5PM

Hello all...the easy solution to my problem is "buy a smartphone," but I'm not quite ready to completely admit defeat yet.

In my previous 2010 IS 250, which did not have ML but did have premium sound and nav, I was able to use my not-smartphone and my iPad 2 via Bluetooth, simultaneously. The system recognized the phone as a phone and the iPad as a portable media player and would connect to both devices at the same time. This worked slick.

Now...in my brand new 2013 GS F Sport w/ML, the same setup is not possible, because the system recognizes both the iPad and the phone as a phone/media player and won't connect to both at the same time.

One way to fix this would be to block the Bluetooth handsfree profile in the iPad, so the system would see it only as a media player and not as a phone...but unfortunately there is no jailbreak hack for IOS 6.1.3 and it might not work anyway, as the system also sees my 2009-era phone as a media player (no other Bluetooth-based system has ever done this) and there is no practical way to hack the phone.

This behavior seems like a step backward from the 2010 system; I suspect the iPad is now recognized as a phone thanks to the popularity of Skype and other VoIP apps. Skype works very well with the speakerphone system, but I need an actual cell phone. I've tried messing with all of the available options in the system; nothing changes its behavior.

I don't really expect to solve this except by abandoning my iPad for a smartphone, but I thought I'd run the issue past any BT experts that might hang out here. Any ideas, geniuses?

UPDATE: Hmm...about an hour after writing up the problem here, I somehow managed to get the 2010 setup working in the GS: phone as phone, iPad as portable music player. I'm not sure how I did it, but it proves that it's possible. However, with the two devices connected it's still impossible to run the app suite (Pandora, Yelp etc.) because the system looks for the Lexus Enform app on the device which is connected as a phone and so doesn't see it running on the iPad. Other streaming audio works fine. Looks like I'm buying a smartphone, as I really like the Pandora app in particular.

UPDATE #2: Over 175 views, not a single comment! Oh well...I bought an iPhone 5 and after a few miscues at first, it now works perfectly with the car system. Problem solved for $290.11 + a $30 monthly hit to my Verizon bill. They finally got me thanks to this car. Everyone on earth who wants and can afford one of these phones has one. With me, they are starting in on the folks who don't want one.