Bluetooth Stereo Headphones Rock in iPhone 3.0!
OK, cheesy headline and all, the fact is that using a stereo Bluetooth headset with my iPhone 3G is absolutely great. This is only possible since the big iPhone 3.0 update, and let me tell you, it was worth the wait. I have long been a fan of wireless headphones, and it’s always pained me to not be able to do it on the iPhone — until now. A cool feature you can see in the screen image below is how the iPhone tells you the source of the output at the bottom of the screen. I guess that’s just in case you forget — they are wireless after all, and you might get confused where all that music is coming from. And no, I’m not going to bust a move like Kevin.
One weird thing, it seems there is no iPhone onscreen volume control in the iPod app with Bluetooth headphones. You HAVE to use the volume control on the headphones. A sad thing lacking is AVRCP, meaning no controlling the tunes from the headset. Bummer, Apple.
No AVRCP? Suckitude!
maybe 3.1 update.
Does A2DP work only in the iPod app, or does it also work in Pandora, Slacker, etc?
works with ALL iPhone audio, even key taps.
it if pandora,slacker.etc support it yes but it a third party app so apple and make them
Just like Apple fans to rave about what we other phone users have had for years. Congrats to Apple for catching up….almost
haha, typical. people are either iphone owners or iphone haters
P
a product is more than the sum of its features. and if your own son learned to talk through A2DP you’d be raving too!
Can someone say…I wish I had an iPhone. Sounds like someone was never accepted by the cool kids in school.
So no control for headsets like Sony’s HBH-IS800? That’s really lame.
No volume control. someone at the sony store complained they weren’t loud enough. I’d like to soften them a little but can’t. looking all over for an answer to this. Great earphones, really small, light and simple! What to do??
I tried controlling the iPhone using my Tritton dongle.
- I held down the “-” button (volume down) and the screen showed “No voice dialing.”
- I held down the “action” button and the screen showed the “play/pause” icons.
- I held down the “+” button (volume up) and the phone started dialing the last number I had dialed recently. Ooooh, nice and handy!
- I can use the “action” button to play/pause Quicktime when running in Safari, whether it’s up front or in the background. Right now, I’m listening to di.fm’s House station using their AAC link, which starts their streams using Quicktime. Safari’s in the background with Quicktime loaded in a window (or is that “in a sheet”?) with Tweetdeck in front. The “action” button plays/pauses successfully. (This gives me the idea that all music players — hint Pandora — should take advantage of playing their music in Quicktime/Safari since they can be run in the background.)
I can pause and play the iPod player with the dongle (whether it’s up front or in the background), but cannot do the same with Pandora.
For volume, interestingly enough, my HTC dongle when paired with my HTC Advantage and HTC Fuze would control the volume on the device itself, not on the headset. With the iPhone, it only controls the volume on the headset and the iPhone volume control can be independently moved (though it doesn’t affect the volume playing through the headset).
I just found this out on another website while doing research on bluetooth stereo headphones. I was about to order the HBH-IS800 and at the last minute did a search in relationship to the iPhone. There were a couple of people who had been using 3.0 for a while, so they might have been developers. They said they had reported this to Apple as a bug and were disappointed to discover Apple had released it without fixing that.
I have the Motorola S9, which I’ve been using with my laptop, and the volume control works great, but as mentioned above, I can’t move through songs. It won’t pause either, unless a phone call comes through. I was only looking to replace these because I like to lay down on the couch while I’m listening to music and that’s not possible with the S9’s. I’ll cross my fingers for an update soon to fix this — and my 3.0 Wi-Fi woes — but that’s a whole other story.
Try the Motorokr S7-HD’s. They make it easier to lay down with, but they are over the ear style cans that are connected by a thin cord.
I just discovered this last night myself! Pulled out my old derelict cheap bluetooth earphones that I’d bought back when I had a Treo 750 and gave them a try. Turns out they weren’t so crappy after all, just my Treo was. They sound and work GREAT with the iPhone3GS.
Today I wore them on a bike ride, and I was disappointed to find they only controlled volume or took phone calls as well. I was hoping that was only because they were so old. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I googled and found your article here explaining why.
At least you saved me the money I was going to spend on newer headphones, thanks!
so what do you guys think is the best way to go? S9-HD? When I’ll have these on, I dont care as much about the call quality – because it’ll either be at the gym (if I ever go) or when listening to music/audiobook outside, and i wont want to talk to anyone anyways
In other situations, I’ll have my Blueant V1 or Supertooth Lite
The S9 is great in the gym as long as you do not sweat or move too much.
