Android 2.1/Bluetooth Question...

[Rollingbones]

I know that the Android 2.1 OS is due out sometime before the next presidential election. Currently Droid lacks the capibility of voice dialing using a bluetooth device. Postings, rumors, etc have said that this was being addressed as a programing issue. Does anyone out there know if this problem will be answered in a positive way with the 2.1 so I will be able to voice dial over my bluetooth?
I also know only certain bluetooths (or is it blueteeth?) can stream audio from music or internet through the device. Is there anychance that a programing chane may alow any bluetooth to receive any form of audio from the phone? Thanks...

 

[JackDaynes]

I received my 'upgraded' firmware this morning. The voice dialing via bluetooth is NOT included. Seems Motorola is not interested in life safety issues ... dialing a cell phone completely hands free as with the more 'primitive' Razor is a life safety issue. What a waste .

The phone has some nice features, but at this juncture I'm not sure if I can keep it.

 

[Rollingbones]

You know, for all the things this phone can do, voice command over a Bluetooth is the least of my worries. I don't like talking on a phone, even with a Bluetooth, while driving anyway. The best life saving issue is to not do it. Sorry, but I ride a motorcycle and work in a Level I Trauma center and have had too many experiences with cell phone drivers at both ends. Statistics show that hands free talking while driving is not that much safer to begin with. (Texting is the worse of all activities while driving.)
I do use Bluetooth, but usually only when I working a community event with the CERT program and it makes things more convenient. Voice command would be nice, but deffinately not a deal killer. I have the Jabra BT350. It can stream all media through the device and since it's only in one ear, I can still hear the outside world... and again not while... well you know already...

 

[griz8791]

I think there is a partial hands-free fix they could implement while we wait for them to implement full hands-free calling.

The fix would be to let us initiate the built-in voice search function with whatever button we have on the Bluetooth headset for making a call. I know the phone recognizes Bluetooth button commands because I have been using them with three different Bluetooth headsets to play music, pause music, skip forward and back from music track to music track, and most importantly, to answer incoming calls and redial (long press on the headset button redials last number called).

Clearly, the phone does receive and understand Bluetooth button presses.

How hard would it be, then, to map a single press of the button on the Bluetooth headset to bring up the built-in Google voice search (which I have limited to my contacts to make it act as much like real voice dialing as I can)? I.e., take an incoming "button press" from the Bluetooth headset and do the same thing that happens when I take one hand off the steering wheel and long press the search button on the lower right chassis of the phone. I suggest this because for me the button on the Bluetooth earpiece is easier to find while bouncing down the road at 70 mph than either the "voice search" button on the front of the phone or the camera button on the side of the phone. I could then shout "call Clyde Fickes mobile" at the top of my lungs to the Droid's chassis microphone, vigorously bouncing along in its car dock several inches from my mouth, and hope Google's distant voice transcription servers guess correctly. Hardly ideal, and nowhere close to what I had with my old Motorola Q, but way better than what we have now.

 

[snowman]

:icon_ banana: Thats good stuff

 

[takeshi]

...or you can get a headset like the Blueant Q1.