[u] Top Stereo Bluetooth Headsets for iPhone & iPod touch

Yesterday saw the release of a major software update for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The update brought over 100 new features, but one of the best new features is that the iPhone 3G and 2nd generation iPod Touch now support Stereo Bluetooth. Stereo Bluetooth lets you enjoy your music in stereo and without wires connecting to your phone. As Stereo Bluetooth has been around for years there are plenty of Stereo Bluetooth Headsets to choose from.

Thereare a couple of points that you’ll need to remember though, the iPhone and iPod Touch support the A2DP profile only. If you have an iPhone this means you can answer & end calls, play / pause your music, but not control it fully. If you have an iPod Touch 2G then you will be able to play / pause your music and adjust the volume, but you won’t be able to use these headsets with any of your VOIP apps (such as Skype) on your iPod.

In order for you to be able to control your music fully, the iPhone or iPod Touch would need to support the AVRCP profile – hopefully we’ll see this in a future software update from Apple. Stereo Bluetooth is not available on the first generation iPhone or iPod Touch.

UPDATE: It appears that volume control when using a Bluetooth Headset is a bit of a mystery – it works on some headsets, but not on others. We’ve tested the headsets shown here and listed whether or not the volume levels can be adjusted.

UPDATE: April 9th 2010 iPhone OS 4.0 was previewed yesterday by Apple and early development previews show that Apple have now included support for volume adjustment, but music controls still don’t work as the AVRCP profile still seems to be excluded. It’s a step in the right direction, but still not ideal. Hopefully this will change between now and the official release of iPhone OS 4.0 in June. Look out for an updated post nearer the time.

Right, on to the headsets! With so many to choose from, it can get a bit overwhelming, so I’ve been through our current range of Bluetooth Headphones and compiled a list of my top 5 Bluetooth Headphones for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S and iPod Touch 2G.

Sony Ericsson HBH-IS800 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

Sony Ericsson IS-800 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

These are without doubt my favourite Bluetooth Headphones, hence they’re at number 1 in my list. It’s incredibly small, and although it still has a wire, the IS-800 is pretty much the only headset that doesn’t feature a fairly bulky control unit. Instead this has a small, simple in-line control that allows you to answer and end calls. Battery life is impressive at upto 270 hours – especially considering how small this headset is. The IS-800 doesn’t support AVCRP, which in this case is a good thing as it means you’re not going to be paying for features that you can’t use. Volume levels are currently fixed when using this headset, but hopefully a fix from Apple is on the way.

Sony Ericsson HBH-DS200 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

Sony Ericsson DS200 Stereo Bluetooth Headset
The DS-200 is designed to hang around your neck in a similar way to the Jabra BT3030. It comes with ‘in ear’ style headphones that can be replaced with any standard headphones with a 3.5mm jack plug. Battery life is great with upto 300 hours stand by and 6 hours of music play back, and an LCD Display will let you know when you’re running low. This headset allows you to control the volume levels by pressing and holding the play button.

Jabra BT3030 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

Jabra BT3030 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

The Jabra BT3030 is probably more suited to the iPod Touch than the iPhone. The reason I say that is because the BT3030 is a Multipoint Headset – this allows you to connect to two devices at once, so you can connect it to your mobile phone and your iPod Touch to listen to your music, and when a call comes in, it will pause the music and answer the call from your mobile. It hangs around your neck on a chain or can clip to your belt or pocket, and can be used with any 3.5mm headphones. Volume control on the BT3030 is not a problem, press the ‘+’ or ‘-’ keys to adjust the volume.

Nokia BH-604 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

Nokia BH-604 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

These are probably the most normal looking headphones of the bunch. They’re solid, comfortable and well built and have the best battery life out of all the headphones listed here with up to 19 hours of music playback, 18 hours of talk time and 2 weeks standby. Sound quality is excellent and set up is incredibly easy. Volume is controlled using a slider on the base of one of the ear cans and worked as you’d expect.

