starkey halo

Do you have to find "handoff" somewhere or will it happen as soon as both devices are iOS 8 and on the same wifi network?

I am loving the possibility.

Jchubee, I am in a very similar situation. I am 57 years old, I too avoided making phone calls as much as possible. But am having great success with the Halos. Much better then the surf link system I was previously using. One of my daughters recently moved 1400 miles from home. We are extremely close, I was used to seeing her several times a week. We correspond daily, until I got the halos we were texting. I have had several successful phone conversations with her the past week. It is so much more fulfilling to hear her voice. That alone makes these aids a godsend for me.

I have invested in so many different devices to try and hear TV and telephone. We have 2 televisions in the room my husband and I most often use. One for him that puts sound into the room and one for me that I use a sony infra-red headset and closed captioning with. I have an LG tones blue tooth headset I was using for the phone. A commercial binaural plantronics headset for my landline with volume control. None of them give me the clarity streaming with the Halos do.

Dish Networks system is blue tooth, I can connect my LG headset to it, It would be amazing if they would team up with Starkey so the Halos could pair with that system. I can watch anything live on my iPad via their dish anywhere app via the internet, or download to the app and watch without an internet connection. I have always kept all of my devices on mute, have never watched any form of audio podcast or videa on the iPad before these aids. Sometimes I forget that the computer and iPad even offer sound as I have never been able to hear through the speakers even with aids. I am so excited about the options now available.

LanB22, I am in the same situation as you. I am 55 years old, and have always struggled with television, music and phone calls. Thankfully, email and texting have become the main way I communicate with people, especially my clients.

The Halos have helped me so much with respect to phone calls and music. I have been using iOS 8 on my 5s for a while, and all works OK, but I have just received my new iPhone 6 and nothing works with it. From reading the forums and Starkey's Facebook page, it seems it is a problem with the 6 rather than the Trulink app. Why was this not tested properly in the first place?? Having said this, I had a similar experience to SantafeNM above, in that yesterday, I managed to connect to my 6 and had it working perfectly with the Trulink app for about half an hour. I could stream music, and made a couple of phone calls. After a while it disconnected and I couldn't connect again, so I won't use it again until there's a fix. Need it urgently though, as my 5s has to go soon! 😟

PS. Are you 'Lanie' that made a few comments on Starkey's Facebook page? If so, I am Mike Farthing who also commented on the same thread.

There is also another useful forum where people have been posting about their experiences with the Halo : http://www.hearingaidforums.com/showthread.php?16660-Post-your-Halo-experiences- here!&referrerid=68991

Are you suggesting that you can adjust bass and treble individually? If so, HOW? My sound space has only on adjustment "button". Moving towards bass reduces treble. How can you increase bass without decreasing treble?

Your audiologist has that kind of EQ control, but not the TruLink nor the iPhone itself.

I hope you all saw this from Starkey:

It is true, there are issues. But the problem is, based on Starkey saying everything was good with iOS 8, I did switch to the iPhone 6 assuming that the hardware would be better anyway. But after a lot of testing and research I have come to the conclusion that this is a SOFTWARE issue between the Halo firmware and iOS 8, probably with Airplay and Bluetooth. The good news is that Apple is preparing an update to iOS 8 (8.0.1) and HOPEFULLY Starkey will get their changes to Apple in time for them to be included.

I would think that both Apple and Starkey have learned a couple of things from this. Hopefully!

Thanks for all this info, dbmtx. Very helpful.

I tested iOS 8 in Beta form for a while with the 5s, and it was not without its problems, but all seems to work 100% on that phone now. I too got the 6, assuming hardware would not cause any issues - how wrong I was! 😟

Perhaps there will also be a firmware update for our Halos. I will ask my audiologist to keep an eye out for anything he gets from Starkey.

This should have been sorted before the release!

I changed my batteries yesterday and that made a difference. However, why does the iPhone show the battery levels still quite high when they are not sufficient?

I left the HA's on over night and this am got up and was trying to listen to a podcast with my earpods. The HAs kept connecting so I ended up turning off BT. If what you say is true, the HAs batteries are very short lived. That is a bummer.

Parrish,

I think the fact that we have to keep the batteries fresh shows the issue is even worse than what Starkey is saying. I do believe that the hardware upgrade in the iPhone 6 has something to do with the issue but I still contend that the issue is software-related. I have watched the Bluetooth indicator on the iPhone go in and out of a session while I was streaming, so whatever handshaking is suppose to be happening, it is having a HARD time of it.

In all the testing, I've replaced my batteries frequently. My audi told me that there is a difference between one manufacturer and another, and indeed between one production run and the next. The batteries are air-activated, and from time to time the batteries will sit in a hopper overnight or over a weekend before they are actually placed on the sticky covers that are supposed to keep air out.

BTW, last night I watched TV on my iPad (not plugged in to power) for 3.5 hours, streaming to my Starkeys. The sound was solid for the most part, but three times in that period I thought I was going to lose connectivity to my left hearing aid. It didn't actually drop out, but got "warbly" for 5-10 seconds, then cleared up. As an aside, watching TV on the iPad, NOT plugged in, my iPad battery dropped to 71% after 3.5 hours of constant use. So I'd say that you could probably watch the iPad all day on a single charge.

My experience is primarily with Xcell batteries. I can confirm that extended use of the Halos as a streaming audio receiver will deplete the batteries faster than "normal" use.

Yes Mike,

That is me on the Starkey Hearing page. Thanks for the link to other forum. These sites make me feel like I am not alone in my struggles. Very helpful.

IiOS 8.0.1 is out. No mention of our problem being solved. Have not updated yet.

Updated to 8.0.1 on my iPhone 5s - working as before. Currently updating iPhone 6 - will report back!

Do not update to 8.01 - Apple has pulled the update, according to the Wall Street Journal.

From Appleinsider:

Update: Apple appears to have pulled the update from its servers.

Users who have not yet installed iOS 8.0.1 are advised to hold off, as the problems presented by the update appear to affect a large number of users.

Initial reports suggest that the over-the-air update install causes issues for the newest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Carrier connectivity issues are occurring across the board, affecting AppleInsiderreaders who use Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.

After updating their system to iOS 8.0.1, users have also found that the Touch ID fingerprint unlock for their handset no longer works. Attempts to add a new fingerprint to the system return the error message shown above.

In the meantime, those who have already updated can still unlock their iPhone with their secure passcode, and connect to data over Wi-Fi.