Hands Free Link Experience With iPhone
I had never set up a Bluetooth device before and so was a total neophyte to the pairing procedure. It goes exactly according to the instructions until the HFL asks the user to enter the 4 digit code that appears on the MID display.
I was ready to enter the code but the written instructions did not say where or how to enter it. Since the iPhone was still in hunting mode and there was no keypad on the car's LCD touch display, I figured that the four digits were to be a voice command. I tried that. No luck. Then, I realized that the four digits were all 6 or lower so I tried to enter them on the radio preset buttons. No joy.
I fumbled around with this procedure until I had gone through two timeouts. The third time brought a series of four digits that included a numeral 7. I decided to read the manual again and just happened to touch the screen on the iPhone. When I did so, I discovered a keyboard had appeared on the iPhone and was waiting for me to enter the four digits. Bingo.
The problem was that I have the iPhone set up to go dark after just a minute. Meanwhile, the four digit code appeared on the MID display some time before the phone offered its pairing keyboard. Had I waited a little longer and kept the iPhone screen alive it would have been obvious where to enter the four digit code.
In trying the HFL on a couple of real phone calls i discovered the following:
1. The microphone/speaker in the car is very good. I was tending to over enunciate and speak louder than normal. I found that a regular conversational volume and tempo is much better. My wife, the first recipient, told me I was too loud and I adjusted it by just successively by not looking at or tilting my head towards the microphone and talking normally. Voice recognition for dialing commands, etc. is excellent and as I get comfortable with it I would like to turn the Voice Recognition Feedback off so it's faster.
2. I tend to set the iPhone in the left cup holder. This location is not so good because the electronics and metal in the dashboard degrade the phone reception. After dropping a call in an area that is usually good, I moved the iPhone to my right jeans pocket where I would prefer it. Situated there, it worked great. By the way, it is possible to make and receive calls via HFL even if the iPhone is sleeping. No need to touch it in any way.
All in all, I am quite surprised by the ease of use even though I had the HFL setup snafu. Not a problem with the car, but I definitely noticed that enabling Bluetooth on my Gen 1 iPhone really saps battery life. I have yet to try using the iPhone in Bluetooth mode while it is connected to the USB port in the center armrest.
If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. Any tips are most welcome.
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2010 White Insight EX w/Nav | 2003 Element
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Last edited by GaryKPDX; 05-02-2009 at 07:00 PM.
Reason: clarity
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iphone
