Not sure that it's Navigon's fault. Tomtom does the exact same thing (at least it did with 4.0x, I haven't tried 4.1 yet).
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Those who downloaded 4.1 gm: is muffled Bluetooth actually fixed?
- Thread starter Lostsol
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James, IrishVixen, and Allonym -- all of that is very helpful input.
James, would it be possible for you to listen very carefully to your Blueant S4 in a quiet setting and report whether you hear what I hear in the Jawbone ICON? The steps to reproduce it are
1. In the Navigon app, Start Navigation to some point. You don't have to be travelling, just have the map screen with the first instruction showing.
2. Let the app 'settle' (become quiescent, quiet, whatever...)
3. Now for the careful listening part. Tap the instruction (turn arrow) on the lower left screen. This is what I hear
At ~ 1.5 sec after tapping the screen a faint but audible click in the earpiece
At ~1 sec later another faint click just as the (remaining part of the) instruction starts to be announced
At ~ 5 sec after the instruction has finished, another faint click
To me, it seems like the BT device goes into some kind of power-saving mode 5 seconds after it stops receiving the audio stream from the iPhone. When the iPhone sends another stream, the BT device has to "wake up" (the first click), then play the stream (the second click), and if nothing more is received within 5 seconds it falls back into "rest mode" (the third click).
So the iPhone responds instantly to Navigon's instruction and transmits an audio stream to the BT device. But the BT device isn't ready to instantly play the audio stream through its speaker (and it is not buffering the stream, either). We only hear the part of the stream delivered after the BT device has woken up.
I have tested this idea in two ways. First, if you wait for the instruction to finish and then tap the instruction again before 5 seconds has passed, the instruction is announced in its entirety. Makes sense -- the BT is still awake and the entire stream is received and played.
Second, run an app in the background like iPod or Pandora to play a continuous audio stream. When Navigon interrupts with an instruction, the entire stream is heard. Makes sense -- again, the BT is already awake and responsive.
Before I contact Navigon I'll present the problem to Aliph (makers of Jawbone). I've had good support from them in the past.
By the way, um, I'm still a bit noobish here.
Have I hijacked the original thread baddly enought to start a new one?
I would recommend you open a bug with Navigon if you can. So much changed in the BT APIs in 4.1 that they likely need to rework a few things.
I'll try it tonight with my BT headset. I've tested a lot of calls but never Navigon (which is a killer app, btw).
I'll try it tonight with my BT headset. I've tested a lot of calls but never Navigon (which is a killer app, btw).
Interesting thread. My wife experienced this with her new iPhone 4 (replaced 3G recently). Bluetooth worked fine except if she initiated a call while walking to her car. When she got to the car, it would connect seamlessly but sounded totally muffled. If she hung up and initiated a new call from the car it was fine. Figured it was a Mercedes thing (love the cars but their bluetooth connectivity has been hell.) She hasn't updated to 4.1 yet but hope this solves it. Will post as I can.
I had been experiencing the garbled/muffled sound on my outgoing audio pretty regularly on iOS 4.0 with my Plantronics Voyager 520. I made 3 test calls before updating my software last night and all were very highly distorted. After installing the 4.1 update, I've seen no trace of the problem on any calls yet. I consider the issue resolved for my particular headset.
After a week of using 4.1 (clean install - setup as new phone) on my iP4 a with Plantronics Voyager Pro, here are my observations. Note that I work from home and use my iPhone & Bluetooth for roughly 5-6 hours of calls/day.
1. Not one complaint of "muffled" sound yet. This problem was intermittent for me and hard to recreate most of the time.
2. The headset still loses it's connection to the phone even when the phone it sitting on the table right in front of me. This has happened at least 5-6 times this week since upgrading.
3. If I get more than 10-15 feet from the phone, people consistently tell me the audio quality is terrible. My voice apparently breaks up and sounds garbled and a bit like a cyborg! I've even had complaints of this happening for a few seconds when the phone was right in front of me, but not often. My sister is the one who comments on this the most and she says "you walked away from the phone again, didn't you?". As soon as I walk back to within a few feet of the phone my voice quality is fine.
I NEVER had these types of problems with my iPhone 3G running 3.x versions of the software over a 2 year period. It doesn't look like Apple did a very good job of "fixing" anything with 4.1. Yes, Bluetooth seems improved to a degree, but certainly not "fixed".
I don't know whether to swap my phone out for another or not. It doesn't sound like that will fix anything due to similar complaints from others - particularly over on Apple's discussion forums.
1. Not one complaint of "muffled" sound yet. This problem was intermittent for me and hard to recreate most of the time.
2. The headset still loses it's connection to the phone even when the phone it sitting on the table right in front of me. This has happened at least 5-6 times this week since upgrading.
3. If I get more than 10-15 feet from the phone, people consistently tell me the audio quality is terrible. My voice apparently breaks up and sounds garbled and a bit like a cyborg! I've even had complaints of this happening for a few seconds when the phone was right in front of me, but not often. My sister is the one who comments on this the most and she says "you walked away from the phone again, didn't you?". As soon as I walk back to within a few feet of the phone my voice quality is fine.
