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(More customer reviews)Before getting this I did quite a bit of searching on the web, and couldn't find anything that explains exactly how well this speakerphone works with iPhones. Several other reviews outline its main features, and a few mention that they use it with their iPhones but don't discuss the limitations of that mode, so what follows is intended just for those who hope to use it with an iPhone. (I've got the iPhone 3G, but I can't see any reason it would work differently with the iPhone 3GS or 4).
It's clearly designed for droid phones, and on those phones you can download the MotoSpeak app and have it read texts out loud - and even allows you to compose texts hands free. Still, the basic and most essential functions appear to work with any Bluetooth enabled phone, and certainly with my iPhone 3G.
It hooks easily to the sun visor of the car, and the charger plugs into the cigarette lighter. It links easily with the iPhone, once you go into the settings and enable Bluetooth. After it's linked, the Roadster recognizes your phone, and turns itself on automatically, apparently triggered by the sound of an opening or closing car door. Once on, it speaks out loud that it recognizes your phone, and even says the name of the phone it's linked to. It also tells you whether it's fully charged or not.
If you receive a call, it tells you there's an incoming call and if your phone recognizes the caller it tells you who's calling. You can then say either "Answer" or "Ignore" and it will either pick up the call or drop it. You hear the call either through a speaker built in to the Roadster or you can set it up so it transmits directly to your car stereo through an unused FM frequency. The onboard microphone picks up your voice - all you have to do is speak at an ordinary level and it works fine. My wife reported that it sounds just like it does when I'm calling her directly through the iPhone.
Pressing the call icon on the Roadster will redial your most recent call. Another feature built in to it is that you're supposed to be able to click on the dial tone button and speak a phone number - but when I press that button the Roadster tells me that the feature is unsupported by my phone. It strikes me a bit odd that the Roadster can control my iPhone enough to dial the most recent call, but not to dial a different number, but that's the way it is.
You can also play music from your phone through the Roadster - it sounds awful if you try to do it through the speaker on the Roadster, but when you've got it on the FM transmitting mode, and assuming you've got it set on a clear station the music sounds pretty decent, about as good as you'd get it from a decent but not perfect signal on a regular FM station. In my case I hook the iPhone directly to my stereo with a USB cable, so I wouldn't ever bother with this.
So what this is really useful for on my iPhone is answering calls hands free - and in my case that's the main thing I wanted it for so it works pretty well for me. If you want to make phone calls a lot while driving, or want to receive and send text with voice commands, you'll need a different kind of phone, with Android 2.2 or higher. Having said that, those features would make this an excellent device for owners of Android phones; the more basic features still make it quite useful for iPhone users like me.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Motorola Roadster Bluetooth In-Car Speakerphone (Retail Packaging)
Stay in touch on the road with Roadster Bluetooth speakerphone from Motorola's Elite Series which offers dual-microphone noise cancellation technology to ensure you can be heard over road noise and block out background noise better than any other speakerphone currently on the market. Equipped with MotoSpeak, the Roadster reads aloud text messages and allows you to dictate your text response, so you can stay in touch while on the road.
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