iPhone: Do you think Apple iPhone Bluetooth will be Prius Compatible?

Why is 100% compatible not an option?

 

It will be compatible for sure. I bet half the Cupertino campus drive prii.

The better question is how to mount the iPhone for Cover Flow visibility?

 

It will work very well I predict. I don't expect it to be anywhere near flawless through due to how old the Bluetooth technology in the Prius is.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(osXcode @ May 11 2007, 09:29 AM) [snapback]439945[/snapback]</div>

Bluetooth is (theoretically) a standard that ensures compatiblity with devices. Your questions is like asking "will the iPhone be able to view web pages created before 2007?". The answer, of course, is "yes", because HTML is a standard, and the iPhone is built to consume web pages following that standard.

That said, the standards aren't always followed, and though I'm sure you'll be able to make Bluetooth phone calls with the iPhone/Prius, I wouldn't be surprised if you won't be able to view the power level of the phone in the MFD or import contact lists like you can with some phones.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ May 11 2007, 10:15 AM) [snapback]440037[/snapback]</div>

It's not that simple. Standards change and improve, what may be the standard when the Prius designed (It uses Bluetooth 1.0) may not be the standard later. Case in point, the iPhone uses 2.0. Both may have followed the standard available to them to the letter.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ May 11 2007, 11:32 AM) [snapback]440050[/snapback]</div>

Nah, it's that simple. Bluetooth 2.0 is backward-compatible with 1.x.

Following the HTML analogy, there have actually been several HTML specs established by the W3C over the years, but most people browsing the web would never be the wiser when the standard evolved.

I'll grant that it's all "in theory", however. I have had a lot of Bluetooth devices that had trouble pairing to my computer's Bluetooth transmitter, for example.

 

For reference my current phone is Bluetooth 2.0 and works fine with the Prius.

 

Did a Cingular email start you thinking along these lines?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ May 11 2007, 12:03 PM) [snapback]440125[/snapback]</div>

God I wish that were true.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ May 11 2007, 11:27 PM) [snapback]440423[/snapback]</div>

:lol: No, for real, I'm not making it up. "In theory" it's true:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth1.htm
"Bluetooth 2.0 is backward-compatible with 1.0 devices."

Anyways, $10 says the iPhone will pair with the Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(osXcode @ May 11 2007, 10:29 AM) [snapback]439945[/snapback]</div>

No we don't. The difference between the iPhone and the iPod is about $300, Crapular as a carrier, and rev 1 of an Apple product. Anyone who knows anything about Apple knows what their track record is like when it comes to Rev 1 products. Oh and finally some of us need a hardy product that you can USE HARD. The iPhone looks pretty but I dare it to stand up to my workday where my cell is thrown on the seat. Throw in my toolbag. Plugged into the charger and thrown on the floor. Dropped while I have it cradled to my ear as I work on a server and it gets dropped. More then anything the iPhone looks like a toy instead of a tool. I could be wrong but that's the impression I'm getting.

The deal killer for me is three fold. Price, a crappy carrier lockin (Even if you are with Crapular you need to sign another 2 year contract to get the phone), and lack of third party support. (Or supposed lack of support. Apple has been VERY wishy washy on the topic of third party apps.)

I'll been keeping my Win Mobile phone for the foreseeable future (And its fleet of third party apps that I have loaded on it.) until I can use it on T-mobile and it comes in a $300 variant. I already have an iPod anyways and even if I wanted one it wouldn't hold even a quarter of the music I have.

As for compatibility. The issue isn't with BlueTooth specs. Its with supported profiles. A lot of handheld manufacturers play fast and loose with the profiles they support or they have profiles, and BT radios, that are tweaked for their handheld. As such you get phones that support some of the features that the Prius can do, only a small handful that support all the features, and some that don't support the Prius at all.

http://toyota.letstalk.com/brands/toyota-bt/home.htm

Oh and if anyone thinks I'm being overly harsh on Apple...I'm typing this on a C2D MacBook Pro. I like Apple, hate Jobs I think he's a dick, but I don't drink the kool-aid. :lol: :mellow: :huh: :wacko:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ May 12 2007, 12:01 AM) [snapback]440435[/snapback]</div>

I used to do alot of work with Bluetooth, and I still do - but truth be told, a bluetooth 2.0 device talking to a 1.0 or a 1.1 is gonna be spotty than a 1.0 to a 1.0

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ May 12 2007, 10:28 PM) [snapback]440850[/snapback]</div>

I'm with you price is too high and a terrible carrier. I will be sticking with Verizon. Oh and BTW I am typing this on my Mac Book Pro also. Which leads me to this question. Democrat, Prius,Mac do they go together???

