Comment 5 for bug 948613

No, there is still the need to be paired with a device for the device to be activated (i.e. not idle, drawing more power than if it's normally enabled but not paired with anything).

This is just a change to the profiles that are seen by other devices as available on the system; so that the system will then also appear as a headset capable of stereo.

There's a slight catch to it though: if the external device has bluetooth enabled and the pairing was previously done, the device might try to automatically pair again with the system. This will enable a connection and potentially use more power. I've tested this with my own Android phone; I unfortunately don't have an iPhone to test this with (but it's a valid test).