My Costco fitter called ReSound today and verified that the latest firmware for the Preza aids is 1.20. She said that it primarily is a fix for issues with android phones, and something to do with stabilizing the volume when going to and from streaming. I am wearing Jabra aids now, but whenever I have my next Costco appointment I will take the Prezas in for the update. I checked in the Smart 3D app late last week, but it didn’t show the new firmware being available to install.
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Thanks Jim. I did see that Red Demo Mode in the More Appl App. Will call Costco again to see if they got it. Mike the Asst, who is learning to be a fitter will help me update. I did it myself the last time with no probs but thought this time I may have trouble.
Someone in this forum mentioned that after the update he noticed a big difference. Maybe he has Android I don’t know. Anyway I was disappointed in Resound‘s tech Matt. Maybe he was new because he started getting a little testy. Other folks I have talked to there are very nice.
Have you noticed any difference? Have a good day, Anita
Hi, Anita
I haven’t noticed much of a difference with the Quattro firmware update on my iPhone 6S. The Smart 3D app might be behaving a little flakier. But a complicating factor is that my HA settings are apparently not the same as the last recorded settings my audi has for me. So when I updated the firmware, the fitting software noticed that there was a difference between the settings stored in the HA’s (the audi’s) and my previous preferred settings. So along with the firmware update, I also updated the settings in the HA to my preferred settings, which the audi has encouraged me to do - and I’ll have to make sure that she gets those settings the next time I visit her. So between the firmware update and switching to my preferred HA settings, it’s hard for me to tell if anything significant has changed just because of the firmware update. I would follow Costco’s advice with your Prezas.
A new iOS update is out, iOS 14.7.1. Apple urges all users to apply it for security reasons. I’ve only had it on my phone for a few hours but besides whatever else it does, for me, on my old iPhone 6S, it seems to make the Smart 3D app more responsive, especially in connecting up with my ReSound Quattros.
Over several years both with Android and iOS what with HA firmware updates, ReSound Smart 3D updates, and phone OS updates, it’s been a bit up and down at times with how well the HA’s connect to the Smart 3D app, especially on initially launching the Smart 3D app. With going to the Quattro v1.20.1 firmware and iOS 14.7, things got especially bad, relatively. I was actually beginning to wonder if firmware v1.20.1 was intended for use in the U.S. since that firmware never came to me via the Smart 3D app, only through Smart Fit.
The one possible downside to iOS 14.7.1 vs. earlier iOS versions is that on a 50-min early morning walk Bluetooth streaming seemed a little less rock solid than it usually is for me. In the Smart 3D app at the bottom under the More tab, there is the option “Optimize MFi connection” and I don’t have that on (and almost always don’t). Having that option on in my experience makes the Smart 3D app’s connectivity with the HA’s less responsive in my experience. Maybe I should try that option again if BT warbling from time to time persists. So perhaps there is a tradeoff going on between the HA’s being involved in streaming and “talking” to the Smart 3D app and for me, at least, I have the possibly premature perception that the iOS 14.7.1 update has shifted the balance back a little more towards talking to the 3D app, perhaps to the slight detriment of streaming focus.
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Streaming on Android (Galaxy S10E) has been very up and down. At least 3 or 4 times a day, I lose the connection in one or both ears despite resetting the apps, clearing the cache, etc. Is the experience on iPhone any better?
What I was writing about wasn’t the function of my HA’s themselves. They’re almost always still working great and still streaming fine. But for what I was describing with iOS 14.7 and the latest firmware and 3D app is either the app was flaky showing that it’s connected to the HA’s, slow in finding the HA’s, or having found one HA, it doesn’t show it found the other, etc. So that’s what I find awesomely improved with the latest iOS 14.7.1.
Sometimes when outdoors walking I find I get a little warble in BT streaming going by a particular house, etc. So at times I’ve wondered whether that sort of things is EMI noise from someone’s overwhelming home electronics, e.g., (jokingly), the most powerful router in the world, etc. But it doesn’t always happen at any particular location on my walking route.
Glad to hear your streaming experience has been smooth on iPhone. I may end up switching to iPhone later in the year.
You might want to wait to see if the iPhone 2021 is going to have BT LE Audio capabilities. I don’t think I’ll upgrade either my Android phone or my iPhone until BT LE Audio comes out in smartphones. (I haven’t totally switched over to an iPhone because I like to write in script on my smartphone as a notepad and Apple doesn’t offer pen input to iPhone. Perhaps if Apple ever offers a pen option for its phones that works as well as the Apple Pencil or the S Pen I will go completely iPhone but not for now. GBoard works really well with my Galaxy Note 8 and S Pen).
