The problem for me is the bluetooth - it constantly disconnects from the iphone.

This is a FORD problem. My iphone works great via bluetooth in all my other cars....

 

Can you tell a difference in audio quality when listening over Bluetooth compared to USB?

It’s nice to know SYNC can be updated. The iPhone interface in my car broke when I went to iOS 4.0.

 

i discovered that my iphone 4, when upgrading to iOS 4.2.1, does not upgrade its baseband for wireless communications. this caused me no end of dropped connections with my bluetooth headset.

so what i did was to backup my iphone in itunes and then do a factory restore. you're going to have to re-setup the phone as a new device and re-sync apps and media. it can be painful and take a few hours depending on how many apps, etc. that you have.

however this fixed my headset problem. i then re-paired my phone with my SYNC (since it had a new device name) and my strange intermittent connection drop was also fixed. i had done a re-pair before with no results, so i credit the factory restore and its effect of installing the new baseband software to fixing my problem.

 

Then just turn off the blue tooth connection and use the device via USB and you will have full control. A cheap alternative is to just get a 8GB USB thumb drive and put your music on there. You will be able to fully control your music with the steering wheel controls and voice control and you can use your phone as normal via Blue tooth.

Before I read any further suggestions, I hope I didn't answer to soon. It seems that there is no system problem here. I hope I am wrong.

 

+1 This was how I setup my car when I first got it so I haven't experienced any issues. I got a 16GB thumbdrive on amazon for $25.

 

I found what is arguably the world's smallest flash drive on Amazon for only $3.99:

I put a 16GB micro SDHC card in it and it holds all my music. I mention it because it is so small, you can leave it plugged into the USB slot in the console and not worry about damaging it because it doesn't stick out (only the little handle at the bottom of the right side picture sticks out).

 

I was curious, when you leave the flash drive plugged in, does it stop when you shut the ignition off? I noticed mine stayed active even after I shut the car down, so I have been pulling it out.

 

It will turn off once the door is opened.

 

I hate that the Iphone doesn't have the texting feature. Not even the brand new one. WTF?

 

The USB port remains powered even after the car is shut off and the door is opened so it can be used for charging phones and similar USB powered devices. But it does not stay active in terms of continuing to read data from a flash drive.

 

Thanks. I was concerned the flash drive would remain active and drain the battery while sitting.

 

That's exactly what I'm doing. I had some drama also and can live without the frustration.