I may make some changes with the volume button handling, but Apple certainly doesn't make it easy to process volume changes. I am registering for notifications in the app to receive the volume press notifications, and I rely on the MPVolumeView class from Apple to receive the volume change. That's not code I really have control over though. This is handled in a much easier fashion on Android. I don't think I can prevent the volume control from being displayed when the volume button is pressed.
Mike
Mike