Nokia BH-501 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

Nokia BH-501 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

The baby brother to the BH-604. A smaller more compact design that goes around your head rather than over it, and folds away neatly when not in use. The controls for music and calls are mounted on the outside of the earpiece and are easy to use. One of the more comfortable headsets thanks to the large, padded earphones. We weren’t able to test the volume control on the BH-501, but as all Nokia Headsets work in the same way, we would expect the volume controls to work perfectly fine on this headset.

This isn’t the full range of Stereo Bluetooth Headsets for the iPhone and iPod Touch, so if you’ve not seen one here that does what you want, take a look at all Stereo Bluetooth Headsets.

If you’ve got any questions or queries about Stereo Bluetooth on the iPhone get in touch with us using the comments form below!

iPhone 3.1, iTunes 9 and the new Apple iPods…

I know it’s all over the internet and it’s all the Apple Fanboys are talking about,but I thought I’d share my thoughts on Apple’s latest announcement. In case you missed it, Apple have tonight released a minor update to the iPhone/iPod touch operating system, a few new iPods and a major upgrade to iTunes which adds a load of new features. I’ll keep it brief, but here’s the main changes:

iTunes 9
Loads of changes and improvements to iTunes, mostly good, but a couple of things that were better the way they were before. Onto the changes then – first the good ones.

Home Sharing – this for me is the best new feature by a mile. It allows you to share your music with up to 5 other computers on the same network (wired or wireless) by simply dragging and dropping the music from the shared playlist into your own music library. This is great as it means that you only need to buy an album once and you can legally share it with the rest of your household in seconds – in fact iTunes will look for new content on other computers on the network and copy it to the other computers for you automatically. What’s more, if you’re an iPhone user you can share downloaded Apps too – meaning that the 60 price tag for TomTom just got a whole lot more appealing now that you can use it on up to 5 devices.

The new-look iTunes Store

Music Albums & Films on iTunes have been given a refresh too, with a new range of iTunes LP’s and iTunes Extras now being made available to encourage you to buy the whole album rather than just a couple of songs. The idea behind it is that when you buy an album or a movie, you’ll have access to a range of special features similar to those that you’dnormally get when buying a DVD (or an enhanced CD with multimedia content that was popular in the late 90′s early 00′s). It gives you access to song lyrics, cast/artist interviews, extra videos and loads of other content not normally available. For me, this is a bit of a take it or leave it feature – if I’m listening to music, I’m normally working in other applications or surfing the web, so can’t really see as this will appeal to everyone, but if you’re an avid fan of an artist and have to have every bit of information you can then you’ll probably love this.

The iTunes store has been given a complete overhaul and I think it’s now much more user friendly. There’s a full screen option that you can set in preferences and when activated, the sidebar is hidden when you launch the store. Navigating has been made much easier as there is now a bar across the top of the screen with drop down menu’s to the most popular categories of music, film, TV and podcasts etc.To preview a song you no longer need to click through to an album page, instead you can click on a thumbnail of the album to show a summary page that will give you a full track listing, the option to preview or buy songs as well as add them to your wishlist or post them to your Facebook or Twitter page.

Genius playlists were introduced this time last year with iTunes 8.0 and it allowed you to find other music that you’d like based on the contents of your music library. It also allowed you to create a playlist of upto 25 songs on your iPhone or 100 songs in iTunes that go well together. Genius Mixes takes this a step further and creates 12 different mixes of your songs. It’s a bit hard to explain as it doesn’t really sound that different to Genius playlists, but rather than you specifying a track to base the Genius Mix on, it uses data from Apple to group songs together based on the genre and artist. These mixes can then be synced to your iPod or iPhone and unlike playlists, they aren’t limited to a certain number of songs. Genius Mixes will take a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve got the hang of them and as long as you like listening to music in a random order, you’ll find yourself listening to your mixes all the time.

iTunes now creates 12 Genius Mixes based on your favourite music

Overall I think the new iTunes is great, Home Sharing on it’s own makes the upgrade worth having, but I’m not so sure on the most noticeable change – the white background. It makes it feel a bit cheap and empty, having said that, It’s starting to grow on me and isn’t as depressing as the old black/grey one. I know it’s getting a lot of attention in the Apple Forums, so it’ll be interesting to see if Apple make any changes to it in the 9.1 update which almost certainly won’t be far away.

iPhone 3.1
At first glance, not much has changed with iPhone 3.1 – most of the changes seem to be there to incorporate the new features added to iTunes and the two go very much hand in hand. One thing that did jump out at me is that the cost of upgrading the iPod touch has dropped from 5.99 to 2.99 so there’s really no excuse not to do it now – 6 was cheap, 3 is a bargain – especially when you consider how many new features you get with 3.0.

