Old Thread But Most Missed The Point
I get that this is an older thread but after buying a Passport to use with my brand new 2015 JCW Edition Mini Cooper, I searched the forums for the same issues that you are/were having when you got yours. What people don't realized is what the Mini Connected/Harmon Kardon system in the Mini Cooper can actually do with a phone that truly integrates with it, such as the iPhone, of which I was going to replace with the Passport. However, huge disappointment when using with my Mini Cooper.
When you use the USB port with an iPhone and the Mini Connected system you can:
Charge and play music at the same time. Access and control with the navigation knob streaming music apps Like Spotify, Deezer, Rhapsody, and of course iTunes natively. We aren't just talking playlists that you have saved locally, but with the USB I can search and control music and playlists that are on Spotify and the others. On top of that, with some you can actually draw the letters of the song you are looking for on the top of the car's control knob and have it search the streaming services music library for songs that are not downloaded on your device. All of the metadata and album art show on the Connected display.
With the new Apple Music, I can long press the voice button on the wheel and ask Siri to play any sony in the iTunes catalogue and it plays without touching anything else. Again, ANY sony I can think of and it doesn't have to be stored on the iPhone.
Now I understand that the Passport's main focus isn't media, but does it have to completely suck at it? Some of you guys keep touting that "wires are so 2000"... Well guess what, so is being forced to load all of your music on your phones memory. The PP doesn't charge wirelessly either, so unless you want to drain that battery down while on a road trip, you're going to have to wire it in. You know what else is so 2000? Plugging your device into the AUX jack. You get ZERO controls from the car over anything. No skips, No track search. No info on your heads display. No charging.
Also, I wouldn't mind using the PP with bluetooth if THAT worked properly. Every single time I connect my BT with the PP, the BB Music Player launches. I close it, it relaunches, close, relaunches and interrupts the streaming app in the process. This has been an issue for YEARS and there is no way that I found in these forums or others to fix that. Then IF you manage to load any relevant music streaming service, I get no info send to the head via BT. Sometimes I get the track title and artist, but usually not and when I do, it usually doesn't change with the new track. I get no album artwork.
I love the hardware. I love the form factor the most. It's just a shame that something that is supposed to be on the best OS out there that they can't make it a decent media device as well. Why not? Is there some sort of rule that a device has to be for business OR pleasure? Why do we need all of these KILLER hardware specs if all it's going to do is be a power text/emailer? Those types of apps don't NEED 3 gigs of ram and the fastest CPU. QNX is wasted in BB's hands. The specs for the PP should allow it to compete media wise with iPhone and Android. Why bother if you're going to limit it to email, texts, blah blah..
I am a part owner in a small business and I appreciate getting work done but just because I'm 50 and a business person, do I not like to listen to music? Am I not entitled to have fun on my business device as well?
I know many here will just say, hey, you aren't BB's target audience but that's a cop out. Samsung and Apple are working hard to combine the business and pleasure markets into one device and both have done a fairly decent job. Why can't BB? If the target audience is less than 1% of the mobile market then they are as big of success as they can be with a handful of customers.
Now, after all this hoopla that I've heard about their "target market", it looks like they are going the way of Android anyway. Why? Seriously, is QNX so weak that they can't build exciting and well integrated native apps for it? Sadly, this will be going back. If the streaming music services worked even half *** over the BT I'd probably keep it. Once the public gets wind of BB going Android, we can forget any further BB10 enhancements.
This thing is supposed to be a computer in your hand, but my PC can do a lot more than just business apps. It's too bad that BB couldn't do more with QNX.
