Phonak iCom vs. iPhone 3GS problems

[cgull]

I just took the plunge and got an iPhone 3GS, which has OS 3.1 loaded. I believe my iCom has the software update released this spring, but since it went in to have its loop replaced, I can't be sure. A couple of weeks before I bought the phone, I'd tried pairing the iCom with a demo phone at an Apple store, and it worked great for those 5 minutes. But at the Apple store when I bought the phone, and ever since, I've had a lot of problems making calls with the iCom. Sometimes, the phone won't switch to the iCom at all. Sometimes, it switches but there's no audio in one or both directions. Once in a while, it works and life is good. The button works rather randomly as well.

The iCom was working OK with my old Motorola L2 phone.

I haven't tried music and iCom headphone functionality too much yet, but I think that's working a little better.

Has anyone else had problems with an iPhone? If it keeps being this flaky, I'm going to return the phone.

--jh

[hearnow]

It could be an issue with that particular phone. You should return to the store and try on theirs and possibly get your phone replaced.

[cjw]

I just took the plunge and got an iPhone 3GS, which has OS 3.1 loaded. I believe my iCom has the software update released this spring, but since it went in to have its loop replaced, I can't be sure. A couple of weeks before I bought the phone, I'd tried pairing the iCom with a demo phone at an Apple store, and it worked great for those 5 minutes. But at the Apple store when I bought the phone, and ever since, I've had a lot of problems making calls with the iCom. Sometimes, the phone won't switch to the iCom at all. Sometimes, it switches but there's no audio in one or both directions. Once in a while, it works and life is good. The button works rather randomly as well.

The iCom was working OK with my old Motorola L2 phone.

I haven't tried music and iCom headphone functionality too much yet, but I think that's working a little better.

Has anyone else had problems with an iPhone? If it keeps being this flaky, I'm going to return the phone.

--jh

I have an iPhone 3GS and it works with my iCom, though people do say that the call quality is dreadful - I sound like a Dalek apparently. This call quality issue has only happened recently, and is usually when I'm in a noisy background.
Music quality with iPhone and iCom is good through bluetooth, but make sure that Wifi is off on the iPhone because it causes interference if it is on.

[cgull]

I have an iPhone 3GS and it works with my iCom, though people do say that the call quality is dreadful - I sound like a Dalek apparently. This call quality issue has only happened recently, and is usually when I'm in a noisy background.
Music quality with iPhone and iCom is good through bluetooth, but make sure that Wifi is off on the iPhone because it causes interference if it is on.

Hmm, I've gotten mine working better. I was advised by Phonak (through my audiologist) that I should turn off sound effects on the phone. But the thing that actually seems to help is going into Phone Settings, Accessibility, and setting "Mono Mode" to on. Music then sounds pretty horrible (but it doesn't sound that good in stereo for me either...)

My audiologist enabled the voice dial button feature and the other button feature (I don't remember what it is). That didn't seem to make any difference.

Did you have to do anything setup-wise?

And trying Skype tonight, I can't get that working at all; it plays the cute Skype noises and then drops the Bluetooth connection on the call itself.

[hearnow]

For skype you need to make sure you have selected BT headset not earphone. Hope this helps. Not sure what's happening with the phone though.

[cgull]

For skype you need to make sure you have selected BT headset not earphone. Hope this helps. Not sure what's happening with the phone though.

Where are you doing this? I don't see any way to do it; the only thing that configures audio for Skype that I can see is the speaker button that appears during calls. That only toggles between speaker mode and receiver mode for me.

[Neuro-Deaf Neuroscientist]

I have Exalia aids with ICom and a 3GS.
I have spoken to one of Phonak's ICom Project engineers directly.
The ICom is NOT "...fully compatible with the highest levels of communication technology" as advertised. Part of our/the mentioned problems is that the ICom relies on a 4+ year old Bluetooth protocol. No firmware/soft fix, from the horse's mouth, the ICom needs complete redesign to handle current tech, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR or the incipient Bluetooth 3.0.

The ICom is the weak link, but we are forced to put up with its quirks and shortcomings. It's partially functional and not upgradeable. A saddly advertised, "cutting edge product", built on absurdly outdated wireless protocols w/o security or encryption! that cannot keep up with the promise of flawless handsfree convenience and superior compatibility and sound. We must wait for them to release a new ICom.

[VdrSain]

Well that is disappointing, I was hoping to get a 3g and hoped it would work well with the iCom. My current phone (Sanyo Katana) works great with the iCom.

[Neuro-Deaf Neuroscientist]

Comparatively speaking, I still prefer the IPhone, despite the albeit quirks, because of it's vertical potential and MANY apps for deaf and disabled people such as myself. Regardless of the smart phone used, the ICom needs an update, and to evolve in tandem with the cutting edge of communications/hearing assistance technology.

