iPhone Bluetooth
iPhone comes with Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR . EDR stands for Enhanced Data Rate . This type of Bluetooth supports a rate of 3 Megabits/ second. Such a speed is enough to introduce a whole multiplex of Wireless communication features to the iPhone. There are various ways the iPhones Bluetooth can be used. It can be used as the normal hands free to a complex car kit or to wirelessly play your music from iPhone to other Bluetooth enabled device or as a remote control too.
The most standard headset available for iPhone is Apple’s own iPhone Bluetooth Headset. It is a nominal accessory and does not come with a lot of features. It works well to about 10 meters specifically with iPhone 3G. It lets you handle all iPhone calls through wireless. It is compact and lightweight Bluetooth Headset. You also get an iPhone Bluetooth Travel Cable for convenient syncing and charging. It costs $99 in all. You can get it at the Apple Store. The lithium-ion battery delivers up to 5.5 hours of talk time and up to 72 hours of standby time.
Jabra’s Bluetooth products are generally quite good and reliable. One of Jabra’s best iPhone Bluetooth Headset is the Jabra Bluetooth Headset for iPhone 3G. This Jabra Bluetooth headset lets you get on with your talking and keep both hands free. This headset is so light and comfortable that you’ll hardly notice you’re wearing it. And its design is so functional, you’ll rarely ever have to touch your mobile phone. The best part is that it never needs charging. It will let you talk for up to 8 hours and will stay on standby for six months on just one AAAA battery. If you have never used a headset before, you will also find its also one of the easiest to operate! Best of all, Jabra provides superb quality, comfort, and functionality, all in a single attractive design.
The best of the lot, however is by Gomadic. It was rated the Best Choice by Gomadic. Apart from all the standard features it also uses Digital Noise Reduction , Digital Signal Processing technologies to give you the best possible sound quality. Also a one touch redial and flexible ear hook for both the ears make it very user-compatible. It sports a 10 hour talk time and can be charges using the tip exchange port with any standard charger.
I have mentioned the products available above, but generally getting a new accessory to work is most important and sometimes the toughest part to understand. So let me go Step by Step on pair and unpair routine.
- To use a device you first need to pair it to your iPhone. Pairing also helps disambiguate, as iPhone can be connected with only one Bluetooth device at a time. The paired device is one through which you can get the calls routed by default. This can be done by first making your device discoverable according to the instructions you have received with the device.
- Then from your iPhone Home screen go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and turn Bluetooth on. iPhone searches for nearby Bluetooth devices. Choose your device and enter a passkey or PIN number, if needed. The instructions that came with the headset or car kit should tell you how to get the passkey.
- To route calls through your device, you must make a connection between the iPhone and your device to have iPhone use it for your calls.
- When iPhone is connected to a Bluetooth device, all outgoing calls are routed through the device by default. Incoming calls are routed through the device if you answer using the device, and through iPhone if you answer using iPhone. In cases where your car kits offer the feature, your contacts list maybe transferred to the car kit and you can start a call by looking up a contact on the car kit’s display.
- Another option to route calls through iPhone, is to first answer the call and then tap on AUDIO on iPhone. Choose iPhone to hear calls through iPhone, choose Speaker Phone to hear calls through the speaker phone, or choose a connected Bluetooth device.
- To stop using the device, there are a few ways to stop using a headset or car kit and go back to hearing calls through iPhone. You can either turn Bluetooth off, or move the device out of range, or go you can unpair the device by going to Settings > General > Bluetooth, from the home screen and select the device and tap Unpair.
Obviously the Bluetooth takes up battery, and so if you don’t have a charge point nearby you can look at Battery Extenders or Rechargeable Batteries for iPhone.
Other important Bluetooth products include the Car Kits and Stereo Adaptors. Bluetooth Car Kits by Parrot are the best of the lot. One such Kit suited for the iPhone 3G is Parrot 3200 LS.
This car kit helps place and receive calls in comfort and safety, without ever touching your mobile phone. Plus you get the benefits of a large, 160 x 128 color screen that supports 262,000 colors. It is a necessity these days when there are laws against using cellphone in cars. The Parrot 3200 LS wirelessly connects with all Bluetooth phones on the market and offers effortless synchronization with information on your phone. The display of the 3200 LS provides the same visual information and functions as your mobile phone, such as caller ID, carrier signal strength, or last calls received, on a unit that can be clipped in the ideal position for the driver to see. And thanks to the big color screen, you can even view pictures of incoming callers. A large control knob easily adjusts the volume while also offering fast navigation of the unit’s menus and options.
The screen unit has easy-to-navigate menu options just like your phone, and your mobile phone book is wirelessly downloaded to the car kit. Calls can be dialed either through the screen, or by using voice-recognition speed dialing (up to 150 names can be programmed into the voice recognition system). According to your phone’s model and firmware, most features are accessible from the hands free console, including one-touch redial, dual call, and auto-answer.It is designed to automatically mute the radio during use. Incorporating high-quality sound, the unit’s speaker phone includes both echo cancellation and noise reduction technology. The device also features polyphonic ringtones, multi-user use for up to five phones, private conversation mode, and much more. Since this car-kit is installed by hard-wiring to the existing car stereo, professional installation is highly recommended.
Another Car Kits include Parrot’s GPS enabled Kit or a comparatively cheaper Parrot CK3100.
The iPhone Bluetooth Adaptors/ Transmitter, is very helpful if you want to listen your iPhone music somewhere else possibly without a headset or cables. There are various cheap and expensive products available in this category.
The Satechi Bluetooth Audio Transmitter gives you High quality sound reproduction with SRS WOW HD (world’s first), Easy pairing mode with Auto Connection algorithm, and supports Bluetooth Ver 2.0. Supported audio profiles include A2DP, AVRCP.
If you are looking for similar products, you can check out here.
Also iPhone is not capable of any other Bluetooth information exchange. In short, it means that you cannot sync your iPhone via Bluetooth or Wireless, a feature common in almost all Bluetooth enables phones. So we hope, the next iPhone software update or possibly the next iPhone would address this issue.