The App Store on the phone now supports the Genius feature from iTunes, so now when you launch the App store you’ll see a ‘Genius’ button on the featured tab of the App store. I use Genius quite a lot in iTunes and on my phone, and given the growing number of apps in the App store, this is definitely a welcome addition as browsing the Apps can be a bit overwhelming.

The only other real change that I’ve spotted on the phone is to do with the Genius Mixes that you can create in iTunes – you’ve got an option to play them on your phone – just launch iPod, press more and you’ll see the option to play them.

Manage the Apps on your phone through iTunes

The final thing worth mentioning is that if your phone or iPod touch is running 3.1 and you’re using iTunes 9, you can now arrange the icons on your homescreen in iTunes and then sync them over to your device. Not a ground breaking addition, but it’s something a lot of people have been asking for.

iPods
As well as the software updates, the whole iPod line up is getting a refresh with the biggest changes coming to the iPod nano.

The new 5th generation iPod nano is the same size as it’s predecessor, but it has a larger 2.2″ screen, a video camera and surprisingly a an FM radio. The camera isn’t capable of capturing still images, but it does record video in the h.264 format at 640 x 480 pixels. The nano now has a microphone and speaker which allows you to add sound to your videos. Any videos you create can be uploaded to youtube or facebook. Is video needed in the nano? Probably not, but I’m guessing the makers of the Flip video camera’s aren’t too impressed!

iPod shuffle gets new colours and is available in 2GB or 4GB sizes, with the older 2nd generation shuffle finally being phased out. A stainless steel version is also available exclusively from Apple and iis by far the best looking shuffle I’ve seen. It’s amazing just how much the shuffle has changed since the original white plastic USB one.

New iPod nano and iPod shuffle

The iPod touch gets the same processor speed increase that the iPhone 3G had when it became the 3GS as well as a memory increase from 32GB to 64GB. Rumours of a camera being added turned out to be just that as there were no other changes annouced for the iPod touch.

iPod classic – rumoured to be dropped, but instead sees an increase in capacity. It now has a 160 GB hard drive, up from 120GB on the previous model. Strange choice by Apple, as this time last year they discontinued an 80GB and 160GB model to make way for the 120GB. Why they didn’t just kill the 80GB and leave the 160GB version I don’t know.

The Best Stereo Bluetooth Headsets for iPhone are…

The iPhone OS 3.0 software update for the iPhone and iPod Touch brought over 100 new features to both devices, but one of the best new features is that the iPhone 3G and 2nd generation iPod Touch now support Stereo Bluetooth. Stereo Bluetooth lets you enjoy your music in stereo without wires connecting to your phone. As Stereo Bluetooth has been around for years there are plenty of Stereo Bluetooth Headsets to choose from so I thought I’d give them all a try and see how they shaped up.

There are a couple of points that you’ll need to remember though, the iPhone and iPod Touch support the A2DP profile only. If you have an iPhone this means you can answer & end calls, play / pause your music, but not control it fully. If you have an iPod Touch 2G then you will be able to play / pause your music and adjust the volume, but you won’t be able to use these headsets with any of your VOIP apps (such as Skype) on your iPod.

In order for you to be able to control your music fully, the iPhone or iPod Touch would need to support the AVRCP profile – hopefully we’ll see this in a future software update from Apple. Stereo Bluetooth is not available on the first generation iPhone or iPod Touch.

Another thing to note is that volume control when using a Bluetooth Headset is a bit of a mystery – it works on some headsets, but not on others. I’ve tested the headsets shown here and listed whether or not the volume levels can be adjusted.

Right, on to the headsets! With so many to choose from, it can get a bit overwhelming, so I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 Bluetooth Headphones for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S and iPod Touch 2G.

