Iphone 4s and 2010 prius

I just linked my 4s with a Gen II. Took less than 20 seconds! SWEET! While driving I plan not to play with SIRI. Let the car control the system, that's why it's there.
I do however find the SIRI function rather cool, and looking forward to mastering it. When in the car, the car has the final say!

 

Can Siri turn Bluetooth on/off?

 

That would be nice but, no.

 

So what good is a voice control app that can't turn on handsfree operations on a device? Makes no sense to me.

 

Do you mean activating the car's Bluetooth or the phone's Bluetooth? Siri can't control the phone's BT, but when phone's BT is on and it is paired to the Prius BT, holding the home button down on the phone activates Siri, the music shuts off and Siri operates through the mic and speakers of the car.

 

I had my iPhone 4 working this way in my 11 III but only worked a few times. Now, it "works" as you say, dials but hangs up right after. I believe also if I say "Play <playlist>", it responds with "Playing <playlist>" but doesn't actually change the music.

 

Why not leave Bluetooth on all the time? When you get in your car and start it, the phone and car will automatically connect. When you leave, the phone knows that there's no "headset" connected any more. The only catch is that you're probably better off manually switching the phone from the handsfree to the speaker if you're actually on a call when you want to turn the car off, otherwise the other end will probably get complete silence for a bit while the phone tries to figure out what happened to the car.

 

1. Bluetooth uses power. So I turn it on/off as needed to save energy.

2. I'm not the only driver of the car, nor the only one in the household with a BT- enabled device. When more than one of us is in the car, only one phone needs to be connected. The others can/should disable their BT (see #1)

3. How does Priushandsfree work in the G3 if a registered but unpaired device is detected? In the G2 it only tries to connect to the previously paired device and then fails if that device does not respond.

 

ive ordered my iphone4s sprint now for over a week.......no phone, no nothing. now the wife is upset because that's all she wants for her BDay. i am happy you guys got your 4s. still waiting........and waiting........

 

The Gen 3 can have more than one BT device paired, and can be switched between them using the NAV screen. For example, you can be playing music on your phone, and switch to your passenger's device. Also, if a third person receives a call, then music will be put on hold and the system will ring. But if answered through the phone, the call will of course only be heard by the person holding the phone. Correct me if I'm wrong, people, but 4? 6? is the max number of paired BT devices.

 

You are going to have to charge the phone daily regardless of turning bluetooth on or off. Doesn't seem worth the hassle to keep fiddling with it.

 

To answer your question, the exact same behavior is happening on my new iPhone 4s as well: when using Siri in the car to call someone, the phone dials then immediately hangs up. When not in the car, Siri dials fine.

I'd really like to know how to solve this problem, as Siri becomes useless when in the car. If someone has a different Bluetooth-enabled car to pair the phone with, at least we could determine if it's the phone or the Prius that's the problem.

 

Only the driver needs the handsfree, which means the passenger needs to disable Bluetooth. The passenger has no need to disable Bluetooth via voice control as his/her hands are not occupied driving.

 

I have a need to occasionally turning BT on, like when I'm driving. That's exactly when a voice command would be most useful to me. At other times I have it turned off (at home, in the office, etc) to save power.

At least with the 4S it will require fewer clicks. On my first droid phone, the G1, you could set up shortcuts for many of those toggle functions. Not sure why Apple chose to force the user to go through several submenus to perform such a simple task.

 

Just leave Bluetooth on. It uses very little power when idle. I leave mine on all day and don't see any noticeable drop in battery life.

The iPhone uses Bluetooth Class 2, which is limited to a max of 2.5mW. Even if were running at max power the entire day, it would only consume 24hr * 2.5mW = 60mWHr = 0.06 WHr. The iPhone 4S has a 2.5 WHr battery, so you are saving less than 2.4% of the battery.

 

I agree; the power drain is fairly minimal. And if there's more than one bluetooth device in the car, it's pretty easy to select which one you want to have connected on the Nav system. The other ones will be ignored by the car.

The biggest reason why Siri can't control Bluetooth power is probably because hardly anybody (as you'll see from many others here) bothers turning it on and off. If you prefer to do so, you just have to live with the fact that you can't turn it back on handsfree. Of course, since you'd have to press the home button to activate Siri, it wouldn't be completely handsfree even if she could do it...

 

I've yet to try Siri on dialing a phone number while paired to my Prius. I'll give it a try today and see if she hangs up on me too. Probably wouldn't be the first time I've been hung up on.

Anyone else notice the nice change in BT with iOS5? Songs/album/artist lists now appear on the BT audio screen. And you can use the up/down arrows to move between tracks (and albums if you like by holding the buttons down longer).

I haven't checked out if any changes have made for easier USB use...I'll connect my 4S to the USB port later today and see if the user interface is more usable now than it was with my 3GS.

 

This is EXACTLY what I have experienced so far. Siri does work over BT for most things (like reading and responding to text messages, which I love) but on voice calls it always hangs up without connecting. It's like there's a 'hiccup' that occurs in the handoff between Siri and the phone call -- did you notice that the Prius has to hang up on Siri first and then attempt to make the call? FWIW, I had the iPhone 3GS and the old Voice Assist app that Siri replaced worked much better.

Also seeing the music playback issue with Siri. You ask it to play certain items or playlists and nothing happens. So right now the options are to use the BT or USB audio controls (both working fine with the 4S) and to manually dial calls with the Favorites stored in the car.

 

Re: Iphone 4s and 2010 prius - not working

I am also having the problem with Siri hearing my command to "Call xxx", but disconnecting as soon as the dialing starts. Second problem is that incoming calls no longer open the Call screen on the Nav system screen (where you just tap "Answer") - now they just show up as a line across the top of the map display, with no way to answer. If I try answering by sliding the lock switch on the phone's screen, it also hangs up the call. Any one else having these issues (I have a 2010 P-III)?