1 Topic by cmarrin

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Topic: MKi9100 Has terrible livability problems

I was so excited to install my new MKi9100 for use with my iPhone 4. All the reviews glowed about how it has the best Bluetooth and iPod interface around. And it's all true. Bluetooth works flawlessly. The voice commands are great, too. It can access my entire address book without a problem. iPod playback is seamless as well. All the music on my iPhone is easily accessible.

It's SO CLOSE to being great, but it has a couple of livability problems that make me want to rip it out of the dash and throw it out the window! And the problems seems so avoidable. Any amount of testing of the Parrot with the iPhone would have revealed them.

I have a cradle which can accept a 30 pin connector, so I mounted the Parrot 30 pin to it. When I plug the phone in the iPod function works fine. The phone charges as well, so all is good. But now for the problems:

1) When plugged in only songs in my iPod library can play through the audio system. Pandora, Youtube, audio in Safari, none of them can route audio to the speakers connected to the Parrot. I know it possible to play other audio sources through the 30 pin because other accessories can do it. This must be a software problem with the Parrot.

2) Fine, general audio can't play through the 30 pin. So I try activating Bluetooth audio. This works fine if the phone is not connected to the 30 pin. Any source (including iPod) on the phone can play through the Parrot. Play/pause even works. But the second I plug the phone in to the 30 pin, it immediately reverts to iPod audio. After plugging in the Parrot won't let me switch the audio source to Bluetooth. The problem there is that I want to charge my phone when it's in the cradle. But if I want to listen to my KQED Pledge-Free Stream while charging, I'm out of luck.

3) Ok, so I'll forgo using the 30 pin connector on the Parrot. I'll use a separate 30 pin and plug it into the Parrot USB connector just to charge the phone and always use Bluetooth audio. BZZZZZT! The Parrot USB connector can't charge the phone! So now I need to switch back to my ad hoc USB charger plugged into the 12 socket in the car. Wires all over, not very elegant.

4) This is probably the most annoying part of all. Every time I plug my phone into the Parrot 30 pin, it starts playing the most recently played iPod song, even if that song was played days ago. I can understand that it might be cool to just plug in and start playing your tunes. But I NEVER want that. I always want to press play if I want to play something, even if I had been playing a song when I last unplugged the phone. There's not even an option to turn it off in settings.

By the numbers, (4) seems like the simplest fix and is pretty separate from the other 3. (3) is probably a hardware issue and not fixable in software. But that's ok, I don't need that feature if either of the other 2 issues are resolved. Either any audio source should be playable through the 30 pin, or Bluetooth audio should be playable while plugged into the 30 pin.

Anyway, as I said, all of these issues take away from the great features of the Parrot and make it very clumsy to an unappealing to use. I'm sure at least some of them are fixable with a software update. I hope such an update is forthcoming. I want to love my Parrot again!

2 Reply by pdtjarks

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Re: MKi9100 Has terrible livability problems

Thanks for you post, I have been having the same problems.  I really wanted to hear my iphone music thru the hard wired 30 pin connection but in order to get the handsfree Play music feature with my iphone I had to switch over to bluetooth.  I'm happy to say the bluetooth sounds just as good as the sound thru the 30 pin.  I found that the usb would charge the phone if you clicked on the USB menu, the charge will start up, but who wants to remember to do that everytime you get in the car. 

I haven't really had a chance to test the whole setup yet but so far I think I can live with it.

3 Reply by donnib

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Re: MKi9100 Has terrible livability problems

@cmarrin i was about to wrie the same thing on 1 and 2 but i would like to add that everything that is possible on bluetootj should be possible thru the 30pin connector like controlling music, taking cals etc. None of this is possible now as you say only ipod music. I even tried to trick the system to use the line in and 30pin connector but that makes the iphone to go in ipod audio and not in what apication i was in that i wanted to hear the sound.

It is such a shame that parrot has not changed the behavior of this. It is obvious that people would like to charge phone while using it or go completly cable. I hate bluetooth btw, i have to remember to turn it on all the time. It would be so much easier to put the phone in a cradle then everything should be taken care of.

/donnib

4 Reply by parrot_Axel

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Re: MKi9100 Has terrible livability problems

Hi cmarrin
,
following your post, we would like to offer you the following answers:

1- Phone Application sounds: this has been an issue requested by a large number of customers. Though MKI series has never been made for this, we are working on it and we hope to offer this feature in a future update.

2- MKi refuses any audio blutooth connection (A2DP) coming from an iPhone or iPod Touch if it is already plugged in. This issue comes from iPhone. If both connections were initiated, it would generate random sound losses. This has already been escalated to Apple about a couple of years ago but never got any answer or fix.

3- Parrot USB connector and iPhone connector are different cables and different technologies so it is normal for the first one to not do what the second cable do.

4- We are sorry to hear that you dislike this feature as it was made for customers following many requests for it. Right now, it cannot be modified.

5- Following some comments, we made extensive tests on audio over bluetooth and never faced a quality issue.

6-Same as previous point: we made extensive tests and never had this issue. Maybe you could provide us with more information on this matter?

5 Reply by donnib (edited by donnib 14-06-2011 10:45:32)

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Re: MKi9100 Has terrible livability problems

I have posted a message on the UK forum regarding this issue as well. It seems to me that this is not an Apple issue !! It's an implementation issue since others can implement this correct or at least find an workaround.

http://forum.parrot.com/english/viewtopic.php?id=9806