Streaming iTunes through the Nokia BH-503.

My first thought was oh, so that’s what A2DP is for.

The BH-503 version I have is black with red accents. It matches my N82, but I didn’t think of that when I bought it. I wanted a Bluetooth stereo headset primarily for music, secondarily for calls. The majority of headsets in the market have it the other way around. I am not fond of in-ear solutions, so the Plantronics Voyager 855, even though it claimed good audio fidelity, was not appealing. The Samsung SBH500 wasn’t available.  This review is all praises for it. Even if it had been around, though, I might have bought the BH-503 anyway; leather-lined headphones make me feel like I’m wearing earmuffs.

Congratulate me, I am a step closer to gargoylehood.

Pairing with the N82 was painless. After charging the headset for the recommended minimum of 3 hours (it didn’t come with a factory charge), I paired it with my phone, and that was it.

I set the phone to automatically pair with the headset, and I believe that’s why I had problems pairing it with the Mac. I forgot to turn off my phone’s Bluetooth so it kept aggressively trying to connect with the headset; that meant the Mac couldn’t find it. I turned the headset off, turned off Bluetooth on the N82, turned the headset back on, then paired it with the Mac. That worked.

In use, I like switching between streaming music from the phone (when I’m out of the office) or the Mac (when I’m being a keyboard jockey). This is a problem, because I also use BluePhone Elite when I’m at my Mac, as one keyboard at a time seems to make sense. When I’m being stubborn this way, I get an error message saying “Bluetooth audio failed.” (The Mac separates the BH-503 into two functions: “use headset” and “use headphones.”)

Nothing works, unless I:

1) Exit BluePhone Elite.

2) Turn off Bluetooth on the N82.

3) Turn the BH-503 off then on.

4) Choose “Use headphones” from the Mac’s Bluetooth menu.

5) Turn on Bluetooth on the N82.

6) Run BluePhone Elite.

There. Now I can do SMS on my Mac via BluePhone Elite, and listen to iTunes via Bluetooth at the same time. It doesn’t work for calls. I have to figure that one out.