Well, if you were fine w/.81, and there isn't any clear advantage for you in other areas from .97, you may want to downgrade back to .81. Fun!

I just did a softreset to see if that affected Somafm...nope, still goes to the media player and then the blue arrows that indicate downloading of the stream just stop after a few seconds and nothing plays. On my wife's Pearl they keep going and the stream starts to play.

Yeah, same here. This guy says it works fine for him on .97:
HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - New Pearl OS - US Cellular 4.3.0.97

Yup...that's what I mean...this streaming stuff is still very sensitive to some number of variables that aren't clear (to me).

Maybe the upcoming 4.5 OS release and BIS update expected sometime in March or later will straighten things out...

I'm not confident that going back to .81 will fix it for me!

True...whatever is currently futzed might not get unfutzed by the downgrade.

(Aside...funny, the spell checker tells me I spelled "futzed" correctly, but marked "unfutzed" as incorrect.)

I can't imagine what could be futzed since m.youtube.com works perfectly. Might be a codec problem. But I did get it to work once, that's very confusing.

You're lucky. Regardless of the version loaded onto my Telus 8130 Pearl (.97 currently), I've never been able to stream from m.youtube.com

Does any streaming work? Maybe Telus blocks it...

With the right stations I can stream using MFRadio. Wouldn't be surprised if Telus blocks it somehow. So, if I want something I have to download to the memory card and then play it from there.

YEAH! I downgraded to AllTel .81 and audio streaming works once again!

You got lucky. Don't touch anything!

Weird...same phone, same carrier, I'm on .97 and I can stream (except for SomaFM). MFRadio works for me as well...

I can stream ORB and SomaFM. What do you listen to on MFRadio? Just looks like an advertising site to me.

The funny thing is that I upgraded in order to see if the new OS would allow streaming audio/video to play over my Bluetooth stereo headset, the .81 release does not. Instead I got no streaming at all!

I also was hoping for better memory management as I have to reboot every few days. I didn't get to test this though, I need the streaming.

Hmmm...I've been streaming audio over BT since .60, the initial release of the OS that came on the Pearl. Works fine. You can't stream audio from a video (e.g., can't watch a movie and hear the sound on the BT headset) with any release, that is just not supported, but streaming plain audio over BT works just fine in any release of the OS that I've used (and I've used them all but Bell).

If you're rebooting every few days, you likely have an ill-behaved app. That doesn't sound right for the later OS releases, which behave relatively well in terms of managing memory. How low does your memory get, and how much do you have after a reboot.

You would probably benefit from this thread...

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ee-memory.html

So, you're saying you can listen to ORB over your Bluetooth stereo headset? I can listen to local content, but not streaming content.

When I reboot I have 16-17MB of memory. Over time it goes down to 4MB or lower and things stop working right and I reboot.

The main apps I run are Google Mail, Google Talk, Google Sync, Google Mobile Updater, Media, Chronograph, and Browser. Any ideas? I suspect its one of the Google apps.

I wonder what it is that keeps folks on the same OS from doing the same things. I read this tail of this thread and decided to try and listen to SomaFM with my Verizon Pearl running .97. Guess what? Works fine for me. BT headgear works for streams too.

Weird. Can you listen to streaming audio on a bluetooth stereo headset?

Yup. Doing it right now with SomaFM playing through BT headphone.

read the posts it seems like there is alot of waiting involved. besides streaming is there any real benefit to upgrading the OS.

i'm also not a huge fan of the d/l speeds i get off of the website.

At this point, the only thing that I'm sure that was fixed (for me, anyway) is that full-screen video didn't work if I used any controls while it was playing...the screen would stay stuck on video w/all the controls and the video player UI in view. Immediately after loading .97 this problem went away.

I'd say that unless you have a big problem w/.your current OS version, or unless you're a serial upgrader (which you're not, or you wouldn't have asked ) stick with what you have now.

There appear to be so many odd inconsistencies...there's a free pacman game (thread in this forum) that runs fine on my Pearl, another Verizon Pearl owner w/both .81 and .97 has been unable to get it to work.

I think Muldar (sp?) had it right - to paraphrase, "trust no Pearl."

I just don't get it. When I listen to local audio content, there is an option in the media player menu that says "Activate Handset" and another that says "Activate Jabra BT3030" (which is my BT headset). When playing streaming content, there is only the "Activate Handset" option. What do you (and Redflea) see in the menu?

Sorry for the confusion, WP, but I was talking about audio from local content to BT headset. I hadn't tried to play streaming content to a BT headset. Just tried it w/Orb and no go, no option to send to connected Moto S705 BT headset. However, when I went to SomaFM, though it won't play for me, there was an option on the menu for activating the S705. Since the audio won't play from SomaFM for me, can't tell if it would really work or not.

