Windows Phone Thoughts: Bluetake's i-PHONO mini Bluetooth Headphone Kit Reviewed

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Thursday, February 23, 2006

Bluetake's i-PHONO mini Bluetooth Headphone Kit Reviewed

Posted by Darius Wey in "HARDWARE" @ 09:00 AM


In order to connect the i-PHONO mini and the Axim X50v, you'll need to pair them first. To activate pairing mode on the headphones, you need to hold the power/call button and the volume/playback rocker switch simultaneously for two seconds. The indicator light will flash red and blue alternately. Next, turn on Bluetooth on the X50v, then launch the "Bluetooth Manager". Select "Tools" > "Paired Devices", then tap the "Add" button, followed by the "Search" icon. After a few seconds, the X50v will display something similar to Figure 7. Tap the "i-PHONO mini" entry and you'll be taken to a screen as shown in Figure 8.


Figure 9: The modified Broadcom Bluetooth Manager allows you to establish a high-quality audio connection to the i-PHONO mini. Some HP iPAQs should have this option, by default.

Enter the standard 0000 number sequence as the passkey, tap "OK", and the devices will be paired. The next step involves the establishment of a high-quality audio connection (using A2DP). First, tap "New", then select the "High Quality Audio Setup" entry (Figure 9), and tap "Next". Select the paired i-PHONO mini, and create a shortcut for the connection. Tap-and-hold on the newly-created shortcut (Figure 10) and establish the connection if it hasn't been established already.


Figure 10: The Broadcom Bluetooth Manager should now show a new shortcut for a stereo connection to the i-PHONO mini.

You can now use the headphones to play and control audio in a compatible media player such as Windows Media Player Mobile. Rolling the volume/playback rocker switch up and down will increase and decrease the volume respectively. Rolling it up and down and holding it for two seconds will switch between tracks. Lastly, pressing the rocker switch will play/pause/stop the track.


Figure 11: A2DP support aside, AVRCP can also be used to control the playback of media in Windows Media Player Mobile.

The i-PHONO mini can also be made to work with select Windows Mobile 5.0 devices such as the E-TEN M600, which interestingly, supports A2DP and AVRCP but has not yet been updated with AKU 2.0. The setup procedure is much the same, though the M600 seems to treat the headphones as a standard HSP/HFP-enabled headset even though it uses the A2DP profile.


Figure 12: Connecting the i-PHONO mini to the M600. Note the stereo headset icon shown in the Connectivity pop-up bubble.

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