iPhone Bluetooth Headset

An iPhone bluetooth headset is a wireless headphone that allows you to privately hear music and/or phone calls from your iPhone. The initial iPhone bluetooth that came with the first generation iPhone only supported pairing headphones and headsets for hands free phone calls.

With iOS3.0, Apple enabled a new profile called Stereo Bluetooth or A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile). This profile allows you to stream iPhone music to an A2DP capable headphone or iPhone headset. Although the original iPhone bluetooth chip in the first generation iPhone is the same as the iPhone 3G and 3GS bluetooth chip, Apple didn't enable the A2DP profile until iPhone OS3.0.

A headset looks like a headphone with the addition of a microphone allowing you to have a hands free phone conversation.

Many headsets come with a single monophonic speaker that you hold against your ear, and a boom microphone that extends in and out, and can be adjusted to be close to the mouth. Others have two speakers giving stereo sound and the ability to listen to music.

iPhone Bluetooth Headsets Styles:

Bluetooth headsets come in different shapes and styles. Most new headsets and headphones are at bluetooth version 2.1 which is backward compatible with bluetooth 1.0 and 1.1. Bluetooth 1.0 or 1.1 are single sided with mono sound.

Some headsets are small plugs inside the ear canal giving a mono sound.

This gives a nice stylish looking design. Although those types of headsets are small and stylish, they might be uncomfortable over along period of time.

Bluetooth headsets that set against the ear might be a better choice if you plan to stay on the phone for a long time in an office for example.

Against the ear headsets can have an extended boom microphone that retract or collapse to give better microphone sound. You would speak directly to the microphone. However, those boom bluetooth headsets look a little bulky. They rest against the ear just like a regular headphone and require a holding equipment or an ear loop to hold the headset against the ear.

Other new design opt out from the extended microphone, and they just wrap around the ear. Those types of headsets could also be uncomfortable for long period of time.

You could easily forget that you are wearing one, and suddenly hit it or drop it. Therefore, it is best to use them on occasions and for short periods of time.

iPhone bluetooth head sets could also come in stereo with two speakers that set against the ears. They look just like a normal headphone.

With the additional A2DP bluetooth profile support, you can listen to your music in stereo.

With this type of iPhone bluetooth headset you can listen to both phone conversations and stereo music using your iPhone running iPhone OS 3.0.


Some iPhone bluetooth headsets work as both a mono and stereo headsets by simply attaching a second ear piece to the main mono headset.










Some headsets even try to be more creative that combine the capability of a speaker phone with the headset. You simply slid the headset inside a little speaker that converts the headset into a speaker phone.

Others have a 1.5mm connection, so that you can connect any wired headphone to the wireless bluetooth headset.









The Jabra BT 530 Bluetooth Headset can play both phone sound and music beautifully with its A2DP support.












Most of those iPhone bluetooth headsets have a mini USB charging port with the capability to charge from any USB source. Some headsets have a cradle that holds and charges them.

iPhone Bluetooth Headset Features:

There are some basic features that you might want to consider when shopping for an iPhone bluetooth headset.

First of all, the range of bluetooth headsets shouldn't be an issue. Most of the time the iPhone will either be in your pocket/purse or in your hand while either making a phone call or listening to wireless music.

Therefore, most of time you will be within any iPhone bluetooth headsets range of 33 ft.

Most iPhone bluetooth headsets have the capability of answering a phone call, end a phone call or dialing the last called phone number. Moreover, with A2DP iPhone bluetooth headsets, it is possible to play and pause, forward and rewind a song from your music library.

One of the most important features of a bluetooth headset is the sound quality, and how a headset can eliminate wind noise on the microphone. Some are built in dual microphone to improve sound in phone calls. Watch this video about sound quality with Plantronic Voyager Pro.

Some headsets like the BlueAnt Q1 has voice command control. So you can use it with the iPhone 3G which doesn't have voice control to control voice calls.

Other bluetooth headsets have an LCD screen to show the caller's phone number as a called ID.

iPhone Hack to Play Music on a Mono Headset:

If you have a jailbrocken iPhone, then you might like this little iPhone hack.

This hack converts the music or any sound playing from your iPhone into phone sound. This means that you can stream your music with a regular mono non A2DP headset.

The hack is called Bluetooth Mono, and it can be downloaded from Cydia. It converts your stereo music to mono.

Regular mono non-A2DP headsets are very cheap, and with this hack you can use them to listen to your music, radio, or TV on your iPhone. The sound quality is not great with this hack as the sound is converted to phone quality.

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