Bluetooth "Mute" button, and 1-touch dialing

[erinishuman]

I just paired my Siemens BT phone to the car and have the following confusions -

1) When I first call a number, the nav screen has a button which says "Mute off". I assumed this was like a switch and it was telling me Mute was off. But, the party I called couldn't hear me until I hit the button, at whcih point it said "Mute On."

I take from this that it is a toggle switch and is labelled to tell me what it will do when I hit it, not a switch that is telling me what the state currently is.

Does this seem counterintuitive to anyone else? And, why does a phone call begin muted by default? Or am I doing anything wrong?

2) I could not upload my phone book. Others have had success so I will keep trying. But I only had a few, so figured I would program them directly to the car. But you can't. So, I called the numbers I wanted and then registered them as one-touch dialing numbers, from the "outgoing calls" list. So far so good.

But then, I'm driving and I touch the "one-touch" dialing screen and the screen appears where I'm supposed to touch the right number to call but the fields (although active - I can touch them) are blank! So I can't tell what one-touch field is what person.

I assume that if you upload a phone book the person's name is here. I thought that if there were no name, there would be the phone number. But there is nothing.

Anyone else see this? Or are people just using their phone books?

Thanks for any help!

[mboileau]

The only odd thing I've seen related to this is that the 1-touch buttons only show the programmed name while the vehicle is in motion. When I come to a stop and all phone functions are now enabled, the same 1-touch buttons will change to show both the name and the programmed phone number. Start driving again, and the numbers disappear. Doesn't make any sense to me that the 1-touch displays would change, but it's probably hooked into whatever display masking software they use when driving.

[DonDNH]

Could this behavior be safety related? Maybe Toyota's reasoning is that Toyota might be sued if an accident occurred while dialing via the MFD.

[delrey]

Could this behavior be safety related? Maybe Toyota's reasoning is that Toyota might be sued if an accident occurred while dialing via the MFD.

I think it just looks like an "oops". If you populate your one touch dial list from the phone book, then the name is still visible. But if you populate your one touch dial list from the recent outgoing or incoming call list, then the display is blanked out when the car is in motion (phone # shows when car is stopped).

[erinishuman]

Yes, the behavior you all are describing is exactly what I have. When I am stopped, I can see the numbers. When I'm driving, the fields are blank. I guess at a glance it is easier to see just names (though as others have noted, not helpful if you have more than one number for a given name) - but it does leave the outgoing calls blank.

Would be great if they let you enter something into the one-touch field to identify outgoing and incoming calls you want to keep. Or else show you the numbers.

guess I'll either try my phonebook again or put a little post it cheat sheet on the glove compartment.

thanks again!

[Jonnycat26]

I know for the S56 you have to upload numbers one at a time... but that hasn't worked for me at all. I ended up doing the same thing you did, registering numbers as quick dial from my outgoing and incoming number list.

Out of curiosity, what carrier does everyone use? I know the S56 firmware is locked and somewhat carrier specific, so maybe some of the people who are having success are using different carriers. For the record, I'm using Cingular.

[CHART]

I just started using a Siemens S56 with Cingular and had no problem transferring all of my numbers at once to the Prius phone book. My only issue is that The Prius phone book is so limited (yeah, I know...I want it all.) Only the 1st (main) number is transferred with each name from the phone. If I want any of the auxilliary numbers from an S56 phonebook entry into the Prius, it has to have it's own entry on the phone. I do love the Bluetooth, though. It is waaaay cool!

[erinishuman]

Out of curiosity, what carrier does everyone use? I know the S56 firmware is locked and somewhat carrier specific, so maybe some of the people who are having success are using different carriers. For the record, I'm using Cingular.

We also have Cingular. It's my husband's phone... mine is a TDMA (and hence non bluetooth) AT&T wireless. I'm torn between going bluetooth and the better coverage which i get with TDMA here in Northern CA. Of course, Cingular recently bought AT&T Wireless so I'm also waiting until my contract is up and the sale is complete to see what deals emerge.

Another thing which is too bad about the bluetooth interface is that you can't do things like voicemail where you have to hit a number in the middle of a call to get to the next msg. Oh well. shouldn't be doing it anyway, of course.