Iphone OS 3.0 Review on the Prius 2010

Unless you have a golden ear, I doubt most will see a difference between AUX & BT with the iPhone 3.0 OS.

I listen to podcasts when I drive, but what concerns me is the the resuming of play open bluetooth reconnection (i.e. turning the car off for a stop at a gas station or grocery store). Currently, if I'm in the middle of a track when I power down the car, the track gets immediately "rewound" to the beginning. Is it the car or the iPhone doing that?

 

Sorry, but I disagree on this one. I certainly don't have a "golden ear," but yet it was, to me, a particulalry obvious upgrade. I thought the sound was MUCH superior!

 

That wasn't my point, but I'll explain. AUX's volume control is controlled on the player's end while also being amplified by the car stereo's volume, thus over amplifying the AUX input. BT music streaming does not suffer from this.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Dave. I'll try that with my MBP laptop.

Rebecca

 

Could someone with a 3GS do me a favour and try invoking voice control (hold the home button for 3 seconds then say "play songs by band x" etc.) while streaming music to the car via Bluetooth? I'd particularly like to know if it uses the car's microphone, as if so, it could be a pretty nice workaround for the lack of steering wheel controls for it, albeit one that requires pressing the home button for a few seconds while driving.

 

Sorry to have missed what you were after. This must be at least part of the reason for the lowered distortion while using BT.

 

I'll try it when I run out this afternoon, and report back later today. My Prius is 9 days old, and my 3GS is 5 days old, and so far they play well together.


EDIT: The Voice Control works just fine. I selected BT Audio on the Prius, then used Voice Control to play a playlist, and it worked great. I went to the gym, used headphones to listen to music there, and when I returned to the car, the music streaming picked up right where I'd paused it when I left the gym. Cool stuff!

 

I tried this yesterday too, and it worked fine. I was also curious if it uses the cars microphone, so I started Voice Control, covered up the mic on the phone (as well as moved the phone down to my lap), then spoke at my normal volume. The iPhone worked fine; though it could be more accurate. I can only assume that it used the cars mic.

Definitely a nice thing to have while cruising down the road, instead of looking at the iphone to change tracks, etc. I use the car's functions to dial anything I need.

@ jay_man2: looks like we got our car and phone on the same days.

 

Thanks.

By the way. Was that you we past at high speed as we left you in the dust, probably never to be seen again? It sucks to use a Windows Mobile. But you won't know it until you drop your Yugo phone and get a good one. It doesn't have to be an iPhone. Get a Palm Pre. It's still light years ahead of yours too.

 

During my commute, I listen to audiobooks on my Iphone and have noted a big difference in quality from the use of AUX cable (in my 2006 Prius) to connecting via Bluetooth in my 2010. The only (but very vexing) problem is that when the car is turned off, the track is reset to the beginning of a chapter, or even to the beginning of the audiobook.

Does anyone know of a work-around?

 

Do you know if this works on the Prius 2009 with the OS 3.0 update? Thanks!

 

I had today off, and finally got around to trying the bluetooth streaming audio. Much to my surprise, it worked flawlessly with Slacker, Pandora and Last FM. Maybe how well it works depends on the quality of the 3G network in your area.

michael

 

I have a III w solar sunroof and NAV. Also an iPH 3GS. Audio works fine. A much earlier post asked about an incoming caller not hearing the hello because of a delay. I have to say hello about 4 times before the incoming caller hears me. Very frustrating. Are others having this problem? Any resolution?

Thx.

 

Wait a few seconds before saying hello and problem is solved.

 

Long thread on this

I just wanted to add some comments. I'm using an iphone 3GS on a 2010 V prius. I thought the setup was a little strange, I mean I understand it, but thought it might be a little better. It's strange on the car to have 2 areas with different PIN settings.

I went and setup bluetooth phone service first, and then tried to setup bluetooth streaming for music and it didn't work. I had to delete the profile from my iphone, and then add the bluetooth streaming, and then it worked fine.

I may need to do more testing, but it seems like either the car or the phone consider bluetooth hands free profile and AD2p to be completely separate associations. So if I'm listening to music via bluetooth, my hands free isn't routed through the car.

What is annoying on the Iphone, is iphone sounds beyond music also stream. Try waiting in line at in-n-out and playing Mafia wars or paper toss. The music is lagged by about 2-3 seconds, so gaming where you have audio feedback is bad.

Music streaming also seems delayed 2 seconds or so. Such as pausing your iphone, will take a couple seconds before the audio stops on the car.

The Prius is a champ ready for anything.. yet, the iPhone is lacking.. the AD2P profile depends on AVRCP (A/V remote control protocol) to do the display of track name, and stuff beyond play/plause. Apple doesn't support anything beyond that unfortunately (So they support 1.0. 1.3 would have been nice as a minimum, 1.4 would have been excellent) (Here is their compat chart:
support.apple.com / kb / HT3647
(Notice the 3gs, 3g, and ipod touch 2g support it.)

More about the AVRCP differences:
en.wikipedia.org / wiki / Bluetooth_profile#Audio.2FVideo_Remote_Control_Profile_.28AVRCP.29

So when looking at features, if you want the most out of your touchscreen for audio control, look for 1.4 enabled AVRCP devices.

So anyhow, I suspect the reason for the dual areas for config and linkage on the car are because of separate backend systems actually supporting it (Though, they appear to be using the same mac address, so perhaps two different areas sharing the same bluetooth radio)

Anyhow, I know this isn't really super Prius related, since most of the issues are iphone related.. but the Prius is one of the few great/reliable cars shipping that includes this type of support.. Unlike some of other cars that are being sold by marketing ONLY their nav/music system to overcome the fact the rest of the car is trash (hi ford sync enabled cars..)

(Apologies on URLs, havent made 5 posts here yet)

 

I have not had this experience at all. My 3GS and Prius V seamlessly flip between Bluetooth Audio and Bluetooth calling, even voice command works to control what's playing.

I haven't had any audio lag doing things like checking voice mail, hearing key taps as I tap IMs (never when driving, of course) -- I never tried playing video games, but then again, I don't really do that when I drive.

I do agree with the overview that the setup the first time is a bit odd. The support in the phone for the control protocol (so you do more than pause and stop) would be nice, but that's software, and something Apple tends to rev often.

Even without any software changes, it works well. Common workflows like stopping and getting out of your car, getting back in again and having the music start, automatic pause when a call comes up, etc. -- all work as you'd expect.

So it has a few 1.0 issues but I would definitely characterize it as a HUGE step forward. And use Voice Command!

 

Hi All,
Any way to view the addresses imported into the address book while driving. It is greyed-out on my Nav screen unless the car is stopped. It would be nice to be able to one touch choose a name and dial from the touch screen while the car is moving.
Bruce

 

You can use voice command -- simply say "Dial by name" -- and then say the name when prompted. Prius will ask you for the type, etc -- and it doesn't require any screen massaging.

This is different than the Gen II Prius, which required you to associate a voice tag with a name to do "dial by name."