I NEVER had these types of problems with my iPhone 3G running 3.x versions of the software over a 2 year period. It doesn't look like Apple did a very good job of "fixing" anything with 4.1. Yes, Bluetooth seems improved to a degree, but certainly not "fixed".
I don't know whether to swap my phone out for another or not. It doesn't sound like that will fix anything due to similar complaints from others - particularly over on Apple's discussion forums.
I had major issues with 4.02 with my A2DP headset. Previously with my 3gs in the gym I could be clear across the room and it would never stutter or static, but since I got an ip4 the bluetooth is horrible. It constantly stutters and has static if I'm more than 10 feet away, or if I lift up my arms over my head obstructing my ears. I'm hoping 4.1 improves this, I'll test it out tomorrow in the gym.
With 4.0, 4.0.1, and 4.0.2 I had problems with my Bluetooth headphones. They would be very intermittent listening to Pandora and the music would speed up and slow down also. Anybody who would call me while I was on the headphones said I sounded like I was in the bathroom, very echoey (sp).
Updated to 4.1 and was having trouble with the headphones loosing connection and Pandora randomly stopping. So I turned off the BT headphones and went into Settings and hit "Forget This Device". Then did a hard reset of the phone. Turned it back on and re-paired the headphones with the phone.
I can say I have had Pandora on for a couple of hours now and it hasn't once skipped, lost connection, or anything, the music has been perfect. Also, there is no high pitched buzzing that I had prior to 4.1 that I had just gotten used to. Now when there is no music playing it is silent. The phone call quality is MUCH better now. My wife said it sound like I wasn't even using the headphones and was very clear.
Updated to 4.1 and was having trouble with the headphones loosing connection and Pandora randomly stopping. So I turned off the BT headphones and went into Settings and hit "Forget This Device". Then did a hard reset of the phone. Turned it back on and re-paired the headphones with the phone.
I can say I have had Pandora on for a couple of hours now and it hasn't once skipped, lost connection, or anything, the music has been perfect. Also, there is no high pitched buzzing that I had prior to 4.1 that I had just gotten used to. Now when there is no music playing it is silent. The phone call quality is MUCH better now. My wife said it sound like I wasn't even using the headphones and was very clear.
Trigger delay
Thanks for that.
I've spoken with Apple and Jawbone. There is an "A2DP audio trigger delay threshold" that (according to Apple) the BT device maker has control over. Depending on conditions and how attentive the user is, stream content lost before the audio gate opens might not be noticed. Missing a few notes in a song can be easy to ignore whereas missing words in a navigation instruction becomes frustrating.
If you do test out Navigon with your BT headset, perhaps post your results over here instead? I opened a new thread to separate the "trigger delay" issue from the "muffled audio" issue owned by this thread.
Thanks for that.
I've spoken with Apple and Jawbone. There is an "A2DP audio trigger delay threshold" that (according to Apple) the BT device maker has control over. Depending on conditions and how attentive the user is, stream content lost before the audio gate opens might not be noticed. Missing a few notes in a song can be easy to ignore whereas missing words in a navigation instruction becomes frustrating.
If you do test out Navigon with your BT headset, perhaps post your results over here instead? I opened a new thread to separate the "trigger delay" issue from the "muffled audio" issue owned by this thread.
I'm a new member and didn't want to start a new thread, so I'll post in this one.
For others who use a BT earpiece with iPhone 4, have you found that 4.1 fixed your call quality and connectivity issues? I'm in a wheelchair and have to use a BT earpiece, so it's very important that I know it's fixed. I haven't owned an iPhone before, but I want to get one if the BT issues are fixed.
Thanks for any help or advice.
For others who use a BT earpiece with iPhone 4, have you found that 4.1 fixed your call quality and connectivity issues? I'm in a wheelchair and have to use a BT earpiece, so it's very important that I know it's fixed. I haven't owned an iPhone before, but I want to get one if the BT issues are fixed.
Thanks for any help or advice.
i've been using bluetooth headsets for many years and currently use the Blueparrot B250-XT headset. it's not stereo but the volume and voice quality are second to none. i use it so much i bought a second as a spare in case i kill the battery on the first one. both of these
headsets worked flawlessly on my 3GS and Razr2 V9
but are horrible with the i4. people are constantly telling me my voice is breaking up or i sound all garbled like i'm under water.
unfortunately the 4.1 update did nothing to help so i guess i'll try exchanging the phone at an apple store and see what happens.
headsets worked flawlessly on my 3GS and Razr2 V9
but are horrible with the i4. people are constantly telling me my voice is breaking up or i sound all garbled like i'm under water.
unfortunately the 4.1 update did nothing to help so i guess i'll try exchanging the phone at an apple store and see what happens.
It's fixed for most people, but a few are seeing the same problem come back after using 4.1 for a while. It's been fine for me with 4.1 so far (I had the muffled problem everytime I received a call with 4.0).
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2481487&start=540&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2481487&start=540&tstart=0