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!

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!

Spotlight on iPhone

I’m going to start with the Home screen and work my way through. The new things about the home screen that are noticeable so far is there are a few new icons. Its not all that noticeable, but the phone icon, the ipod icon and the messages icon have changed, and now have a more contemporary brushed effect. You’ve also got the new spotlight feature which is really helpful if you want to search for songs, emails or contacts, it searches everything. You just swipe to the right and it brings up the spotlight search screen. Its a really good feature and is surprisingly fast, I thought it was going to lag for quite some time, but it’s quick and snappy. That is it for the new home screen.

Moving on to the phone features, there’s not much added to the this bit, however, when you get a missed call or it shows you your recent calls, it now shows you what they called you from, for example if you called them on their mobile, or work phone you can now see this in the Recent calls screen. So that’s a really easy way of showing where they called you from.

Landscape Typing on iPhone

Landscape Typing:
The best bit you’ll probably find in iPhone 3.0 is that it now has landscape typing. So now when you’re in your inbox, you can view it in landscape, and you can create a new email in landscape too. The only thing I’ve found that I don’t like about this new firmware is that you still can’t delete messages in bulk, you still have to individually select them, which is really annoying. If you have a ton of emails coming through every day, you have to scroll through and it just takes forever. I just want a delete all button, which will just make it all so much quicker and easier.

Onto Safari then, not much new in here, although you have got auto-fill, so when you are on a web page with an address field, once you click in the text box, you now have this new option auto fill which will fill in all your address details for you. The only other feature I’ve noticed, is more of an enhancement than a feature is that safari seems to be a bit faster, not particularly for browsing, but for launching, rotating the screen and launching bookmarks for example. It can be a bit laggy at times, but then this is the Beta version, but I find it does seem to be a bit more nippy when rotating the screen.

Improved Messaging:

Now the messages application is really, really good. There are a lot more new features in here, however they’re not all in the Beta, MMS is not yet supported. You can now view your messages in landscape and not only that, you can type in landscape. I didn’t think I’d like typing in landscape, but it’s so much easier and I’m finding that I’m only using the landscape keyboard all the time now. I was expecting it to be extremely glitchy but it’s surprisingly fast to switch between the two views. Also, you can now delete individual messages, previously you could only delete the whole conversation. Now you can click on edit, select the messages you want to remove and press delete.

iPod & YouTube:

iPod Improvements

Going on to the iPod then, not much new in here, the only thing I can see is a search function, which is really fast and works in the same way as spotlight on the home screen. Also, when you go on now playing it’s got the new shake to shuffle shuffle feature. It’s quite hard to use, because you have to shake it quite a bit, and if you use it when you’re out running, it can sometimes go off which can be a bit annoying, it’s like the new Nano which has the shuffle, but I’m not too keen on it.

I’m going to move on to the new YouTube function, which I love. The real let down of the previous application was that you could only view videos, you couldn’t really do much else with it. You couldn’t log on, you couldn’t comment, view subscriptions, or rate videos. with this one you can see your subscriptions and all the new videos. I do still feel that there is still a lot more that can be done with this application. For example, I wish you could reply to comments and messages you can do what ever you can on your desktop, as it’s easier when you’re on the go. I’m always checking emails when I’m out and about and I think that if you add those features to this app it would be lots better.

Notes & Settings:
Notes have been improved too, you can now create a new note in landscape mode. The new copy and past feature is really good. All you have to do is double tap it, and then press select, select all or paste. You can then either select it all or use the blue markers to select the text that you want. Once you’ve chosen your text, press copy, go to where to where you want the text, double tap and press paste. Now this will work everywhere you go, so you can copy text from notes and paste into email. Its that easy. I really don’t understand why it took them this long to introduce this feature.

The settings screen on the phone have changed slightly, the fetch settings has moved to the mail settings, which I don’t like because I like to quickly change it through the main screen and you now have to go through more screens to get to it and it is a bit laggy. In the general settings there are more options for the home button. For example you can now set it to launch iPod, Camera or Search, also on the search settings, when you go to spotlight you can turn off certain search areas, for example I don’t want spotlight to search my Video’s, Podcasts or Notes. That’s about it as far as I can see on the iPhone 3.0 software at the moment, but this is only the first Beta, so hopefully more features will be added soon.

To see Darryl’s full video review on the new iPhone 3.0 software, it’s available to view now on his YouTube Channel.

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.

So which iPod have I got?