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kayemarschke2 @ May 14 2007, 12:07 AM) [snapback]441437[/snapback]</div>

Not me.


Mac-Prius-Cats-Anti Repubican

Very different

 

I'll bet it will pair with no problem. The main problems seems to be phone book transfers, which may or may not work.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SiliconAddict @ May 12 2007, 04:14 AM) [snapback]440455[/snapback]</div>

Well to be honest, no, there's not all that much difference between the cost at launch of the first iPod and the first iPhone, even though there IS a cost differential now. Given what the iPhone is purported to be capable of doing in comparison to what the original iPod could do, the probability is that the iPhone will not just be at least as much a success, but somewhat more so.

It is certainly true that many may not wish to purchase due to the carrier or a wish not to get tied to a further 2 year deal with them, but it's the product that will determine whether most people buy it or not - and I suspect many will buy despite AT&T's service standard, or perhaps in ignorance of such. Personally I'm a great believer in knowing all the factors involved before deciding on a purchase, but the marketplace isn't occupied by a majority of consumers like that - it's driven mostly by impulse buys or by products that have an appeal to a significant proportion of consumers that for whatever reason outweighs the downside of ownership.

It's also true that most people don't handle their cellphones or PDAs with the same general abandon, so quality of construction isn't a factor for most. APPARENT quality is, but that's primarily a visual matter, not a practical/construction one.

The bottom line is that I think a large number of (possibly poorly informed) people will buy the iPhone because it looks good and seems to do the things they think they want such a device to do rather more pleasingly than anything else - or even because nothing else seems to do those combinations of things at all. For the rest of us, we probably have enough sense not to get one, for all the reasons that have been repeated in so many places in the last weeks and months. I know I won't be a customer. I wouldn't give AT&T a red cent more than I have to, their service in my area is highly variable, the iPhone is far more money than I think a portable device is truly worth when considering genuine need (as opposed to desire) and the sort of usage I'd give it, I have far more music than it could handle, little need for video, and while I generally like Apple products and I think the iPhone embodies a range of technologies that are very neat indeed, it's not neat enough to warrant the money.

As to Jobs - well whether he's a jerk or not, he makes more money than I do from heading a company that sells stuff to people like me. Whatever he is, he's pretty good at it.

I'd be very surprised if there had not been some testing with hands-free systems, including the Prius, while the iPhone was in development, but it's worth remembering that the carrier is as much responsible for deciding compatibility with connective devices, so how well it will work is, as yet, anyone's guess except for those at Apple who may have had first-hand experience.

 

If anyone picks up an iphone tonight make sure you post to this thread to report whether or not it works well with your Prius!! Pretty Please!

I've been thinking that the iphone, in coverflow mode, positioned horzontally over the upper part of the stereo face plate (black shiny part), would be an excellent addition to my Prius. Having both the touch screen on the Prius and on the iPhone would make it feel like it was part of the car.

Now to come up with a way to mount it on there properly... Maybe I could just find a couple of black plastic brackets and affix them to the stereo face plate...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(puppetmasta @ Jun 29 2007, 01:04 PM) [snapback]470102[/snapback]</div>

Got the iPhone today after work. I didn't leave my house till after 6pm. Took me less than 30 minutes on line and 2 minutes in the Apple store thanks to their handy portable credit card scanners.

I'm waiting until I find a case for it before I activate it, so it may be a day or two before I attempt to pair it with the Prius.

 

Good news and bad news..

First, my iPhone connects fine with the blootooth in the car, and shows battery life, signal strength etc. Call quality is pretty much the same as my Nokia N62..

Plugging the iPhone into my Dice unit that I received the other week however is another issue. A message appears on the iPhone screen - "This device is not compatible with the iPhone, would you like to enable airplane mode to reduce interference. Yes - No"

I selected no, and the dice will control the ipod fine, just like a regular iPod infact, but there is no way of showing coverflow etc when the iPhone is connected via the Dice unit.

My 2c.