This may have been obvious to everyone but me but...

If you plug the USB part of the BMW iPod/USB Y cable into a 12V USB adapter in the center console, your X5 will not cripple your smart iPhone into dumb iPod AND it will play any audio (e.g. internet radio) via the X5's sound system while charging your iPhone :)

Funf Dreisig

Which one (12V adapter) do you have?

Griffen. But I don't think it really matters.

FWIW I purchased the Griffen Sync cable w/ a 12v adapter to always have a spare sync cable in the X5 and be able to charge the iPhone with a long enough cable for a passenger to use the iPhone in their lap (e.g. Google Maps/Earth, Weather, Safari, etc.). Yesterday i realized that the X5 used the signals on the USB port to recognize and convert the iPhone into an iPod. So switching the USB part of the cable to a 12v USB adapter would laeve the Audio part of the cable hooked up, allowing charging via the USB and not allowing the X5 to figure out that the Aux source is an iPhone. IOW it reduces the BMW iPod/USB option to a $400 Y cable. :yikes: But it allows us to use our iPhone for internet radio -- priceless :)

Funf Dreisig

On a somewhat related issue....

Our iPhone does not automatically reconnect to our home phone system AFTER it has been connected to the X5 via Bluetooth. I'm trying to diagnose whether this is an X5 problem, iPhone problem, Vtech problem or some combination.

Has anyone else had a problem like this?

Background details:
We have a VTech DS6322 Wireless home phone system that allows us to connect our mobile phones to the home phone system via Bluetooth*. We have the VTech configured to connect automatically to both of our mobile phones. And in general it does. BUT after the iPhone has been connected to the X5 via Bluetooth it will not connect automatically to the Vtech system. FWIW my antique SE T616 connects automatically to both the X5 and Vtech as it should, whether or not is has recently connected to the X5 via Bluetooth.

Thanks in advance - Funf Dreisig

* The Vtech Bluetooth phone systems works like the X5's Bluetooth phone hookup. We can use any of the VTech's wireless extension phones to both answer and/or place calls on our mobile phones.

Check if your iPhone pairs with a non-VTech bluetooth host after X5 use? Our iPhones successfully switch between the EX35 and X5, and a home system (Panasonic). Which leads one to suspect [in your case] a VTech bluetooth "stack" issue? Have fun in the VTech forums! ;)