I had a pair and in the perfect position they are great, however this means the band of the earphones are suspended in space. Once you start jogging, the the band which is positioned at the back of the head drops and therefore pulls the ear buds out of position.
After a few months of sweating into them the buttons failed. This appears to be a consistent complaint.
Whats the best bluetooth stereo headset thats around 100 dollars, give or take a few
look at the Plantronics Voyager 855 Stereo Bluetooth Headset.
Going for $35 in Amazon from $150 retail, and very positive reviews.
Very light and the bonus of turning the stereo headset into an mono A2DP earpiece…a rare thing.
I use the little Tritton stereo headset dongle with a pair of Sony in ear buds. The bass is awesome and the sound is quite clear. I used another headset with my HTC Fuze (an HTC dongle) and it also worked fine. It wouldn’t work with the iPhone thoughand I had the Tritton laying around. Glad that I tried it!
I have the IS-800’s and the volume is uh: shattering. Crystal clear mind you but shattering. They do work really well for phone calls.
Apple puts this one down as “By design”.
Scotty – how is the bass on them? Is there any on headphone control at all? I’ve heard mixed things between pause and volume working, but not track advance to nothing at all….??
This is really a welcome!! I downloaded a movie direct to my ipod touch and I paired up my Nokia MD-7W portable bluetooth speakers to the ipod. Now I can watch videos or listen to music on the go without those irritating wires. The one problem I noticed was that when listening to music over bluetooth and using the web browser with about 6 pages open and constantly loading full web sites the connection starts breaking up. I believe that this is because the wifi and bluetooth both use the 2.4 Ghz spectrum. I have noticed this too with my E71 when using wifi and bluetooth especially when streaming music. The situation gets better when I switch to cellular data.
*Sigh* why the hell dose apple always screw up the bluetooth stuff? I’m WTF do they just hate BT and thus refuse to work with it, or is it they want to mess with the standard so we will all buy a Apple BT device that will magically work. Guess I”m back to waiting on a pre.
Thought, it might work on the 3GS since that one ships with inline music controls on the headset something the 3g dose not support (or original, smucks, I guess apple designers don’t ride bikes and listen to music).
only ting about the Voyager 855, well to things really, it forms a bit of suction cup in the ear, which gives great sound isolation but makes it a PITA when trying to listen to external noises or even talk to somebody. So I found myself pulling them off all the time and hanging them around my neck. I then lost them
. So I’m looking for a looser or more airy set for my next one’s.
The other thing was amazon shipped my a sealed box but it was missing the other cup sizes for the ear and the ear hook. The plantronics support folks totally sucked and just gave a run around and would not replace the missing peices (kept trying to either get me to ship back or buy replacements from their part department, totally ridiculous). So… I won’t be giving them any more money, ever.
Interstingly the controls work for my headset (at least pause/play does) but I can’t get A2DP stereo sound through my Philips SHB7100. They pair, work for calls but refuse to push the sound through the ipod mode on my Iphone 3G OS 3.0. Not happy
Apple just does not ‘get’ bluetooth. How on earth can you release stereo bluetooth and then overlook the minimum functionality for it to work? My disappointment today was crushing. Yes, I can use my SE HBH-DS980 with my iPhone and yes I do get streaming stereo bluetooth. Yes, the sound quality is excellent. Yes, I can start stop tracks BUT big no-no, I can’t skip forward or backwards, imho, the most basic of requirements. Every other handset manufacturer, I have used, e.g. Sony Ericsson (hobviously), Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and HTC handle this most basic of functionality in their stereo BT support but the product which purports to knock them all into a cocked hat, does not. C’mon Apple, fix it now!
I’ve got the Plantronics voyager 855 stereo headphones, and pressing the mute button on the headset does pause/play the phone – however there’s no track controls (fwd/rev).
“One weird thing, it seems there is no iPhone onscreen volume control in the iPod app with Bluetooth headphones”
Nothing weird about that. At all. Bluetooth is a digital signal, it makes no sense at all to control the volume from the iPhone. The volume control on the headset also has nothing to do with AVRCP, as it’s a direct volume control to control the amplifier in the headset.
Not true since a lot of BT headsets doesn’t
have built in volume control as the SE IS-800
/Tob
I agree the S9’s would be awful for working out. They would not stay on well and the earpieces would not do well with sweat. I use my wired Etymotic hf2 headset for working out. The plastic flanged tip is fantastic. I was getting a shock while on the treadmill with every other headphones I tried. I wish these came in bluetooth. The Ety bluetooth that is available is very weird. Tiny boxes hanging from your ears.
