Premium Bluetooth

[gripmoto]

It still amazes me that people are paying $2000 for an ability to make and receive hands free phone calls.

You can buy a car for a lot less than 70K as well!!
Interesting, we are all different, I also pay over 6K for a pushbike too........
Strokes for Folks I believe they say

[wowser]

VW dealer, installed pre-delivery, I will await the outcome before I jump up and down

I am the same picking mine up Monday, I believe I asked for Premium Bluetooth but dealer was about to install something else. At least I found out before installation.

[bennobee]

I was just in VW South Yarra today in the parts area and they have a dealer memo saying the premium blue tooth is now avaliable (was dated late May) and its not compatible with Blackberries and iphones. I cxant believe they would fit something else if people are paying the cash for that system.

[ACTR36Wagon]

My research:
If you want to use iPhone use the "Low" kit (one of the sponsors here sells it). I have ordered the Low kit and waiting for it to arrive and be installed.

Some details on the "High" kit:
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The Volkswagen Premium Bluetooth Kit features include:

• Excellent sound quality through vehicle speakers
• Allows user to operate phone through steering wheel controls and/or the touch screen display head units.
• Shows users phone book through dash display and on head unit display
• Select and call from paired phones address book
• Receive and display SMS text messages
• Displays names of incoming calls through dash display and head unit display
• Allows user to dial numbers via the touch screen keypad on the head unit display
• Displays missed calls and dialed history
• Displays call duration

(I think the Low kit does most or all of this, not sure)


For this kit to function, the mobile telephone must be compatible with Bluetooth and Remote SIM Access Profile (RSAP). The Premium Bluetooth Kit does not use its own SIM card, but rather transfers the handsets information via Bluetooth to the control unit. The telephone is then exclusively controlled via the steering wheel buttons and head unit. The handset switches into sleep mode to preserve battery power.
....
Volkswagen Premium Bluetooth Kit is only compatible with vehicles fitted with the RNS510 or RCD510 touch screen head units and Highline dash.

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Notes about above:

• Some people report issues with the handset going into sleep mode while the car kit uses remote access to the SIM card.
• Don't forget to allow remote access to the SIM card (for example, usually turned off on Nokia phones rather than On)
• I am told that the iPhone Bluetooth implementation done by Apple only includes some Bluetooth profiles (think of a "profile" as a set of functionality), and that SIM Access Profile is not one of those that was implemented.

In theory any recent S60 series phone (http://www.s60.com/life/s60phones) might work with the new VW Premium Kit ("High") because SIM Access Profile is in the S60 "standard" but I suspect that not all S60 implementations are the same and so one should not assume that all S60 based phones will work - but some of them will, and I have no idea which ones

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Nokia phone supported (and software version on phone):

• 3109c 5.30
• 3110c 5.30
• 5310 XM 5.81
• 6021 4.10
• 6120c 4.21
• 6151 3.56
• 6230 5.24
• 6230i 3.81
• 6233 3.70
• 6234 4.52
• 6300 4.70
• 6500c 3.21
• 6500s 6.60
• 6810 5.28
• 6820 5.87
• 6822 4.52
• E50 06.41.3.0
• E61 3.0633.09.04
• E61i 1.0633.62.05
• E90 07.40.1.2
• 8800 3.72
• 9300 4.53
• 9500 5.22(1)
• N78 12.0.46
• N80 10.0.032

and Siemens:

• SP65 50
• SK65 50
• S68 40
• S65 48/50
• S75 10

[ACTR36Wagon]

As to the comment about paying for a handset free phone kit:

• I am in Sales, I travel over 25,000km per year
• I need to be reachable by phone all day, even weekends
• I need to be able to call from anywhere
• It is NOT safe to drive and talk on the phone at the same time - one should avoid doing serious thinking and talking on phone while driving. It is as dangerous as high limit drink driving. I'll pull over and stop driving for serious work calls - even with a handset free kit - because serious calls can mean I am using visualisation, calculation, and negotiation skills which really distract me from the road. And I may need to look at or take notes
• Even trivial calls are still distracting but not so bad with hands free.
• Using and holding a phone handset in the car is illegal. I know people who have been booked and lost points. I saw a young woman drive into another car (avoidable accident) because of the distraction effect (no serious injuries, she was lucky).

What price do you put on keeping your drivers licence and on not hurting nor killing other people? My assessment is that is an expensive area, and a handsfree phone kit reduces the risks.
Cheers

[gripmoto]

Love your work!!

Way too much research for me. I agree re the bluetooth justifcation, I am in sales as well, but my excuse is I like this sort of crap, life is too short, who is to judge.....

As to the comment about paying for a handset free phone kit:

• I am in Sales, I travel over 25,000km per year
• I need to be reachable by phone all day, even weekends
• I need to be able to call from anywhere
• It is NOT safe to drive and talk on the phone at the same time - one should avoid doing serious thinking and talking on phone while driving. It is as dangerous as high limit drink driving. I'll pull over and stop driving for serious work calls - even with a handset free kit - because serious calls can mean I am using visualisation, calculation, and negotiation skills which really distract me from the road. And I may need to look at or take notes
• Even trivial calls are still distracting but not so bad with hands free.
• Using and holding a phone handset in the car is illegal. I know people who have been booked and lost points. I saw a young woman drive into another car (avoidable accident) because of the distraction effect (no serious injuries, she was lucky).

What price do you put on keeping your drivers licence and on not hurting nor killing other people? My assessment is that is an expensive area, and a handsfree phone kit reduces the risks.
Cheers

[Rocket36]

As to the comment about paying for a handset free phone kit:

• I am in Sales, I travel over 25,000km per year
• I need to be reachable by phone all day, even weekends
• I need to be able to call from anywhere
• It is NOT safe to drive and talk on the phone at the same time - one should avoid doing serious thinking and talking on phone while driving. It is as dangerous as high limit drink driving. I'll pull over and stop driving for serious work calls - even with a handset free kit - because serious calls can mean I am using visualisation, calculation, and negotiation skills which really distract me from the road. And I may need to look at or take notes
• Even trivial calls are still distracting but not so bad with hands free.
• Using and holding a phone handset in the car is illegal. I know people who have been booked and lost points. I saw a young woman drive into another car (avoidable accident) because of the distraction effect (no serious injuries, she was lucky).

What price do you put on keeping your drivers licence and on not hurting nor killing other people? My assessment is that is an expensive area, and a handsfree phone kit reduces the risks.
Cheers

I have a wireless bluetooth ear peice - $100. Does voice dial, answers calls, call waiting, hold and reject. Plus I can use it anywhere, not just the car. Let me see, $2000 or $100? Hard choice that one! lol If I want to, the built in speaker phone works fine too when the phone is in its cradle.

Added another $100 for the ClicOn holder. So what to spend my $1800 saving on? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[Luminary]

You could even plug the headphone out into the aux in of the car if you have an iPhone. With a nice cradle that should work quite well.

[gripmoto]

I have several bluetooth earpeices in the drawer......don't get used, why cause their crap! Except of course if I want to walk around lookin like a stormtrooper with my com system on.
Maybe you can use the extra cash on the HG

I have a wireless bluetooth ear peice - $100. Does voice dial, answers calls, call waiting, hold and reject. Plus I can use it anywhere, not just the car. Let me see, $2000 or $100? Hard choice that one! lol If I want to, the built in speaker phone works fine too when the phone is in its cradle.

Added another $100 for the ClicOn holder. So what to spend my $1800 saving on? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...