Bluetooth Audio (A2DP) Improvements with iPhone 3.0 (beta 5)

I wanted to follow up on my previous blog, in regards to the iPhone 3.0 OS (which you can read at:  http://dongee.typepad.com/my_weblog/a-review-of-iphone-30-os/). 

A few weeks ago, iPhone 3.0 (beta 5) was released and there have been a few noticeable improvements, one of which is the Bluetooth Audio (A2DP) feature.

For those of you like me, who love being freed from wires and enjoy listening to their music via Bluetooth Audio (A2DP), iPhone 3.0 (beta 5) has a few nice tweaks.

The previous version of the iPhone 3.0 required users to manually connect the Bluetooth device by tapping the Bluetooth logo, and selecting the appropriate device in a pop up.   With iPhone 3.0 (beta 5), when your Bluetooth device is powered on, it will connect to your iPhone automatically.  If you’re not sure it’s connected, view the bottom of your iPod screen (underneath the FF, PLAY, and Rewind controls) and it will display the device it’s connected to. 

This feature is really nice for listening to Bluetooth Audio (A2DP) in our SUV (which is powered my Microsoft Sync).   Once it syncs and plays a music selection (via streaming audio) and we leave the car, the music on the iPhone will automatically stop, and when we re-enter our car, it will pick up where the music left off.   

One downside still exists with the Bluetooth Stereo feature, the fast forward/rewind controls on the bluetooth devices still don't work (Pause/Play, volume controls works fine) hopefully this will be fixed in the next release. 

The Airplane Mode feature seems to work smoother now. 

In the first release of iPhone 3.0 beta, when Airplane Mode was turned on while listening to music via Bluetooth, the Bluetooth connection severed, and when the Bluetooth was switched back on (on the iPhone) while still in Airplane Mode, the Bluetooth couldn’t re-sync to any of the paired devices.  Now it does with no problems.  Yeah.

Overall the performance seems better with iPhone 3.0 (beta 5).  While emailing, texting and web browsing, switching to landscape mode transitions quicker and smoother.

Comments

[Mark]

Sweet! I can't wait for A2DP support to be released publically! Does AVRCP (control from the headset) work yet? How is the strength of the signal? Does it ever skip/drop out?

[Don Gee]

ah, good question Mark. One downside, is the FF/Rewind controls still don't work from the Bluetooth headset (volume, pause/play works though). This is a pain, when I want to skip to the next song, or rewind.

The strength signal? I think this depends on the Bluetooth headphones you have, I still have the Motorola S9 headphones and occasionally the signal cuts off (if my phone is inside a thick jacket). What I've found for the most part, if my headphones are fully charged, they hardly cut-out, but when the power is low, it cuts out more and more.

Hope this helps!

[John Eisenschmidt]

Bluetooth Audio is better in B5 than it was in B4 or B3, but there are still a number of issues. I'm finding that the correct state is not kept when I get in/out of the car (depending on how long it's been since I was in the car). Everytime I get in the car and it pairs with the phone, music starts playing, irrespective of whether I was listening to audio or not. If I'm listening to music and make a call, sometimes the audio does not pause (though most times it does). Sometimes I'm not listening to audio, I end a call, and the iPod starts up. The Bluetooth audio stack does not close down properly 1/10 times.

Kudos to Apple for adding ADP, but all the log files in the world are not collecting the bugs, and there's no way to report them.

[Don Gee]

I would agree, there are still issues with the Bluetooth audio. Quite frankly, the A2DP on my Samsung Blackjack is much more intuitive than the A2DP on iPhone 3.0. So far, I haven't had the issues with calls (while music is playing) yet, but one thing I have noticed that's a little annoying.

While in my truck, if I have the Bluetooth on and ready to sync, when I plug it into the USB music won't play on either Bluetooth or manually (via USB). If I want to charge my phone, and listen to music at the same time I have to turn my bluetooth off. Which is a bit of a pain. Hopefully these bugs are being tweaked and will further improved for the official release of 3.0.

- Don Gee

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1205122691]

Any update on this, especially with microsoft sync and FF/RW with the public release of 3.0 now?

[Don Gee]

Unfortunately, no. I can't speak to iPhone 3G S, but as for iPhone 3G (after the official release) the Fast Forward / Rewind does not work with Bluetooth (for both Microsoft SYNC and Bluetooth stereo). Volume (up and down) works, Pause/Play works, but for now that is about it.

As for as FF/RW, you'll need to manually to this from your iPhone. Bummer, I know. Maybe in the next iPhone release.

Don