Curiously, does your "working" handset allow for voice recognition, commands, and other spoken control functions through your ICom?

[VdrSain]

Curiously, does your "working" handset allow for voice recognition, commands, and other spoken control functions through your ICom?

Good question, I haven't yet set my stuff up for those options. My fitter (family hearing center and the father is my audi and the son is the fitter/programmer) recommended I get used to the basic stuff and the H.I.'s before we got too involved with voice recognition etc. stuff. I do plan on giving it a whirl soon though since after 2 or 3 follow-ups I am pretty close on my basic setup now.

[Neilk]

Comparatively speaking, I still prefer the IPhone, despite the albeit quirks, because of it's vertical potential and MANY apps for deaf and disabled people such as myself. Regardless of the smart phone used, the ICom needs an update, and to evolve in tandem with the cutting edge of communications/hearing assistance technology.

Curiously, does your "working" handset allow for voice recognition, commands, and other spoken control functions through your ICom?


I have a Motorola Barrage through Verizon. The voice dialing works perfectly with the iCom. A push of the button and I hear "Please say a command". I then say "Call Debbie home" and it calls my wife at home. "Call Debbie mobile 1" , which is set up on the same entry to her cell phone number, calls my wife's cell phone. Most people say it sounds quite natural, not like I'm in a tunnel, though it can be a bit sensitive to windy days and facing into the wind. This is with the previous iPFG/Firmware version, the one that enabled voice dialing. I am getting the new firmware flashed next week which is supposed to give dual phone support.

[Neuro-Deaf Neuroscientist]

Anyone else out there in the cyber-ether using an ICom with ANY smart phone, Blkbrry, Droid, IPhone, etc. please comment! I'm interested, as we all of us hearing impaired, in your experiences, successes, failures, both with your phone-icom-aids quality as well as any other stories of broken promises and sales/advertising POS misrepresentation when your system (phone, ICom, hearing aids) was purchased.

The ICom is our system's Bluetooth/FM or telecoil PAN (personal area network) "router" that our wireless, handsfree, quality and functionality both rely upon and are limited by.
When one spends $12,000+ on a system, plus carrier and data fees, one should get what they paid for, as advertised, promoted, and promised.

We as a community need to communicate, share, for the betterment of the whole and the Professionals that treat us. This is need to know information, especially considering the $$$, quality of life, and potentially costly dissapointment at stake. Would you buy a car without serious research and consideration? :)

[cjw]

Anyone else out there in the cyber-ether using an ICom with ANY smart phone, Blkbrry, Droid, IPhone, etc. please comment! I'm interested, as we all of us hearing impaired, in your experiences, successes, failures, both with your phone-icom-aids quality as well as any other stories of broken promises and sales/advertising POS misrepresentation when your system (phone, ICom, hearing aids) was purchased.

The ICom is our system's Bluetooth/FM or telecoil PAN (personal area network) "router" that our wireless, handsfree, quality and functionality both rely upon and are limited by.
When one spends $12,000+ on a system, plus carrier and data fees, one should get what they paid for, as advertised, promoted, and promised.

We as a community need to communicate, share, for the betterment of the whole and the Professionals that treat us. This is need to know information, especially considering the $$$, quality of life, and potentially costly dissapointment at stake. Would you buy a car without serious research and consideration? :)

OK, we ll personally I find the iCom quality with an iPhone dreadful for phonecalls, but fine for music.
I have called myself and left messages and the quality is truly awful. It is tinny, distorted, and makes my voice sound like a cheap 1980s voice simulator. I have tried various microphone positions:
1) Hanging round neck as normal. Voice very echoey - as a cheap microphone on a rubbishy 1980s cassette recorder would have sounded from across the room.
2) Shorten the cord, so is close to voicebox. Hopelessly distorted and clipped.

For the money, they could easily have added an external directional lapel mic option.

I am very disappointed by the iCom / iPhone combination.

[Tom19103]

I have phonak hearing aids with icom and myPilot. I have no trouble using the Bluetooth with my iPhone 3 (even with the 4.1 os). And no problem using them with my iPad. But when I Bluetooth connect to the iPhone 4, also with os4.1, I have problems. The phone function, which is monaural, works ok. But any stereo apps, like iPod or pandora radio, come out gibberish. Stereo works fine on the iPhone 3 and the iPad.
Now here is the interesting part, at least diagnostically. If I first bluetooth connect the 3 or the iPad, play the iPod stereo for a moment, then turn off that Bluetooth connection, and turn on the iPhone 4 Bluetooth, THEN the stereo plays fine. So the problem appears to be in initiating the stereo aspect of the connection, which the other devices do and the 4 fails.
Any suggestions? Anyone else have this problem?

Also, as others have said, there is no volume control on the iPhone icom connection, with either phone. I believe there was with iPad.