I just discovered that the option only appears when the BT headset is not connected; and, as I said above, only when playing local content.

In any case, you are saying that when the BT headset is connected and you are streaming ORB, the audio does not come through the headset but instead comes through the Pearl's speaker, right?

OK...I take that back...Orb streaming Internet Radio will go to my Moto S705. So sending streamed audio works just like regular audio. I was trying TV from Orb at first, and audio from video won't stream from local content either, so that makes sense.

So yes...I can stream audio to my S705 BT headset. The option is on the menu and works for audio only streaming.

Damn... Maybe its my headset then!

Redflea, how do you like that Moto S705? They have one at my local Best Buy. Is the sound quality good?

LOVE it. We have two (my wife has a Pearl and S705 as well).

Upsides:

- Connects and streams w/out problem
- Comfy earphones
- Good sound, much better than we got w/the Jabra BT3030
- Includes an FM radio that really works!

Downsides:

- It's a little larger than the Jabra
- On calls, the sound on my end is fine, the sound for the caller is a little muffled (but easy to understand)

I use it primarily for working out, walking the dog, etc., and have found it to be an excellent unit. Definitely recommend you try it and see if it works for you. I'm an NPR addict, so having the FM capability for my local NPR station is a real plus, and makes the unit a nice stand-alone option for just radio as well.

Applications: 4.3.0.97


has anyone notice a shorter standby battery life?

My 8130 has used 20% of it's battery in about 5 hours today

Nope...didn't see any noticeable change in battery life w/.97 (or any of the OS releases, for that matter). But I wasn't tracking it closely or anything.

well I am seeing a new issue since I updated yesterday.

Some of my profile settings wont let me into them they act like they are locked down. It started with two mail boxes I count fix so I reloaded the software and it worked then tried to edit again and now I can enter phone mms and messenger

OK so I bought the last Moto S705 at my local Best Buy for $50 (it seems to be discontinued so the price is very low) and even with the Moto I could not stream internet streaming radio like ORB or SomaFM: Commercial-Free, Independent Internet Radio over BlueTooth - I was running Alltel .81. So, I wiped my device and still could not stream. Then I updated to US Cellular .97 with a clean install (no 3rd party apps) and internet streaming radio worked! YEA!!! It worked with the Moto and with my Jabra BT3030 (which so far I like better than the Moto (I have 30 day return on both)). So, now I am adding back my apps (mostly Google stuff) and hopefully streaming will continue to work.

Bottom line, US Cellular .97 seems to enable streaming internet radio over Bluetooth.

Thanks Redflea for giving me the impetus to keep trying!

Happy to hear how things are working out (fingers crossed!).

As for the Moto vs. Jabra...my wife and I found the audio on the Jabra pretty bad, with audible hissing in the background. This was on two different units on two different Pearls, so it seemed like just the way it was w/the Jabra. The S705 was a big step up in terms of sound quality. Sounds like you're not hearing the same. I wonder if there is a later firmware on the Jabra that improves sound, or something. I mean for us, it was so clear immediately which one to keep that I just assumed you'd knight me "Genius Guy" for the Moto suggestion.

I got my Jabra from Verizon, haven't noticed any noise in fact it sounds great! I think the buttons are much easier to use on the Jabra, especially in the car. Of course, it doesn't have FM.

Odd...we got ours from there as well.

Oh well, as long as you're happy, we're happy!

One thing I will say, the headphones that come with the Jabra are better than the Moto headphones. The Jabra headphones seem to be these very good $40 Sony headphones which I've had for years and love: Amazon.com: Sony MDR-EX71SLA Fontopia Bud-Style Headphones with Case (Black): Electronics

The Sony's have better highs than the Moto headphones, I wonder if that exaggerated some hiss in your source material?

Possible...though we listened to a range of music, and it affected both my wife and I, who are old enough to have lost a lot of our upper register hearing...

I'm just glad we're both happy. :D

Me too!

Hi,

I just picked up a pearl (verizon) over the weekend. So far it is great. I just updated to the new firmware and noticed that the phone no longer goes into standby by holding down the mute button. Anyone else notice this?

Nope...goes into standby just as it has w/every update since I replaced the original VZW OS. Press Mute/Standby key and phone says it's going into standby. The VZW OS version would prompt you to confirm standby when you pressed the Mute key, are you sure you're not just missing seeing that prompt?

First line of attack would be to try doing a battery pull...

I am trying that now. I used softrest app before. Hopefully the battery pull will work.

/edit

worked like a charm. Thanks.