I bought a pair of Sony Bluetooth headphones. When I use them on my iPhone 4S and iPad (4th gen), there are dropouts and skips galore. After looking this up online, I've seen that there have been a number if complaints about iOS6 an Bluetooth. However, when I go to Sony's site, they flat out say (after doing a little digging) that these headphones are not compatible with iOS6. Is this normal? I thought that Bluetooth was a standard, and in order to make a Bluetooth device, the standard had to be adhered to.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Bluetooth 3.0 headphones "not iOS 6 compatible"
- Thread starter Bill Av
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Generally, yes the BT standards are adhered to and are backward compatible with all current versions of the BT profile versions however, that's not always the case with headset compatibility with various devices. Some headsets just don't work well with iOS period. In my profession, it's like the world of "HDMI" connectivity with audio/video and the issues never end. Even though there are similar standards required with the HDMI profiles versions.
Personally, I've never had much luck with any "stereo" BT headphones on iOS anyways, regardless of the version. Unless I'm in a confined environment, they always seem to disconnect, break up and are choppy. I think the technology is still weak, in its infancy in that arena and will get better over time. I have the Sony MW-600, amongst others, it's a great BT module, but over time it develops connectivity issues, mostly with phone calls. It might work fine with Sony Ericsson mobile phones (which really that's what Sony designs their headphones for) but not so much with Apple iOS. Any of the mono BT v3.0 headsets I've used, pair & connect fast and seem to work well with iOS for me.
Personally, I've never had much luck with any "stereo" BT headphones on iOS anyways, regardless of the version. Unless I'm in a confined environment, they always seem to disconnect, break up and are choppy. I think the technology is still weak, in its infancy in that arena and will get better over time. I have the Sony MW-600, amongst others, it's a great BT module, but over time it develops connectivity issues, mostly with phone calls. It might work fine with Sony Ericsson mobile phones (which really that's what Sony designs their headphones for) but not so much with Apple iOS. Any of the mono BT v3.0 headsets I've used, pair & connect fast and seem to work well with iOS for me.
Ah, that's disappointing to hear. I'm going to hold on to them with the hope that iOS 6.1 irons out my problem. They work fine with my Droid. They now work great with my Mac, but I had to jump through a few hoops to get it that way. It never had dropping/skipping problems on the Mac; they just sounded like crap. At first, I thought that the audiophile cry of "compressed music sounds like crap on anything other then earbuds", so I started encoding stuff as Apple Lossless. It still sounded like garbage. Then I found some tips on the 'net about adjusting the Mac's bluetooth bit rate (something that I would never have been able to figure out on my own, as you have to type a line into the Terminal), and now it's wonderful.
I had the MW's and I experienced the exact opposite with my iPhone 4s and then the 5. The MW was one of the strongest and most stable connections I have ever had with an A2DP device. Sure, once in a awhile there would be a situation that I had to re-power the MW to connect, but those situations (for me) were few and far between.
I am a bit saddened that I accidentally threw out my MW a week or two ago. I had put it in my work shirt breast pocket and the shirt got a rip in it. I threw the shirt out since I didn't remember the MW was in the pocket. Oops.
I am currently looking in the new Jaybird Bluebuds X which supposedly has built in tech that allows for less skips and out-of-sight stability that affects many BT units.