@jim_lewis “Optimise for MFI connection” is really only helpful if you use more than one phone/tablet with the Quattros. What it does is disconnect the phone from the Quattros when there isn’t a reason to stay connected so they are free to connect to another device if you start Smart 3D on that.
If you use just one phone, then there are two disadvantages to using the MFI setting. Firstly the phone/app has to connect before you can do anything. This takes only a few seconds, but it is a few seconds, not instantly as it would be if the Quattros are connected normally. And secondly the hearing aid location won’t work because the phone can no longer say for sure when/where it lost contact with a hearing aid.
This second issue may not be a problem (eg I would immediately know if one of aids were to drop off my ear) but I’ve tried it and the extra delay on connecting is mighty annoying.
Hi, David. Even within the Smart 3D app, the first point listed for “Optimize MFi” is to improve the connection to optimize streaming stability - faciltating the switch between multiple iOS devices is listed as the second purpose. It’s hard to find an original ReSound description of “Optimize MFi” on the Resound Pro website but here’s quoted ReSound PR material from 2018 on the Hearing Tracker site on what “Optimize MFi” is all about. ReSound Smart 3D app "Optimize MFi"
Since both streaming audio and hearing aid control are through BT, it’s just my own experience when Optimize Mfi is in effect, the phone/HA pairing for streaming is getting more focus and the BT streaming related to app control is less responsive than with Optimize MFi OFF. The fact that ReSound has made the default setting for Optimize Mfi as “Off” perhaps is ReSound’s vote itself as to whether without audio streaming problems is Optimize MFi best left ON or OFF. My perceived problem is in the Smart 3D app’s responsiveness. Perhaps the ON setting for Optimize MFi also chews more phone/HA battery??? To my mind, that fact that Find My Hearing Aids no longer works is also an indication that more attention is being devoted to maintaining the audio streaming BT connection and less attention to anything else.
Well I don’t agree that this is the case at all:
It’s simply a reflection of the simple fact that if the app isn’t connected permanently to the aids, then it can’t be relied upon to say when connection with one of them is lost. This is electronics we are talking about, not some old person only able to think about one thing at a time! (I speak as an old person incidentally.)
Anyway give it a try but my own experience over a period of two years is that it’s best left off.
Best
David
@david.hendon. Not sure where the sudden need to advise me on Optimize MFi arises several posts above, but I have been leaving Optimize MFi off basically since I started using an iPhone in Nov. 2020 and even complained to and got a response from ReSound Smart 3D App Support on the behavior of Optimize MFi back then: Resound Hearing Aids & iPhone 12 Pro - Connection issues/static, only one working w/static etc. Another aspect that I’d forgotten about (since I don’t use Optimize MFi) is that it inhibits the use of the Apple Watch thru the Smart 3D app with ReSound HA’s - perhaps my main reason for not using Optimize MFi.
Since I’m not privvy to how Apple and ReSound make things works, my guess as to what’s going on is that the basic connection and control of MFi HA’s is through the Apple OS, e.g., you have to pair your MFi HA’s first to your iPhone directly through iOS, then again establish a connection with the Smart 3D app. So the Smart 3D app is basically an app piggybacked on top of the underlying iOS BT LE connection. So it would seem that Optimize MFi is basically turning off add-on things that the Smart 3D app is doing (Find My Hearing Aids, Apple Watch Control (mitigated thru the 3D app) to let the main backbone iOS MFi connection have the fullest possible throughput between HA’s and iPhone (otherwise, at some level you’re stealing processor cycles to do other stuff, pay attention to polling results from listeners, etc.). I did feel that I got better, clearer streaming audio when using Optimize MFi (placebo effect?) at the expense of Smart 3D app responsiveness. The number one hit in response to an Optimize MFi Bing search is the following hearing aid business site where the commentary seems to also imply that things are being turned off or downgraded in functionality in the 3D app to optimize the MFi connection, which comes out of iOS, not the 3D app per se. ReSound Smart 3D App Update - Optimize MFi Connection - Davidson Hearing Aid Centres (davidsonhearingaids.com)
Edit_Update: The Davidson Hearing Aid Centres page ends with a quote that’s directly out of the ReSound Smart 3D v.1.2.2 release notes as quoted by JordanK on 7/11 and also 7/18, 2018: Resound just updated their Smart 3D app
Optimize MFi connection is defaulted ‘Off’ in the app. If a patient reports connection or streaming issues, they may choose to turn this feature on. If the patient does not report any connection issues and desires the full benefit of Find my hearing aid the Optimize MFi connection should remain off.
