BMW's i-Cars Have an Apple Watch App
Anthony Fordham
at 10:10 AM Apr 29 2015
BMW's i-Cars Have an Apple Watch App
Your amazing car of the future is almost charged.
BMW
Cars // 

Perhaps inevitably, BMW has released an Apple Watch version of its wearbles app that allows owners of either of the i-Cars to check various bits and pieces on their vehicle.

There's already a version of the app for Samsung's Gear smartwatch, but this shinier version is aimed, maybe ironically, at the first gadget Apple has released for some time without an "i" at the beginning of the name.

So yes, you can already check battery status, security status, windows and sunroof of you BMW i3 using your iPhone 6, but now you can also do it using your Watch. Not your iWatch, your Watch.

Though the i8, with its 1.5L turbo engine, doesn't really need to worry about battery charge level, it's still a neat reminder and of course an essential tool for the all-electric BMW i3 (unless you have the range-extender version with the whipper-snipper engine in the back... so many options!).

For us though the most useful function is the ability to lock or unlock the doors - or even better, reassure ourselves the doors are in fact locked. This should put an end to the epic paranoid "double traverse" of the Bunnings car park.

Speaking of car parks, if you forgot where you did leave your i8 and for some reason the concept-car looks of the thing don't stand out in a sea of Camry's and softroaders, you can tape the Watch to flash the headlights. Handy!

The ability to pre-condition the car by turning on the air conditioning a few minutes before you get on board is merely a courtesy detail.

Note that you still need a iPhone 5 or iPhone 6 for this to work. Oh, and a BMW i3 (from $68,990) or BMW i8 ($299,000).

 

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