TL and Android Phone Compatability
 

I have at 2010 TL SH-AWD Tech and have been using an iPhone for the past year with no issues. It's time for a new phone and I am thinking of moving to an Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S2). I was wondering if anyone could help me answer the following questions:

1. Does the USB charge Android phones? The phone has miniUSB connection.

2. Are there any issues using bluetooth? Phone calls, Phone book syncs, etc.

3. Do the steering wheel controls work?

3. If using the USB connection, is your music displayed on the nav screen?

4. Any other known issues?

5. Any workarounds for problems?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

JPunisher

1. yes

2. no

3. yes

4. yes

5. no

6. no

Bluetooth-Communication follows a standard and protocols, just like USB.
So in the end it does not matter, who made the phone or which OS it is running, as long it follows the Bluetooth=Standard.

I used an iPhone 3GS and now a Moto Atrix. Everything works fine...

Thanks. I was pretty sure the Bluetooth would work but not so sure that the nav screen would display music info.

JPunisher

If you get a Photon 4g, you have to call from the car and not the phone to initiate the HFL automatically. If you call from the phone you have to physically press bluetooth on it as it doesnt automatically link to the HFL. Other than that it works great, unsure about other Android phones. Hope this helps.

I just moved from the iphone to the galaxy s 2 and for some reason the hfl will drop the connection every once in a while. It will then reconnect on its own but its pretty annoying

That's how it is! Does no one read the manual anymore? :(
You have to push TRANSFER in the TL's Bluetooth/Phone-Menu, then it transfers the call from the phone to the car... You know what I mean? :D

OR:

You can transfer a call from HFL to
your phone, or from your phone to
HFL.
Press and release the HFL Talk
button and say ‘‘ .’’
Receiving a Call Transferring a Call
Transfer

The solution is to select FIXED Pass-Key/ Pairing Code (Manual Page 396). Then it should work.

I have been using the HTC EVO for the past year. It worked perfectly from day one as to all functions - still does without missing a beat.

I noticed that would happen with my Captivate when I would be near a wifi hotspot or hit my home wifi in the driveway. My blackberry doesnt have that problem switching over.

Weird but true. I just couldn't get it to work in the Accessory mode, and finally got it to work (and keep working) with the engine turned on. With my 2005, HFL had an issue with Bluetooth drining the battery. I wonder if the fix was made so that Bluetooth on HFL is not turned on in the Accessory mode. (If it is in the manual, sorry, I must have skipped over it.)

FYI charging over USB is not necessarily definitive. Sure, there's power; The USB will provide power to indicate that is going to charge the phone, but especially if you are using it to talk, or stream audio, it's only going to provide enough power to keep the phone from using any battery while this is going on.

If you need the phone to do any real charging, plan on using the accessory/lighter based chargers.

Finally got the Galaxy SII and noticed some issues:

1. It is very difficult to import the phonebook (but I got it to work).

When the phone is connected to the car and you hit import phonebook, the bluetooth connection is dropped. I found that the work around for this is to go through the bluetooth menu on the phone and click connect several times while at the same time selecting the import phonebook option.

2. Using the usb port give me power to charge the phone but the phone is listed as unsupported so I cannot see my music on the nav screen. Some of you mentioned that this worked for you. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

JPunisher

My '10 Tsx connects automatically when calling from the phone. TL connects automatically if I call from the car. I like the Tsx integration better.

Probably Samsung hardware, coming from an older Epic 4g to a Photon I noticed a better Bluetooth connection and clarity. Delete all info from the car's bluetooth and from your phone try to re-connect, also try a fixed password as stated above.

What do you mean by see your music on the nav screen? Do you mean using the Audio menu you can select different songs and such? I know with the Iphone/Itouch you can do that unsure about Android.

Bluetooth is now working great. My issue is when plugging the phone in the USB port, the nav screen displays unsupported and your music does not show up . Yes, I am refering to the audio menu (Search for music, display songs, etc. ) You can't do this through bluetooth.

Thanks,

JPunisher

I don't use the USB port to charge my Galaxy S.. the USB is taken up by my iPod. I use a cig lighter to USB adapter to charge my phone instead. It gives plenty of juice and the bluetooth does the rest. I keep wifi off unless I am wanting to connect to hot spot. This prevents the phone from constantly searhing for a hotspot, supposedly saving battery life.

ya thats my biggest complaint with my galaxy s II. i now need to buy an ipod to keep in my car while with my iphone i just plugged it in.. may go back to my iphone; i kept it around to try iOS 5 tomorrow and see what i like better

why would you need an ipod? just purchase a 20 dollar 4gb usb stick and call it a day... lol make your life easier..

and for the whole andriod unsupported issue. for my G2 phone, i have to push the confirmation button to link the sim card to the car, if you dont do that, it wont read. also you have to do it right when you plug it in, if you wait awhile, it wont connect even though you have confirmed it.

ya i could but i also work out with my iphone on an armband so i still need something to use while working out. havent found any armbands for the galaxy 2 yet. i'm just going to wait and see how i like iOS5 tomorrow; i hear they ripped a lot of things from android lol

Wow. It really sucks that we all have to find work arounds to get music into the car but wouldn't it be just better to upload the music to the onboard HDD? I think it is 12.5 GB of space and holds 2500 songs. I originally did not want to do that but I think it is better than bluetooth. You lose some audio quality with bluetooth.

The difference between the IOS5 additions and Android is that the iphone's battery still has juice at the end of the day with all the extra crap running. :)

Too early to tell, but the IOS5 bluetooth seems to be improved. Controls are working in pandora and autoplay/resume on connection is working every time I've gotten in the car.

rip steve jobs.


but on the brighter note.. on sunday on animal planet channel, they dedicated a show to Jobs...its called iGenius starts at 8pm my time

2012 TL Tech and Droid Incredible.
 

My wife and I both have the same HTC Droid Incredible model phone. We have had no problem pairing and connecting he phone to the handsfreelink but have had little or no luck at the "phonebook import" phase. My wife was able to do this once with her phone but not again. On my phone I was able to import the call history but not the phonebook.

Anyone else have problems.

I have some issue with my android HTC Sensation:
1. Import of phonebook went well, but contact written in encoding other than Latin are displayed with dots. i think it's somthing in firmware of navi program that should be improoved.
2. Didn't manage to handle voice redialing of last dialed number. It doesn't understand voice command "redial" As it did in previous Acura TL.

One very important chancge - it handles the call and switches it to HFL from phone if you start it frome phone. On previuos Acura in wasn't possible.