Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Stereo Bluetooth support for the iPhone

In case you have already ventured into getting a Stereo Bluetooth headset for your iPhone or you are considering getting one, here is what you need to know:-
  • The original iPhone (1st generation) does not support the Stereo Bluetooth profile (AD2P), even if you upgrade to the latest OS 3.x, which means that only iPhone 3G and 3GS supports the AD2P profile (and the iPod touch 2nd generation)
  • You have to upgrade your iPhone to 3.1 firmware to be able to use the Voice Control from your Stereo Bluetooth headset and with that you also get a better WIFI performance on the device while using the Bluetooth headset.
  • The AVRCP profile is not 100% supported. The AVRCP provides advanced controls commands directly from the Bluetooth headset including: Pause, Play, Stop, Next, Previous . Currently the Next, and Previous commands are not supported. Which means while you are listening on your Bluetooth headset you will not be able to skip to the next track or move back to the previous track from your headset, you would have to control it directly on your iPhone.
Overall, I have been using the Backbeat 906, and I have been happy with it's audio quality so far on the iPhone 3GS, especially after I updated to 3.1.

If you can tolerate the limitations mentioned above, getting the stereo Bluetooth headset is very much worth it.

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