Jabra Halo Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

Jabra Halo Stereo Bluetooth Headset
Ah, the Jabra Halo. Is it possible to love headphones? These weren’t on my top 5 initially, but only because I couldn’t get hold of any. I got my hands on a pair last week and they are great. They’re relatively small and can fold away when they’re not in use. The controls on these are extremely simple and everything is controlled with a touch sensitive slider on the right ear or the answer button. Pairing was a doddle, as always with Jabra headsets and audio quality is great and a lot clearer than it is with the standard earphones that came in the box. Adjusting the volume isn’t a problem. The Halo is a multipoint headset, so if you wanted to, you can use them with your PC, games console or a second phone at the same time as having them connected to your iPhone. If you want more info on these then take a look at my Jabra Halo hands on review.

Sony Ericsson HBH-IS800 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

Sony Ericsson IS-800 Stereo Bluetooth Headset
These were my favourite Bluetooth Headphones until the Halo came along. They’re incredibly small, and although it still has a wire, the IS-800 is pretty much the only headset that doesnt feature a fairly bulky control unit. Instead this has a small, simple in-line control that allows you to answer and end calls. Battery life is impressive at upto 270 hours – especially considering how small this headset is. The IS-800 doesn’t support AVCRP, which in this case is a good thing as it means you’re not going to be paying for features that you can’t use. Volume levels are currently fixed when using this headset, but hopefully a fix from Apple is on the way.

Sony Ericsson HBH-DS200 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

Sony Ericsson DS200 Stereo Bluetooth Headset
The DS-200 is designed to hang around your neck in a similar way to the Jabra BT3030. It comes with ‘in ear’ style headphones that can be replaced with any standard headphones with a 3.5mm jack plug. Battery life is great with upto 300 hours stand by and 6 hours of music play back, and an LCD Display will let you know when you’re running low. This headset allows you to control the volume levels by pressing and holding the play button.

Jabra BT3030 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

Jabra BT3030 Stereo Bluetooth Headset
The Jabra BT3030 is probably more suited to the iPod Touch than the iPhone. The reason I say that is because the BT3030 is a Multipoint Headset – this allows you to connect to two devices at once, so you can connect it to your mobile phone and your iPod Touch to listen to your music, and when a call comes in, it will pause the music and answer the call from your mobile. It hangs around your neck on a chain or can clip to your belt or pocket, and can be used with any 3.5mm headphones. Volume control on the BT3030 is not a problem, press the ‘+’ or ‘-’ keys to adjust the volume.

Nokia BH-604 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

Nokia BH-604 Stereo Bluetooth Headset
These are probably the most normal looking headphones of the bunch. Theyre solid, comfortable and well built and have the best battery life out of all the headphones listed here with up to 19 hours of music playback, 18 hours of talk time and 2 weeks standby. Sound quality is excellent and set up is incredibly easy. Volume is controlled using a slider on the base of one of the ear cans and worked as you’d expect.

This obviously isn’t the full range of Stereo Bluetooth Headsets for the iPhone and iPod Touch, just one’s that I’ve tried and think are really good. I’ve tested these headsets with a 2nd Generation iPod Touch running OS 3.0 and the microphone on a Stereo Bluetooth Headset will work with most VOIP apps.

If you’ve got any questions or queries about Stereo Bluetooth on the iPhone leave me a message using the comments form below!

How to update your iPhone or iPod Touch

Last night Apple released the long awaited iPhone OS 3.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch. The update adds a number of new features to the latest versions of both devices, including adding support for Stereo Bluetooth Headphones and Speakers.

The update is free for iPhone 3G users, and there is a small charge of 5.99 for iPod Touch users.

To update your device, you need launch iTunes and connect your iPhone or iPod Touch. Once it is recognised by iTunes, you need to select it from the list of devices and click on the summary tab. Here you will see the option to ‘Check for Update’.

