Why is bluetooth functionality in BB10 so terrible?
Let me go through my bluetooth usage routine first here, I do a lot of traveling with my job and this is a detrimental feature which I just can't seem to use properly on my Z10 (works fine with iOS and Android and WP8:
1. Turn on bluetooth ( a redundancy from my switch from android as it did this automatically when I needed it to be on)
2. Start navigation
On all competing OS's that's it, I'm sync'd up and ready to go, I can navigate, play music (music volume lowers when navigation audio kicks in, can adjust navigation volume separately than media volume to make the two volumes equal to each other so that navigation audio does not blow you away when the music lowers) calls come in, music and navigation resume.
On BB10 this is nowhere near the case, when bluetooth connects on BB10, the music app comes up and starts playing by itself, even if there is no music on the device (I use google music anyway). This creates an extra step, not a huge deal, but I have to close the app every time I get in my car now, I shouldn't even have to touch the device by the time I'm driving, but I do. I start music and navigation, navigation volume cannot be adjusted and is always fantastically louder than the music volume, there is no happy in between here, if I have the music at a volume where the navigation isn't crazy loud, the music is barely audible. Slightly more annoying now. I get a phone call, works fine, comes across clear, phone call ends, music player pops back up and starts trying to play music. This removes navigation from the screen, so now I'm driving and have to physically interact with the device to resume any functions at all as the screen will time out if it's in the music application. At this point, the feature is completely worthless. The point of bluetooth is hands free operation, this is anything but the case with BB10. I'm constantly having to handle the device while driving, which is illegal in CA where I live, let alone incredibly dangerous. BlackBerry's response to this is that this is a "feature" well it may be, but it's also a non-changeable one. No other OS does this, and some have the option to and let you pick what application if any you'd like to autostart / resume with bluetooth connectivity detected.
Considering the lauding of BlackBerry's entire platform is a professional device, this seems amateurish. BlackBerry should be leading the herd here, they are, however, far behind. There is a new "default app" feature in 10.2 which I thought could maybe address this, it does not, in fact that feature seems to also be totally worthless as it only lets you assign this to apps that seem to need to be coded for this, unlike android which prompts you which app you'd like to set as default when there is more than one that calls for a system function api.
So it's 6 months later since I purchased my Z10, if BlackBerry goes under there are things I'd miss a lot. I'd miss the keyboard, all of my messages in one spot, system wide gestures, etc. I could only hope that if they get broken up someone takes these and uses them. My point is that I like the platform a lot, but after 6 months I'm still carrying around another device. I have an Android phone with me at all times now because I need to use navigation and have bluetooth functions, and with BB10 I cannot pull both off. The "infinite" email option is a great addition, but it wasn't enough to let me use BB10 by itself. For a "professional" device, it's a real let down that it doesn't allow me personally to only have one device, which, upon reflection, was really the main problem with the previous BBOS platform, people started carrying around Android and iOS devices in addition to their BlackBerry's and eventually realized that pretty much everything they were doing could be done on one of those devices.
There seems to be some work on some added car functionality in the 10.2 leaks, some people get prompts about their car model, I have a Toyota, I've not seen any prompts for added car functions, and I also suspect that the real issue, the music app popping up not only upon connection but also after every single call you make remains steadfast in debilitation. If I tried to use only the Z10 for my drive, I would probably have to interact with the device roughly 30-40 times per day, just closing the music application. This needs to be fixed. Anyone else having these issues?