iPhone 3G supports Bluetooth phonebook download

I already wrote about the extreme lack of support for most of Bluetooth’s possibilities in the original iPhone, but it seems Apple has improved things a bit with the release of the iPhone 3G.

Looking over the PICS again, the Phonebook Server Equipment (PSE) mode in the Phonebook Access Profile (PBAP) is now supported, which means that phonebook download, browsing and other functions are available, but not contact uploads, which would require a Phonebook Client Equipment role in the profile. A very clear and simple explanation of PBAP can be found on Microsoft’s MSDN Library.

All this mumbo-jumbo means that carkits such as the Parrot MINIKIT SLIM can download and use the iPhone’s contact list for training-free speech recognition and dialing, which is very cool and works wonders! For those interested, PSE makes support for vCard 2.1 and 3.0 mandatory.

Additionally, Hands-Free Profile 1.5 is also supported on top of the much more limited Headset profile in the original iPhone. They still don’t support inband ringtones, for reasons that escape me, as it’s not like you can steal the ringtones in hi-def over speech-quality Bluetooth. In any case, a good step in the right direction!