The streaming works well, but resets to the beginning of a track when the car is turned off or if the Bluetooth is otherwise disengaged. This is particularly irksome when you stream an audiobook and don't know/remember precisely where you left off. This is not a problem with the Iphone except with the Gen III bluetooth interface. Is anyone aware of a work-around that will keep the iphone from resetting?
If you don't find a better solution, how about pressing the stop button on the iPhone before turning off the car? This shouldn't be too inconvenient since you will only have to do it occassionally.
On the iPhone, in Settings, iPod, make sure the iPhone is set to start where you left off. I don't know if that'll make a difference or not with audiobooks, but with my music it picks right up where it left off. EDIT: I paid closer attention this afternoon using the BT streaming, and the music does revert to the start of the song that's playing. I switched between sources, and watched the progress bar on the iPhone revert to the start and the song pause; I then turned the car off and back on and observed the same behavior.
I just want to say I am so impressed with the streaming. The sound quality is excellent. I stream the ipod, aol, pandora. I get a phone call and the car switches between the two seamlessly. I wish aol and pandora could play while utilizing other options on the phone, but this is strictly an Apple issue.
Now an update to my edit. It seems that the BT streaming will pick up right where you left off if you were listening using headphones before getting into the car. I was at the gym listening on headphones, pulled the headphones off, went to the car and started it, and the music restarted exactly where I left off in the song. Strange that headphones to bluetooth works like this, but bluetooth to bluetooth resets that track to the start.
Could it be a BT hardware version issue? I've been using my Iphone 3gs with the BT interface since thursday mainly with the pandora app and when I stop the car the iphone\car? automatically pauses the music (the same auto pause that the Iphone does when the headphones are removed). I'll have to keep a closer eye on this and try it with the ipod app but I've had no problems with the song restarting so far.
No problems with the song restarting, but the issue is that it starts back at the start, not where it left off. I don't understand your question, since the "BT hardware" in this case is the Prius.
Sorry, starting at the beginning of the track is what I meant by restarting. As far as the BT component goes and forgive me, I'm not all that versed in BT. There's some BT in the Iphone that connects to the BT in the car. I know there's different 'versions'? of BT which provide additional functionality such as remote voice recognition for headsets and the audio portion itself is another part of that functionality. What I guess I was wondering was if there is some type of older BT component in the older iphone that might not allow the car to control things like fast forward, pause etc on the iphone.
I don't know about the original iPhone, but do know that with the 3.0 software the iPhone 3G and 3GS support bluetooth streaming, but only the play and pause functionality of the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) profile. Bluetooth.com | Profiles Overview In future firmware releases I expect Apple will add functionality, like voice control over bluetooth that's in the beta 3.1 firmware.
The only quasi-acceptable work-around that I've found is to switch from the audiobook that I'm listening to to a different audiobook or song before I shut the car down. When I power up the car it will then start at the beginning of that audiobook/song and then I switch back to the audiobook I want on the iphone. Not elegant, but it works.
Just got a 3GS yesterday and I instantly noticed this restart issue. I like to listen to podcasts while I do errands around town, but this reset every time I stop and start is a bummer. It never did this when the iPhone was plugged into the AUX. So BT steaming is not perfect. But hopefully they'll be a fix coming down the pike.
