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GN Hearing first to support direct Android streaming using ASHA

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Exactly! How cool is it to be all like Star Trek or something by tapping a button and hey presto magic…you’re talking on a communication device without a cluster of other devices hanging off your person or holding a phone up to your mouth like those pretentious wannabe’s that figure they just can’t take the harmless radiation coming off a phone so they walk around talking into a thing. Hands free baby! Look ma no hands. I mean c’mon!
:slight_smile:

Edited

In reply to @ian1

Same thing here. When I fired up the Smart 3D app for the first time today under My ReSound there was a notification of a firmware update but when I clicked the tab to begin the update, the app informed me that my ’s were up-to-date with 10040.400 in the right HA and 10037.37 in the left HA (currently out for repair/replacement under warranty).

Perhaps actually getting the update is contingent on whether the smartphone host for the Smart 3D app is actually running Android 10?! Maybe ReSound’s reasoning is: “No sense going through a firmware update when it won’t make any difference to the user - better to save the update (or any future modifications of it - until later when the user can actually employ it.”

I’ve noticed that the Smart Fit fitting software has been updated to v1.5 (from v1.4) and under my current fitting setup, user profile: Experienced (nonlinear) and the fitting algorithm used with occlusive molds, my output values no longer match the target (prescribed) values for the HA’s whereas they used to match exactly. I will have to ask my audiologist when I see her tomorrow for the repaired/replaced HA what’s going on with this change. And also why the left and right HA differ in firmware updates and why at least the Smart 3D app is perfectly happy with this disparity.

@jim_lewis said:

Perhaps actually getting the update is continent on whether the smartphone host for the Smart 3D app is actually running Android 10?! Maybe ReSound’s reasoning is: “No sense going through a firmware update when it won’t make any difference to the user - better to save the update (or any future modifications of it - until later when the user can actually employ it.”

No, not true… I actually got it on my personal Samsung galaxy note 9 Android 9 phone first, installed the firmware from that phone, and I then tested it on my work pixel 3a.

It’s great news that is finally available, but this exposes the Achilles heel of android, namely fragmentation. I’m a big fan of android, but the length of time it takes the various vendors to update is far too long.

In reply to @haggis

Not sure why you look at it this way. Android isn’t going to be patched every time a new vendor wants support . Unless bugs in the service are identified, it will be up to the HA vendor to make their device compatible. What’s different about this is the vendors don’t have to pay money to Apple.

In reply to @darylm

That only say Android Framework, not Board Support Package (BSP) version.
If you have Android 9 BSP base and they update Android 10 while keeping 9.0 BSP base, then no for you.

they will not update that base because it takes a lot of development effort to bring up the BSP base than Android framework. Unless you get a new phone that came with Android 10.

In reply to @ssa

Another possibility. They issued the firmware update, sent out notifications to elgible users, then, Oops! - found a reason to pull the firmware update back but couldn’t recall the notifications. Anybody updated to the new firmware 10043.4300 in the past few hours (it’s now 1:37 AM UTC 9/10/19) ???

Yeah that may be the case here. I guess I was fast enough to get the update but that only one part of the story…

Some may consider me as a lucky bastard but i’m not, I’m still waiting for the Cochlear Nucleus 7 firmware update too and rumor mill says, end of the month for Nucleus 7 firmware update…

On getting various desired updates - One of the all-time great film quotes, IMHO, by Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind:

“Tomorrow is another day!”

In reply to @darylm

Agreed. Android fragmentation will always be a problem Therein is a key advantage to owning the Google Pixel. Being a Google phone, you get updates as soon as they are available! My Pixel 3 XL was updated to Android 10 they day it was released.

I saw this ad on Facebook and laughed. Sure, they’re the first to offer direct Android streaming via LE, but to the consumer, it means next to nothing other than (to them, the consumer) unfulfilled promises and more wait times with no guarantee it’ll ever happen without them shelling out serious cash. The vast majority of Android users are not using the latest and greatest from Google. Sorry ReSound, but you lost the race of reliable Bluetooth streaming to Android. Phonak is doing circles around you right now. Glad I switched from Quattro to Marvel. The average consumer just doesn’t care about the Bluetooth, they care whether or not they can stream.

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@focusandearnit said:

Sorry ReSound, but you lost the race of reliable Bluetooth streaming to Android. Phonak is doing circles around you right now. Glad I switched from Quattro to Marvel. The average consumer just doesn’t care about the Bluetooth, they care whether or not they can stream.

You seem to have a lot of venom towards ReSound. Look at Thunderbolt and USB-C 3.1 (or whatever it’s up to now). One has to begin somewhere and it takes a while for things to catch on. I doubt the average premium hearing aid consumer cares a whole bunch about Android with any form of Bluetooth. Something like 75% of premium hearing aid users are iPhone users and have been able to have direct, stereo streaming of media (and phone call streaming) since 2014 (which, as has been discussed before, is different than the distribution of forum members on iOS vs. Android). So, Phonak does Classic with Android but for the AVERAGE user, it doesn’t matter. The average premium HA user is an iPhone user - maybe Phonak will change that pattern because of the excellence of the Marvels but maybe whatever problems Android has should be laid at Google’s feet, not ReSound’s’. I don’t think anyone should be pushed out of shape by HA OEM’s PR. They all seem to claim a bit more than they actually deliver, e.g., your lament that hands-free is the Achilles heel of Marvel (before 2.0) in another thread.

A related question is will any HA OEM ever make their devices compatible with generic accessories. Or will all the OEM still see their meat and potatoes selling remote controls, , and TV streamers that only work with their brand. Phonak is leading the way here with making sure, in spite of BT Classic, that we pay lots extra for Roger accessories, etc., that require a special setup for direct connectivitty. What someone ought to do is force HA OEM’s to work on common protocols and allow ~any brand HA to work with ~any brand accessory, rather than when switching HA brands having to possibly get new remote microphones, new TV streamer, etc.

But that’s where I see the hypocrisy in all of this. I don’t see any HA OEM in the interests of “universal connectivity” doing any of the above any time soon. Imagine what it would be like with smartphones if only accessories sold by your phone maker worked with your phone. :see_no_evil:

Do you have any citations for those “average user” assertions?

I certainly give kudo’s to Apple for being first to make this happen and that it took quite a while before Phonak came up with a non-Apple solution…but I question your assertions.

You can probably find it just the same way that I would look for it - by searching old forum threads. I seem to remember Abram Bailey making a remark along those lines - that many forum members are inveterate techie “geeks” who like to muck around and hence the higher proportion of members here who are Android phone users. And many forum members are younger, too, than the average wearer.

If you don’t find it first, I’ll research it later in the day.

It was simply that you made assertions. If you had served up opinions then I wouldn’t’ve said anything. :slight_smile:

BTW, in looking for % users iOS vs. Android amongst wearers, I found the following neat summary of HA connectivity by Geoff Cooling of hearingaidknow.com3. He does predict that with Classic BT connectivity that Phonak will be/is the new champ in HA connectivity. But he concludes, contrary to all, with USE THE DAMN STREAMER! :smiley:

Looking for the best Bluetooth hearing aids on the market?5

Looking to understand Made For iPhone hearing aids or Bluetooth Hearing aids? We clear up what is what and what's available from the big brands in 2020

My thoughts are that the is likely going to be the final solution for Android, while the Phonak solution is a temporary work around. Before you go to the bank with that however, consider that I bought a Beta over a VHS because I thought Beta was better. But, I learned a bit from that. VHS won because it was more universally applied and everyone made it, vs Sony trying to go it alone.

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