Great in car solution (iO PLAY Bluetooth Music Stream Car Kit)

Member Name: degsy70

Product:	iO PLAY Bluetooth Music Stream Car Kit
Date:	06/02/09 (500 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple to use, good quality

Disadvantages: No interface

I was looking on the internet and in stores for a fitted handsfree system phone that also streamed music and was 3G Iphone compatible. After much searching I ended up in Halfords and a very helpful chap pointed me at the iO Play. I thought it was reasonably priced at £150.00 (with free fitting) and set about researching it on the internet.
Many people have complained about the streaming music 'dropping out' for a couple of seconds every 10 minutes or so but it wasn't enough to put me off.
It was to be a present for my girlfriend who does a lot of driving and was quite desperate for a decent handsfree car kit but also wanted a way of playing the music from iTunes in her car. I took the plunge and ordered it from Halfords. Depending on the car you have you may need an additional audio converter, this was a Ford Ka which did need the converter which was an extra £19.
Halfords booked it in for a fitting the following week. Their first attempt was unsuccessful and I was convinced that I made a bad purchase however I stuck to my guns. The volume from the speakers when in conversation was terrible and we could not get the music to stream at all. It relies on Bluetooth and it takes a few minutes to pair devices etc but clearly something was amiss. Then we discovered the microphone was not working. I told the chap at Halfords that if these problems could not be sorted then I wanted it all removing and a full refund.
Second attempt and we struck gold. He had played about with the amplifier settings (that gets installed behind the dash) and the volume was now perfect, the microphone worked brilliantly and music streamed without a problem.
The are effectively 3 bits to the iO Play, the amp which goes behind the dashboard, the microphone which gets installed typically to the roof lining on drivers side and finally the iO Play unit itself which can be installed wherever you wish (swithin reason!). It is a very stylish device and is very simple to use. The red and green lights flash when you turn on the ignition to confirm that it has paired with your device. It will interrupt whatever is being played i.e. radio, cd, streaming mp3 with an increasing ring tone and a simple press of the green button will answer the call. It has a simple round knob in the middle to control the volume of calls or music, it has skip track buttons, a mute audio option, call hold option, transfer to handset option and last number redial.
It is compatible with:

* HFP (Mobile Hands-Free)
* All Mobile phones which have Bluetooth.
* A2DP (Music Streaming)
* Mobile phones which have A2DP Bluetooth Profile.
* iPod, iPod Nano (using iO Bluetooth Adaptor)**
* Bluetooth MP3 Players.
* Bluetooth Sat Navs.
* Bluetooth UMPC and Laptops

It is a relatively new product and therefore has some issues. Please be aware that these are iPhone related, I can not vouch for other devices:

One downside is that you have to plug in a wireless adapter to your iphone to stream music - annoyingly Apple used to enable A2DP Bluetooth profiles on the iPhone but on the 3G they have disabled it. As a result the adapter is necessary. Maybe in the future Apple will re-enable this profile. Nevertheless, the adapter is included in the pack and is easy to slot into place.
Another slight glitch is that the iPhone does not support voice tags therefore to make a call you need to initiate it from the handset. Again, my partner wanted it more for taking calls rather than initiating them so it isn't such a big problem. I guess future versions will arrive with touch screen interfaces but it entirely depends on how much use you will get out of it.
I am very impressed with the system and I would imagine it is even better with devices that support A2DP. As the only product on the market to support the iPhone, despite the odd glitch it is still an impressive product and my girlfriend is very happy with it.
It comes with a 1 year guarantee and from what I can gather the iO play support team are extremely helpful.

Summary: Great product from iO

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