Tom

[Tom19103]

I agree with a previous writer that the sound quality of the microphone on the icom is lousy.
Also, the antenna wire keeps breaking at the connector. In effect, the whole icom device is only as strong as the wire connection into the black plug in device...and you have to send it in every time this wire breaks. I've had to put extra tape on that connector to secure that vulnerable area of the antenna.

We also had to ramp up the iPhone Bluetooth volume in relation to ambient noise, or I can't hear music at all when walking down the street.
Tom

[VdrSain]

Tom, The issue is with the stereo bluetooth on the 3gs and newer, and my Audi says he has the same issue with his new high end droid. There is another thread on here that explains the fix or work around. When newly paired the stereo bluetooth (ie iPod music etc..) works fine and with iOS 4xx there is volume control. The problem arises once the iCom is power cycled. The iCom will re-connect to the phone no problem but in most cases though mono/phone stuff still works fine the stereo becomes distorted and manifests itself in a couple different ways. Sometimes its seems volume is really low and other times it cuts in and out really fast. Anyway the only way I have found to fix this is to have the iPhone "forget device" in bluetooth settings and re-pair it with the iCom (yes you have to push the pairing button on the iCom so the blue light flashes fast) and then it will work fine until you have to turn off the iCom again. Fortunately for me I really don't use the stereo stuff much with the iCom as even when its working the sound quality through my aids is not good enough for me.

The other issue is the iPhone seems to loose its connection with the iCom after an initial re-connect for me. After I connect it a second time though it seems to stay connected indefinitely. I tend to have to turn the blue tooth off and on a lot on the iPhone as I use a Plantronics unit for my desk phone at work and I find that even though they can both be paired, it sometimes causes issues when they are so I turn off bluetooth on the iPhone before I go into the building at work and usually have only one or the other paired.

Lastly I cant get voice activation to work on the 3gs with the iCom either. The iCom will activate voice control on the phone but it doesn't put the iCom into bluetooth mode so the mic is not activated and thus the phone doesn't hear any command. If I activate voice control with the home button on the phone then it works ok, and the double tap redial last number works fine as well. Anyone found any work a rounds for this?

[mkvc]

OK, we ll personally I find the iCom quality with an iPhone dreadful for phonecalls, but fine for music.
I have called myself and left messages and the quality is truly awful. It is tinny, distorted, and makes my voice sound like a cheap 1980s voice simulator. I have tried various microphone positions:
1) Hanging round neck as normal. Voice very echoey - as a cheap microphone on a rubbishy 1980s cassette recorder would have sounded from across the room.
2) Shorten the cord, so is close to voicebox. Hopelessly distorted and clipped.

For the money, they could easily have added an external directional lapel mic option.

I am very disappointed by the iCom / iPhone combination.
I have been using a Jawbone bluetooth device for several years and loved it. But I just receintly got my icom to use with the Phonak hearing aids. At the time I had a Motorola Razor phone and it worked as far as using the phone to talk, but when I would use the main button to answer a call, it would disconnect the bluetooth connection. I never was able to get voice dialing to work or last number redial. Then we had to change carriers and moved from altell to AT&T and had to change phones. I got a 3g iphone and the Jawbone still works flawlessly. But I can't even get the icom to pair with the iphone. I called my audiologist who told me that the icom was programmed correctly and couldn't see why it didn't work, that was with the Razor. I also went to the Phonak website and left a detailed message with tech support. I got no answer and that has been 2 weeks. I am beginning to think the icom was faulty out of the box from day one. I did answer one call at the audiologist's office but had to use the phone to answer. Since I was so new, I just chocked it up to a learning curve.

Anyone who may have some answers and has the time, please reply.

Thanks, Mace

[Evil Scientist]

i've got the iphone 3gs (iOS 4.3.3) with icom....using the latest firmware for the iCom...as far as I know. The version that comes iwth iPGF 2.6B programming software. There is volume control of the bluetooth connection...that's an iPhone issue.

There is an option in that software to activate the redial and voice command features of the iCom. It may be that your iCom will have to be grouped with your HA for these features to work. These are activated on my iCom and work flawlessly with my iPhone. The only limitation is that for the voice command to work, the main window on the iPhone must be displayed, with any other applications using the iCom either off or in the background. For example, if you activate voice command and then say "play music", it will do that. But...you can't activate voice command again and say "next track", because the iCom button is being used by the iPod app as a pause button.

Music quality and volume are a little tinny and undervolumed, that's for sure, however using the minijack connection gives brilliant sound. This configuration also gives you much longer battery life on your iCom.

I can't attest to voice quality....never tried hearing my own recorded voice. But, I can say that I've never had problems with people not understanding me on the phone, so it must work well enough.

GL/HF

Evil