows you to search for radio stations around the world by country, genre and so forth. From there just select the station and it’s streamed into the car.

You can also access RSS feeds (like MotoringFile’s for instance) with MINI Connected. Simply select playback and voice recognition will read out the text to you and continue on beyond what you see, playing back the entire article. While stopped, you can also read the whole news article.

The much maligned Mission Control is also a part of MINI Connected and features over 3,500 sayings. You can pick and choose what you want to hear and adjust the “enthusiasm level” by selecting your driving theme. In addition, the upgraded system will have a “MINIMALISM” Analyzer that gives you real-time hints for optimum fuel efficiency. Perhaps the most important feature of Mission Control? You can turn it off.

Another new feature is Dynamic Music. It allows you to choose from several beats and based on your driving conditions, can increase or decrease the intensity and rhythm, allowing you to literally create your own track while driving.

Also incorporated is Google Local Search. Here, you can search for common items such as restaurants, fuel stations and even post offices by location, type and even business name. When a result is found you can select it and if they have a phone number and address listed online, Google will display it right in your car.

And if you are a Facebook and Twitter fan, you can read recent posts just like the news feeds where limited text is shown while driving, but can be played back to you thanks to text-to-voice technology. If you are stopped, then you can read more. If you need to respond, MINI Connected can help you post with pre-populated responses based on information that it knows. For instance, you can simply choose from several sentences that will include things like temperature and vehicle speed. And if you have NAV, MINI Connected can even include your destination and current location. You could post something like this with just one twist and one click- “Hey guys, it’s 3:00 PM and I’m in my MINI driving Southbound to Main Street on this warm 74 degree day.”

But there is TONS more to read up. It’s basically all just a complete joke – like some kind of a dream..

CLICK HERE for that original article.

CLICK HERE for even more with detailed images.

CLICK HERE to see how it can change music to suit your driving!

CLICK HERE for the PDF on this new toy!