Hi Alex and Grant, I also have this issue on my iPhone 4S with iOS 6 and you are correct, Grant, this was not a problem in iOS 5 and apparently it affects only a relatively small number of iOS 6 users right now. I had a pretty comprehensive email exchange with Apple Accessibility about this since I consider it a very annoying and important bug. I was told to try and switch off SIRI as apparently this is caused by something else using the audio on your iPhone. When I did turn off SIRI and made a speakerphone call to my credit card inquiry line at first there seemed to be little difference except that I seemed to be able to turn the call volume down way lower than before when pressing the volume down button during a call only lowered the volume slightly. However even with volume set to 100% using the rotor VO came out very quietly. I then turned the volume way up with the volume buttons and suddenly Voiceover came out loud if not exactly clear and it seems to fluctuate a lot for me when I press different numbers. Some are loud and clear and others are not so loud and a bit fuzzy. I then turned SIRI back on and experienced the same behavior. I reported this all back to Apple and was told in a reply that they are investigating this. Overall after I urned off SIRI and then turned it back on I can use the speakerphone a bit better, I just have to turn the volume up fairly loud with the volume buttons. I know VO volume is supposed to be independent from call volume and I can't do this if I am anywhere near people, but it's at least a bit better now and anybody who has problems with this please try turning up the call volume when on speakerphone, make sure you don't cover the top fo the phone with your hand as this causes the call to switch back to earpiece. I'd suggest you try it first before you turn off SIRI, but if it doesn't make a difference turn off SIRI and try it, then turn it back on and by all means, do report this to [email protected] so they get a better understanding of the scope of this. For those who are interested in hearing it from the horse's mouth, here is part of the email thread:
Message from Apple: Hello, Sieghard, Your response clarifies that you are accessing the features correctly. The Viphone site confirms that you are not the only 4/4s user experiencing this behavior... and also that you are acting as spokesperson for several of these, which we appreciate. All details from your reply have been forwarded to the team investigating this issue. It is possible that you will be asked for some specific information about what's on your phone, or details of how it is configured; because the number of 4/4s owners affected by this behavior in iOS 6 is small, it is possible that the behavior is related to something else installed on your phone, or an unexpected combination of configurations. You may discover common threads of this nature while discussing the problem with others; the things that would be most likely to be involved would be things that use the iPhone's audio and speech generation subsystems. either specialized or relatively uncommon software add-ons, or something in the way you and others have configured settings that would be different than that 'normal' or most obvious ways. So if anything of this sort comes to your attention, it may help our team to hear of it. So far, no one on the team has been able to reproduce the problem, using equipment that has no additional software installed. We'll let you know if we have additional questions, or if a possible workaround needs testing; because we cannot reproduce the problem, we may in future ask you to try one thing or another. For now, there is no need to reply unless additional information comes to light; we will be back in touch when appropriate. Thank you. Apple Accessibility Message 2: Sieghard, Something I may not have asked, that could be a factor: do you have other assistive software that uses the speaker turned on? Siri, perhaps, or other software you've added to your iPhone that speaks or gives audio prompts while you are using the phone? Thanks, Apple Accessibility My reply: Hello, I do use and have always used SIRI from day 1. However, in iOS 5 the volume problem did not exist. I can't think of anything else I use and in any case, I did do a factory restore a few days after I upgraded to iOS 6 as I had a few other minor issues and I setup my phone as a new phone. I had this volume issue with calls even before I installed a single third-party app after my restore so I don't think this would be the problem. Regards, Sieghard Apple's reply: Hello again, Sieghard, Thanks for the quick response. Siri counts as a possible component of the problem, even though it's ours, and even though it works great, and predates iOS 6. ANYTHING that uses the sound subsystems is of interest. Because most iOS 6 owners seem not to have observed this problem (whether it's because they haven't noticed, or haven't experienced it, we have no way of knowing), it would be helpful if you could turn Siri off, for long enough to see if that makes a difference in the VoiceOver-Speakerphone behavior. We don't want you to live without Siri, of course, but there have been some indications that Siri and VO in iOS 6 when used together may not always behave as they did in iOS 5. Could you give SpeakerPhone and VO a try without Siri, please, and let us know if it makes a difference? Thanks again Apple Accessibility My report: Hello, I followed your instructions and turned SIRI off. I then cleared the app switcher (force quit all apps) and rebooted my phone. After that I called my credit card company and I discovered that at first there was no difference, e.g. I could turn the call volume down and it seems maybe I could turn it down lower than before. However, turning the rotor volume for Voiceover up to 100% still made Voiceover speak very quietly. I then turned up the call volume very loud and suddenly Voiceover also came out relatively loud over the speakerphone. This of course should not be linked and there is a lot of inconsistancy in that when I enter numbers some are spoken very loud and some are spoken a lot quieter, as I entered my 16-digit Mastercard number the volume fluctuated for different numbers. I then turned SIRI back on and as long as I turn the call volume up to quite loud Voiceover still came out of the speakerphone quite loud, but still with those same variations. It seems there is now no difference from when SIRI was off although it almost seems to me that turning SIRI off and on made some difference. In short, I now realized that I can use the speakerphone better if I turn it up very loud, of course I can only do this when I am not somewhere people are near and while there seems to be a bit of improvement the ability to adjust the call volume relative to the Voiceover volume still seems to be a lot worse than it was in iOS 5. Hopefully a solution for this can be found so that this works in a more stabil and smooth way again in a future update. Regards, Sieghard Apple's final message at this point: Sieghard, That was such a wonderfully objective and precise account that I forwarded it to the team verbatim. I will let you know if there's anything else we might want you to try. Apple Accessibility -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en.
