Anyone having issues with Apple MFi Hearing Aids?

I have been testing the Phonak Audeo and the Oticon Opn. Think I have decided on the Oticon Opn and need to purchase an iphone. Is this problem of clicking just with the iphone 7? Or has that been determined yet?

I wrote up some thoughts over here if it’s helpful…
https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/enchant-and-zerena/33084/11?u=member69 (member archive)

@cdmarie said:

I have been testing the Phonak Audeo and the Oticon Opn. Think I have decided on the Oticon Opn and need to purchase an iphone. Is this problem of clicking just with the iphone 7? Or has that been determined yet?

I have OPN firmware 4.0 and iOS 11.1.2 on an iPhone 7 Plus. No clicking issue for me.

Also NEVER a clicking issue using the OPN with the TV Adapter 3.0 streaming device.

The only time when I had clicking was with OPN firmware 2.0 (there’s no firmware 3.0) on the iPhone.

Thanks @JordanK! It’s people like yourself that I’m really aiming to help out through the reviews I do. The fact we’re both picky and probably perfectionists, just shows that we pay attention to detail. When you pick-up an iPhone or iPad, you do so knowing that Apple is a company that prides itself on customer satisfaction hence has put a lot of effort in developing and testing their features to highest quality standards in the industry. The level of quality should be on par if not higher for hearing aid companies, especially given that so many of us use our hearing aids for 16+ hours per day non-stop. Defects that hinder our ability to communicate are top-priority issues! Especially, when it’s the technology and not our ears that are causing the problem !

Hi folks. I have a Cochlear BAHA 5 and am largely very pleased with the MFI implementation. The only minor problems I have observed:

• Handoff between iOS devices doesn’t work (eg MFI connection to iPhone persists when trying to stream audio from iPad

• Constant battle in my car between the car’s bluetooth connection to my iPhone for calls and audio, and the connection to my BAHA

• iPhone not remembering ambient volume setting when switching back to hearing from streaming

• Battery status stubbornly reporting “100%” right up until the time it suddenly drops to 0% minutes before dying

I’ve seen the first few reported elsewhere, but not the last one. Only me?

Don’t get me wrong, MFi works well about 90% of the time. The ability to hear something is not just another app feature though. For me, hearing aids are what enable me to work a technically demanding job with severe hearing loss, which requires phone calls, meetings, and etc … it literally impacts my ability to lead my team and do my job effectively … so even 90% is not good enough at times. In my mind the ability to hear with modern technology is like a space rocket launch from NASA … it needs 99.9999% reliability and performance. No room for errors! My expectations are probably too high … but it’s the only way to push the envelope on progress and new developments in hearing aids … I’m just creating the demand!

@Seamaster said:

Handoff between iOS devices doesn’t work (eg MFI connection to iPhone persists when trying to stream audio from iPad

Constant battle in my car between the car’s bluetooth connection to my iPhone for calls and audio, and the connection to my BAHA

These seem to be a common complaints across multiple hearing aids and users. Definitely an issue for Apple & HA manufacturers.

@Seamaster said:

iPhone not remembering ambient volume setting when switching back to hearing from streaming

Not sure I understand this one 100%.

@Seamaster said:

Battery status stubbornly reporting “100%” right up until the time it suddenly drops to 0% minutes before dying

This seems to be specific to your Cochlear BAHA 5.

Just wanted to add that I had clicking sound occurring in one HA yesterday while streaming telephone audio.
I switched iWatch (series 2) to ‘airplane mode’ and clicking sound persisted, replicated this twice.

Details:
Oticon Opn 1 firmware 4.0
iWatch series 2 sw version 4.0
iPhone 7 Verizon with iOS 11.1.2

Cheers.

do not use two gadgets at once and update outcome i.e watch and iphone

As for me, I don’t normally use two devices at once, but the other issues still remain - remembering volume settings, and battery status.

I do battle my single device - when the dialog comes up on an incoming call as to whether to direct to phone, HA, or speaker, if I select anything other than HA, it will revert back to HA immediately.

In other words MFi is still buggy.

Same here as to the reverting back to the hearing aid selection. on incoming phone calls. Often times I want to put the phone on speaker for my husband to hear and it goes back to my hearing aids. To solve this, I just quickly turn off Bluetooth by swiping up on the phone screen. Seems to work.

I found that when my iPhone 6 died and I replaced it with a 8+ a few weeks ago the HA stuff works a lot better. I don’t know if it was a hardware issue or there’s a newer version of the software on the new phone.

Just wanted to update that Oticon gave me a return call after I called their support line regarding ‘clicking’ sound with Opn 1s and iPhone7. They told me this is a ‘known anomaly’ with iPhone and not something Oticon could resolve.

That may sound like stating the obvious, but it is the first time those words came out of their mouth to me: “we can’t fix that”. Often there has been a fitter facilitating the exchange between myself and Oticon.

Known anomaly is very broad. It indicate a problem but doesn’t solve; it only identifies. Where is up for grabs. It is always easiest to blame the other guy. Even that is too broad.

I don’t have a clicking problem with my iPhone and it is a pretty dated model at this point. There is no known clicking problem for normal hearing users with Apple ear buds.

Can’t fix it lacks the explanation for why. Again, too broad to have value.

I am not saying Oticon is bad. I am just saying the problem isn’t explained in the interchange outlined. It is just a limited explanation lacking real information.

Agreed, no doubt it is isolated and intermittent and probably takes ownership on both sides to truly get a complete solution.

On the other front, I have been working with Apple to provide them detailed data of the failure and situations when it occurs. I have been capturing SYSDIAGNOSE logs from iPhone with an accompanying transcribed description of symptoms and timestamps so maybe they can further troubleshoot.

That’s kind of a complicated task but is easier in iOS11.n than it used to be.

Cheers.