Read more »

Apple iPhone 3G S & iPhone OS 3.0 coming next week

Apple last night confirmed months of rumours by announcing a new iPhone as well as a release date for the iPhone OS 3.0 software update. The announcements seem to be getting a mixed reaction, with most people seemingly impressed by the software update, but not so much by the new iPhone.

iPhone 3G S

The new iPhone is really a refresh of the current one, rather than something completely new. Rumours of an iPhone Mini and iPhone Pro have been around for months, but as with most Apple rumours, they were just that. The name of the new phone is unusual too, with the ‘S’ referring to Speed – the iPhone 3G S is noticeably faster than its predecessor.

The iPhone 3G S is the same shape & style as the current iPhone 3G, but with a number of changes internally – the main changes are with the Camera, Processor, Storage and Battery, and a couple of new software features not available to the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G S will be available on O2 and is due for release in the UK on the 19th of June

iPhone 3G S Features:

• 3.2 MP Camera with Touch Focus
• Video Recording and Editing
• Digital Compass for improved mapping
• Voice Control for calls and iPod
• 16GB & 32 GB Models
• iPhone OS 3.0

iPhone 3G S - No Cosmetic Changes

For a more detailed walk through on the new iPhone 3G S head over to the Stuff.tv website where they give it a full run through.

iPhone OS 3.0

Previously announced back in March, iPhone OS 3.0 hasn’t really changed much from the version that we reviewed recently. A few additional features have been added to the line up, including the option to download Movies, TV Shows and audio books direct to your phone over a 3G network. Internet tethering has been confirmed for the UK too – this is where you can connect your iPhone to your PC using Bluetooth or USB and use it as a modem to connect to the internet (in the same way as a mobile broadband dongle). iPhone tethering rates on O2 are 14.68 per month for 3GB of data, and 29.36 for 10GB of data. More information on iPhone tethering.iPhone OS 3.0 will be released on the 17th of June and will be a free upgrade to iPhone users and there will be a small charge (amount not confirmed) for iPod Touch users.

Landscape Typing in iPhone OS 3.0

iPhone OS 3.0 Features

• Cut, Copy & Paste
• MMS
• Search
• Movies, TV and Books in iTunes store
• Internet Tethering
• Shake to Shuffle Music
• Stereo Bluetooth
• Find my iPhone and Remote Wipe (MobileMe users only)
• YouTube log in
• Support for Turn By Turn Sat Nav (TomTom for iPhone coming soon)

If you want more information on iPhone OS 3.0 there’s a video review from Darryl Mitchel on his YouTube Channel.

A full range of iPhone 3G S accessories are available now on the Mobile Fun site and the phone is available to order now from mobiles.co.uk

Which iPod have I got?

Since Apple launched their original iPod back in October 2001, the range has grown and evolved. Although iPod’s look fairly similar, each one is individual, and has its own range of accessories. Here you can determine which iPod you have, and find out what accessories are available for it.

What does the “G” mean?
When Apple launched the early iPod’s, they weren’t given names like they are today. The original iPod was replaced by a newer model also called iPod. As the newer model had several advanced features over its predecessor, it was dubbed the new generation of iPod, this over time change to 2nd Generation, which in turn got shortened to 2G.

The number preceding the “G” just determines where that particular model sits in the range of iPods. Even now with the Nano iPod, we are seeing 2nd and 3rd Generation models. The original style of iPod is now called the iPod Classic, and no doubt as time goes on, more generations will follow. The only exception to this is the iPhone 3G, where the 3G refers to the technology within the phone, and not the generation of iPhone.

Read more »

New iPod Touch on its way?

Is this the iPhone Nano?

According to developers who have been dissecting the latest version (2.1) of the iPhone/iPod Touch software, we’re about to get a brand new iPod Touch. The current iPod Touch has previously been referred to in the source code as “iPod1,1″, but the latest software points to a device “iPod2,1″ – and as of yet no such device exists, so leading developers believe a new iPod is not that far away.

This may not mean a lot to most people, and you would be right for thinking that this might just mean a larger capacity iPod Touch coming, but a change in source code has not meant a change in capacity in previous models!

So what are we likely to see then? An all new iPod Nano Touch? A Shuffle Touch? I don’t think we’ll have that long to wait to find out as Apple normally update their iPod line up around September. So as the kids go back to school and you start thinking about Christmas , watch our for some big announcements.

Via MacRumours