I too am one of the Beta Testers and have been for a while, not just 8 months as disneysw says the Intravee has been in development, but actually for 2 Years!

In that time there have been some changes to the hardware. One major change to make it cheaper to produce, for example changing the case, which required a new board layout, and a couple of IC substitutions. One less major change of a pin compatible CPU update due to a better CPU becoming available.

There have been lots of software updates in that time however, when I first got the unit it did not output text at all to the Nav screen, but with a lot of perseverance and testing of various things there is now full use of the Nav screen.

2 Years might seem like a very long time to get something like this going, but as apw2607 says, it’s unbelievably difficult to get what appears to be something very simple working. The variation in BMW hardware is also very surprising! There are subtle differences between hardware, geographic regions and in some cases the software version on the Nav computer.

Considerable thought and effort has gone into both the hardware and software design, for example the software is user upgradeable, but to eliminate the possibility of a failed update making it unusable, there is a boot loader which can not be overwritten. Also the Intravee almost completely powers down when the car is switched off and iBus traffic stops, this means that the ‘dark current’ is very low, only a few milliamps. The design has been electronically ‘over engineered’, there has not been one instance of a prototype Intravee failing through a hardware fault.

In the next few days, before the end of October, the first automated batch of Intravee II will be manufactured, up to now they have all been hand made.

The aim of the unit is to provide full control through the head unit and the wheel buttons, making as much use of whatever display capability you vehicle has, that includes, at the bottom end, Business CD and Tape, through Radio Nav, MID display and, at the top end, Nav systems.

With all these head unit types the Intravee II provides you with a full interface to your iPod or Alpine CD Changer (or both if you want) there is also the possibility of a USB mass storage interface too if Alpine ever release the KCA-620m (originally specified as April 2006 release, but still not available). With the iPod there is no requirement to access your iPod while playing or searching by Play list, Artist or Album.

To make searching quicker, especially if you have a high capacity iPod, you can jump forwards or backwards in increments of 1, 5, 10, 20 or 50 items (Play Lists, Albums, Artists or Tracks) and you get full visibility of both the currently playing track and the item you are searching for.

The iPod click wheel is, without doubt, a very effective solution to browsing the iPod, but to use one while in control of a vehicle is pretty irresponsible i.m.h.o., it requires far too much attention to control and see what’s written on the iPod display. A car head unit display and control has been specifically designed to be used while driving and as such must be the best device to use. Using an iPod is akin to using a mobile phone without a hands free kit, if anything it’s more distracting, and in the U.K. that is illegal. There is considerable effort to ensure that drivers are in full control of their vehicles, there is an infamous case involving a young woman called Sarah McCaffery who was prosecuted for eating a small apple while driving.

Installation is simple, it plugs into the CD Changer wiring, no need to disconnect the battery or anything else.

If anyone is interested, the Intravee has also been installed by one tester in a 2004 Range Rover Vogue, which has a BMW Mk III Nav Computer.