The list below shows the dates that the different generations of iPod were released, along with the available storage capacity.

iPod Shuffle 3G

iPod Shuffle 3G
Available from March 2009 and available only in 4GB models holding upto 1000 songs. The iPod Shuffle 3G is even smaller than the second generation model, and has no buttons to press to control your music. Instead the iPod Shuffle 3G has a new remote headset that controls volume and play back and a new voice menu system that talks you through your menu’s

iPod Nano 4G

iPod Nano 4G
Available from September 2008 and available in 8GB and 16GB models. The iPod Nano returns to its earlier, slimmer design, but with a 2″ widescreen display. Slimmer than previous versions, the iPod Nano 4G has an inbuilt motion sensor which allows you to change track just by shaking it. The iPod Nano 4G is available in 9 new vibrant colours.

iPod Touch 2G

iPod Touch 2G
Available from September 2008 and available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models. The the black beveled edges and back cover on the original iPod Touch gets replaced with stainless steel. Physical volume keys and a speaker are introduced into the slimmer design. Support for Nike+ is added with software version 2.1, along with “Genius” playlists.

iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G
Available from July 2008 and available in 8GB and 16GB models. The iPhone 3G is essentially the same as the original iPhone, but with improved battery life and 3G connectivity. Some minor cosmetic changes and the introduction of a white 16GB model. iPhone 3G shipped with software version 2.0 which added the App store and support for Microsoft Exchange.

iPhone

iPhone
Available from November 2007 and available in 8GB and 16GB models. The iPhone is a revolutionary Phone, iPod and Internet Device. The iPhone combines all the features of the iPod Touch with a mobile phone.

iPod Classic

iPod Classic
Available from September 2007 and available in 80GB and 160GB models. Re-named the iPod Classic, the iPod Video sees an increase in capacity. In September 2008 The iPod Classic 80GB sees an increase in capacity to 120GB and the 160GB model is discontinued. The iPod Classic continues in Silver and Black

iPod Nano 3G

iPod Nano 3G
Available from September 2007 and available in 4GB and 8GB models. The iPod Nano now lets you enjoy TV shows, music videos, video podcasts and more.

iPod Touch

iPod Touch
Available from September 2007 and available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models. iPod moves to a whole new level with the introduction of the iPod Touch. The click wheel is replaced with a wide screen, touch sensitive display. Wi-Fi is introduced to the iPod range to give internet and email access.

iPod Shuffle 2G

iPod Shuffle 2G
Available from September 2006 and available in 512MB, 1GB & 2GB models. The second-generation Shuffle comes in only one capacity in a clip-on case that’s roughly half the size of its predecessor. In September 2008 the iPod Shuffle recieves a minor make over, with the introduction of 5 new colours.

iPod Nano 2G

iPod Nano 2G
Available from September 2006 and available in 2GB, 4GB & 8GB models. The second-generation Nano come in a variety of scratch-resistant colours.

iPod Video 5G

iPod Video 5G
Available from October 2005 and available in 30GB & 60GB models. The fifth-generation iPod Video plays video on a 2.5-inch, 320-by-240, 260,000 colour TFT display.

iPod Nano

iPod Nano 1G
Available from September 2005 and available in 1GB, 2GB & 4GB models. Available in glossy black or white, the Nano features a colour display and a Click Wheel.

iPod Colour

iPod Colour
Available from June 2005 and available in 20GB & 60GB models. The iPod and iPod photo lines are merged into the iPod Colour, ending the availability of monochrome-screen music players.

iPod Mini 2G

iPod Mini 2G
Available from February 2005 and available in 4GB, 6GB models. The iPod Mini gets an increase in storage to 4GB and 6GB.

iPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffle
Available from January 2005. Apple gets into the flash-based music player business, introducing the iPod Shuffle. About the size of a stick of gum, the shuffle comes in 512MB and 1GB capacities.

iPod Photo

iPod Photo
Available from October 2004 and available in 20GB, 40GB or 60GB models. The iPod Photo plays music as well as displays photos on a 220-by-176-pixel resolution screen.

iPod 4G

iPod 4G
Available from July 2004 and available in 20GB & 40GB models. A fourth generation iPod incorporating the Click Wheel interface that was introduced six months earlier with the iPod mini.

iPod Mini

iPod Mini 1G

Available from: January 2004. Half-an-inch thin and about the size of a business card, the iPod Mini comes in gold, blue, pink, and green anodised aluminium with 4GB of storage.

iPod 3G

iPod 3G Available from April 2003 and available in 10GB, 15GB, 20GB, 40GB models. The third generation iPod interface adds a solid-state scroll wheel with four buttons rewind, menu, play/pause, and fast-forward on top. Replacing the FireWire port is a thin connector that let the device hook up to a Mac or PC with either FireWire or USB 2.0.

iPod 2G

iPod 2G
Available from July 2002 and available in either 10GB or 20GB models. Instead of a scroll wheel, the second generation iPod featured a touch wheel and a door for protecting the iPod’s FireWire port.

iPod

iPod 1G

Available from October 2001. The first generation iPod was a simple 5GB hard-drive-based music player.

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