Last December I wrote that upgrading my iPhone to firmware 1.1.2 was not such a great idea. The reason was simple, the update made it impossible to control my iPhone from the harman/kardon drive+play device installed in my car. Since the next firmware update didn’t fix the problem, I started to think that I would have to give up on my beloved gadget since it pre-dated the iPhone and therefore could not be expected to properly work with it.
I am happy to report that my fears were totally unfounded. Apple fixed the problem with the release of firmware 1.1.4. I can now once again control the music playback from the drive+play wheel controller and the information appears correctly on the display, as expected. I am really relieved because I had been looking for alternative solutions and so far haven’t found a good solution that supports the iPhone, eliminating all GSM interference and supporting hands free conversations. Now that my current solution works again I can wait patiently for a better solution to get to market.
I have also learned that the problem was no limited to harman/kardon’s device. I have a friend who uses a completely different solution to play back music from the iPhone in his car and he had faced similar problems.