While I wait for my HTC ExtUSB 3.5mm Audio jack adapter to arrive, I am forced to use my i.Tech Clip S35 A2DP Bluetooth adapter to play music and GPS navigation instructions through my car stereo. The HTC P3300 that I’m using includes the newest Windows Mobile 5 AKU 3.0 ROM, which adds some nice Bluetooth software enhancements, but the Wireless Stereo implementation is very un-user-friendly.
Take a look at the below animation to see how many steps it takes to activate the Wireless Stereo Bluetooth profile on my i.Tech Clip S35. This is not including the time it takes to turn the Bluetooth adapter on. First I have to drill down to the Bluetooth settings control panel. Then go to the Devices tab, then Tap & Hold on the audio device I want to use… You can’t even access this menu one-handed with hardware buttons!! Then set the selected Bluetooth audio device as “Wireless Stereo”. Fortunately AKU 3.0 adds an audible notification and menu bar icon that tells you that the wireless stereo devices has successfully been connected. Then after that, you have to navigate over to the Media Player and press play. What’s worse, is everytime you leave the range of the A2DP device you have to reconnect to it using that same process. Compare all that to the time it takes to plug an audio jack in and press play.
If there’s any clever developers (or Microsoft) out there, something to improve and quicken the A2DP selection and connection process would certainly be useful. I’m thinking the ability to create a shortcut that automatically sets a specific device as Wireless Stereo would be good.
Originally published on Pocketnow on October 31, 2006. More Software articles from the Pocketnow archive.