I’m hoping someone will post that they bought the 3G S and report that they had better luck with their bluetooth. I need another excuse to pay full price, as I’m not eligible for the lower prices. I’m reading that I can get at least $200 for my 3G, but I’m still iffy.
You guys are missing out if you’re stuffing around with the S9 for working out. That solid bar just erks me. JayBird Bluetooth headphones are king in my world … jaybirdgear.com
Where to the large curved parts of the JayBird go- behind your ear? You aren’t bothered by them? Is the cord flexible and thin or think. Can’t tell from the pictures. I don’t know where to buy them, either, and would be worried to try them and not be able to return… suggestions?? thanks.
and can you use the iphone 3GS voice dialing with them?
I tired my Lubix NC1 stereo bluetooth headsets on a 3GS yesterday at the apple store. I could pause/play and the sound was pretty good. Volume controls on the Lubix control the headset volume, not the device’s stereo volume (although it does control the device volume when in phone mode – least it does on my blackberry), so no problems there. I really hope the track forward/back is a bug they’ll fix and not a feature they didn’t find worthy of implementing – cause that would be lame.
The bottom line is that if you’re looking for a TINY headphone with NO WEIGHT, easy to turn on and off, great sound (but not THE BEST in BT) they are completely hidden if you have medium length hair and feel great (thus, very little feel), and ALL YOU WANT TO DO is listen to music and answer a call, switch between calls, and have your phone nearby, these are great. They are very comfortable and don’t into any part of the head.
There’s a clip that clips the mic area to a shirt, etc., if you need it. I read somewhere that someone changed the ear tips with one of the squishy shure ones. That may make the falling out of the ears problem go away.
Until someone makes something LIKE the HDHIS-800 ones, these are the easiest to take. I personally don’t care about remote shuffling or skipping songs remotely, etc. ONE little button, about a little bigger than a straight pin head does everything I really need, since my phone is usually in my purse, in a holder on the treadmill. Wouldn’t be great for weights or machines unless you have a pocked, but the blue-toothness keeps me from pulling the wires out of my ears when I move the wrong way and from getting tangled in the seats of the machines.
The music isn’t exactly SHATTERING in volume, but it is louder than what I would want when listening to softER kinds of easy listening music… Maybe there will be an IPHONE 3GS fix somewhere along the way if enough people make noise!
I’m curious about the 3gs voice control and BT too, anyone know if it works (huge + or -). Shocking as the shoddy implementation on the BT is though I would be happily stunned if it worked.
I’m really interested in philips tapster BT stereo headset but they announced it six months back and far as I can tell it hasn’t shipped yet. http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/us/consumer/cc/_language_us/_productid_SHB7110_37_US_CONSUMER
My problem is that sound stutters every 3-8 seconds making it unlistenable. Also no forward/backtrack. (DELL) BH200 stereo headset. Anyone else heard this? WiFi is off, but I do see any way off turning phone off except using airplane mode which rather defeats BT!
I just went for a walk this morning with my S9 headphones and I had the same problem as you Andy. It was stuttering just like you describe. I only made it a block away and went back home for my wired set. The S9’s have always been fine here at home, but this is the first time I’ve taken them out for a walk. Big disappointment.
voice control does not work over BT. when you depress the home button for 2 seconds and voice control comes up, the chime is heard over the iPhone speakers, not the BT headphones. if you’re inside this is fine, as it picks up your voice in a quiet room. outside is another story. as is, i discovered, the streaming audio. inside it works great. flawless. one quick walk to starbucks was the opposite. choppy to the point of not being able to discern which song was playing. this lessened when my hand was touching the phone in my pocket, or when i turned my head so the BT receiver was facing the pocket my phone was in… but i looked like a douchebag, my head cocked permanently to the right. i’m using the altec lansing / plantronics backbeat BT headphones. terrible. just terrible. i’m returning them tomorrow. i’d hold out to see if 3.1 has AVRCP before trying again.
A quick warning: a lot of A2DP headphones don’t work OK with the iPhone 3G while listening to / watching streamed contents (incl. YouTube) via Wi-Fi. Please check out http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/full-compliance-test-report-stereo-bluetooth-sound-a2dp-iphone-os-3 for more info (particularly the last two updates). The, in this respect, useless headphones also include the Plantronics Pulsar 590. It’s only usable at playing back local content or stuff streamed via the cellular connection.