The prime effect of patient concern described is that running the Smart 3D app with full app HA connectivity and full app performance enabled (including Find My and Sound Enhancer features) may interfere with MFi HA BT connectivity or HA streaming - nothing about concern for patient benefit in optimizing switching iOS devices - although that too is a benefit of going to Optimize MFi on, as mentioned earlier in the release notes.
I was reacting to this in your earlier post.
No I don’t think it’s doing that at all. Rather it’s that these things can’t work unless the connection between the HAs and the app is maintained constantly, but Optimise for MFI disconnects the HAs when the app isn’t in use to enable the app in another device to connect to the HAs without difficulty when that app is opened.
You can see this working and why it’s needed if you pair the HAs to two iPhone/iPad devices and try to move from one to another.
And you are correct that this setting wasn’t introduced for Quattros specifically. It came in one of the early updates to Smart 3D for use with LINX 3D HAs, which I was using at the time, which is why I remember that.
Anyway I don’t want to get into an argument about this! So let’s leave it there…
Actually, I think your first post starting a day ago (New Firmware Update for ReSound Quattro's) was reacting to one I made 13 days ago, the last previous post that I made in this thread mentioning MFi: New Firmware Update for ReSound Quattro's).
The thing about your comments is that you repeatedly mention switching between iOS devices as the primary reason for Optimize MFi. Whereas the first reason mentioned both within the 3D app and in ReSound’s pronouncements on the feature is to improve the connectivity and stability of BT streaming connections. Ease of switching between iOS devices is certainly part of the reason, too - the second reason given.
One interesting thing going on with the Smart 3D app is that I always run my iPhone in the Battery app’s “Low Power” mode. This is supposed to prohibit apps from running in the background and thereby improves the iPhone’s battery charge runtime. I have Optimize MFi off. Yet when I look in Settings, Battery, Battery Usage by App, I find in the last day or so the Smart 3D app has run for about 20 minutes. Only 2 min (10% of the time), has it been with the 3D app in the foreground. Even though the Low Power mode setting presumably curtails an app running in the background, 18min (90% of the time), the 3D app has been running in the background. In my iPhone ignorance, I presume background is any state in which the app is not in the foreground and occupying an active iPhone screen. So just as a little experiment, I think I’ll turn on Optimize MFi, continue on with my iPhone in Low Power Mode, and see what the Battery Usage by App says for the relative %'s of foreground and background activity allowed when optimizing the MFi connection. Then, if I really get ambitious, I can try the same comparisons for using/not using Optimize MFi with the Low Power mode off. The kicker to such as “experiment” is the results are sure to depend a bit on what my average usage of the Smart 3D app is for any given day - and it varies quite a bit for day-to-day use depending on whether I’m using the app to stream podcast, watch TV with the TV Streamer 2, suppress lawnmower noise, etc. But I’ll give it a shot and see if Optimize MFi has any influence on whether the Smart 3D app can run in the background at all, etc.
As I said before, let’s leave it there….
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Great that you’ve said all you want to say about Optimize MFi and want to stop chiming in about whatever comments I’ve made, David. Without involving you in any future comments on the subject, I’ll put any further observations on how Optimize MFi is working relative to my iPhone settings in a more appropriate thread, ReSound Smart 3D app "Optimize MFi", and stop commenting on the subject in this thread.
Couple of questions:
If you are a self-fitter (no audiologist login), is your Smart Fit getting firmware updates?
Same question, but about the phone app.
My RE561-DRWC is on 1.20.1.0 is that still current?
Yes absolutely, if there’s one available for your model, then you’ll get a notification in SmartFit informing you of this.
Sorry can’t tell you if those models are latest firmware or not.
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I’m very interested to read your comment about your Resound hearing aids having received several firmware updates.
How did you get these?
Did resound email you to say they were available?
Did a notification pop up in the Resound app or did your Audiologist tell you they were available and apply them for you?
I’ve had my Resound Linx Quattro 961 rechargeables for 3 years and to my knowledge have never received nor been notified of any updates.
How would I go about looking for them?
Regards
DaveF
