Thread: idrive

http://www.contouravs.com/cav_ap_support.html

Originally Posted by lawrence

http://www.contouravs.com/cav_ap_support.html

That thing looks sweet, wonder if it will work with girder.

Originally Posted by w_hatfield

"Anyone know if there is anything like the BMW idrive controller for the pc?"

The equivalent to BMW's iDrive would be Microsoft Windows: both have lots of bugs and have great difficulty sometimes doing what you want them to.

Isn't iDrive based on Windows anyway? Oh well, bye bye BMW. My 330xi was the last bimmer I'll buy for at least a model generation... If I wanted a car as ugly as the 7 or the new 5, I'd buy american.

Of course, who am I to talk about ugly. I bought an Element.

I just bought a Shuttle Express today, and so far it's working pretty sweet. I mapped the center knob to left arrow and right arrow to move between songs, and I mapped the spring loaded outer wheel to rewind and fast forward.

The outer wheel has 7 settings in each direction. I assigned Left-1 to hit the RR key 5 times a second, the Left-2 to hit it 15 times a second, the Left-3 to hit it 30 times a second, etc. This way, I can rewind slowly with a little twist or go crazy with a full twist. Same for FF, of course.

The program for configuring keys is super easy to use. You can assign any key to anything, and you can also assign 'Wheel up' and 'Wheel down' to things.

I gotta say, this is a pretty sweet little thing, but keep in mind that it's big. 4 and half inches or so each way.

ordering...

I notice that Amazon has it for just under $40, and if you're in no hurry, you can get it for free shipping plus it's someone most of us have accounts with. I just drove over to MacMall and paid $50 so I could have it now because I'm impatient, but if you're on the fence:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...onics&n=507846

Too late, but at least it'll be delivered 19 minutes faster.

heh heh

I used mine on the way home tonight, and it was MUCH better then trying to find the right place on the touchscreen to hit without running into the car in front of me. I think I'm gonna glue it to and then bondo it to my center console.

Okay, I cancelled my other order and ordered from Amazon. mmm.... That felt capitalismy.

And yeah, you really need both the touch screen AND some kind of tactile control mechanism. I don't care if it's five inches wide. I'll find a place for it because I'm sick of waiting until I get to a light or an area with less traffic to look at my screen and change something.