I’ve got a Jabra 3030 I use with the Iphone 3G and it sounds great, my only problem is that I can’t adjust the volume low enough with the buttons on the receiver, there is no adjustment on the Iphone for volume over bluetooth, is this something anyone else has found?
I can’t control the olume either. It’s too loud for me!
I’m really bummed about Stereo BT…doesnt look like there are any good options out there…I was going to pick up the S9-HD….. now I guess I’ll sit back and wait….
Gary, all stereo BT headphones have their pros and cons. I, who have several of them, prefer using the BackBeat 903 / 906, particularly now that it’s one of the only two models I own that work with Wi-Fi streaming on the iPhone 3G.
You may want to base your selection on whether
1.) you want to listen to / watch streamed contents (if not, practically any model will do)
2.) and the usual stuff: is it comfortable enough (many hate e.g. in-ear models like the Voyager 855), battery life, ruggedness, sound quality etc.
Honestly the situation is pretty ridiculous, they have had litterly YEARS to work on BT and this is the half assed implementation the finally dribble out? Feh. Then there is the whole no wifi or BT home syncing to iTunes will is still just plain nuts IMO.
Yeah, I feel the same. Nevertheless, a half-baked A2DP / AVRCP implementation is still better than nothing… After all, otherwise, the iPhone really kicks some serious butts and is an excellent phone overall for gaming, Web browsing etc.
S805, $37 on Amazon…any thoughts with 3GS? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JHKU72/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p23_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1GD79Q2B97RFQXMJ8X75&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
can ne1 help me ???? my iphone wont discover my bt headset!!….
wt do i do??
I would start by learning to type on it before you mess with Bluetooth. After that, you need to put the headset in pairing mode. Then go to Settings, General, Bluetooth, and select the new device. Some connect without a code, some require a code like “0000″. You need to read the owners manual specific to your headset.
Uh, I think he was using IM type shortcuts. Or were you joking? Cracked me up anyway.
Hey, I broke down and bought a 3GS last week. Still have same issues with not being able to control the music, but my WiFi issues went away. My signal is excellent and the WiFi speed is amazing.
Ris2110, if you don’t have the owners manual anymore, you can probably find it on the Internet with a Google or Bing search. I didn’t even need my instructions, I turned on my headphones and when I turned on BT on my phone, it found them. Under Devices, it showed my headphones but said Not Connected. So I hit the blue arrow and then it changed to connected.
I bought the Sony IS-800’s (stupidly) w/o checking reviews or realizing there is no way to adjust volume (I kept hitting the phone volume up/down until I relaized there is no there there).
I can actually live with that (always listen loud), and actually really like these, but my main issue is with the sound stuttering and cutting out, mainly while outside.
Is that solely an IS-800 problem or are other bluetooth sets also experiencing sound cuts???
I just wanted to share my experience with my SonyEricsson HBH-DS205 BT stereo headphones and iPhone 3G OS 3.0
They sound great when WiFi is turned off, but chopped up sound when WiFi is on (using the same chip/antenna I think) Volume works and also play/pause/redial, only missing forward/back functionality which only beeps with no effect when used with my iPhone 3G.
Best regards, Rune
Hey all, I just watched a movie called definately maybe, and this guy has a set of earbud wireless headphones, no wires at all does anybody know who makes them or what kind they are? I want a set like these, just pop em into your ears and go, no wires! I’ve been looking but have not found them yet, if you know of any email me here , edge289@yahoo.com, oh yes I’m using an iphone 3G, what are the best out there?
Can anybody share high and low frequency response of this devices. I was reading good reviews about the BackBeat 903/906 but they have a high frequency response of 12Khz.
If you like good quality music listening you will need at least 20Khz of response from this devices. The only problem is that if you want a device with this quality like the Lubix C1, they don’t look nice for me and are too heavy for the ear.
Any suggestion on High Quality Sound A2DP sets? Does anybody know any device with more thant 23Khz of response?
I think I will stay with my wired V-Moda vibe II earbuds for now.
iPhone sucks big time. Still doesn’t do Flash, wouldn’t do FLAC. Oh! It can finally do cut and paste. I seem to recall my Treo phone did that a millenium ago. Wished I had bought a Windows Mobile phone. Instead, I had to be cool and own a POS iPhone.
hey guys i have a 2g with 3.1.2 but i cant listen to my music on my s9 or any other bluetooth… can someone pls help me out..