You may well remember that, immediately after the release of OS 3.0 and the 3G S, I’ve published quite a few tests on stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) headphones compatibility with both the iPhone 3G and the 3G S (see THIS for my latest report). Now that version 3.1.2 is out and I had some time to research how it can be safely jailbroken, I’ve re-run the tests, particularly in order to find out how voice control over Bluetooth works. (BTW, speaking of jailbreaking 3.1.2, I’ll devote some more text to it so that you know where to download your jailbroken firmwares from and the like.) If you have a 3G S and use your phone with a Bluetooth headset (be it either a traditional mono one or a real stereo), back in the 3.0 days you may have already wondered why Bluetooth couldn’t be used to voice control your iPhone. While I could come up with a somewhat decent solution (putting the iPhone upside down in my upper shirt pocket so that I can both easily reach the Home button and, the mike facing upwards, it can easily catch my words), it was still pretty awkward and can’t really be used on cold days when the phone is buried somewhere below the coat. No such problem anymore with version 3.1, fortunately! As you can see in the official 3.1.(2) homepage HERE, the new version (starting with 3..1) allows for using Voice Control on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets. I wanted to test this – along with the compatibility with some of the most widely used A2DP headphones. Unfortunately, as you’ll see, because of the Voice Control introduction, general compatibility is a bit worse than with 3.0 with some models. The most important of them is Plantronics Pulsar 590. While this over-the-ear headphones model is certainly quite old, it still is one of the best-quality sets around. While it worked flawlessly under OS 3.0 on both models (3G and 3G S), it no longer does so under 3.1.2, where it completely lacks resuming support (after you pause the playback some time). Unfortunately, Gear4 BluPhones have lost their ability to initiate calls on both models. The same has happened to most? all? the Motorola stereo headphones I know – the HT820 and the S9 / S9-HD. (HTML original HERE)
Just to be clear, does the table show that skip/previous song buttons work (in some headsets)? Also, do microphones work on the iPod touch?
UPDATE (10/28/2009): Frontpage at iPhoneMVP.com Let me show you the picture accompanying the iPhone MVP article: No comments are needed ;-)
