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springsup

macrumors 65816
Feb 14, 2013
1,216
1,199
Pai noted that he is a believer in free markets and the rule of law, and he thereby cannot support a government mandate requiring activation of these chips, nor does he believe the FCC has the power to issue such a mandate.

What a moron. He says that radios are essential for public safety, and then implies that the "free market" should be allowed to decide? We don't allow cars on the road which do not pass minimum safety standards. The free market operates within the parameters set by society through their government.

These are people who absolutely do not understand the role of government. They loosely grasp a few basic things, like "no regulations", and pigheadedly follow it even when it makes no sense.

In this case, everybody appears to be in agreement that this feature is vital for public safety and incurs no cost to manufacturers (or minimal cost, to write the software to access the functionality they're already shipping). Why would you even run the risk that an non-professional consumer might buy a device without this important functionality?
 

HarryWild

macrumors 68020
Oct 27, 2012
2,042
710
I think there is more to it than just enabling it. The antenna would likely involve some extra engineering effort. Some devices historically have taken advantage of the headphones, which don't exist on the iphone anymore. Apple also cares about the user experience. They won't enable it if it's going to suck, which it likely would. Even the best FM antennas are pretty lousy.
:eek:
 

nebo1ss

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,903
1,695
Examples of "standard" practice and the multitude of phones with FM available? I've owned more than 100 models of cell phone over the years and only 1, from Sprint back in the early '00s, has had a FM receiver enabled.
well I have owned nothing like 100 phones, probably own maybe 20 phones over the years including models from Nokia and Motorola and others that included a radio receiver. It has long been fairly standard practice to include the electronics in the phone but often time the vendors choose not to implement it in US versions of their phone. That is why the iPhone has always had the electronics included in the chips but not implemented. It is actually difficult to build a phone without the electronics included.
 

laptech

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2013
3,538
3,866
Earth
Technology is not the problem. For decades there have been small devices specifically designed to pick up radio signals. Therefore re-designing old technology into new would be very straight forward. The biggest problem is Intellectual Property (IP). Somebody out there holds the IP for radio use in mobile/portable devices which would mean Apple having to pay a license to use that technology. This would cost Apple millions of dollars which would ultimately have a knock on effect on the price of the device.

Second biggest issue is streaming. To listen to the kind of material that radio produces you have to listen to streaming sites all accessed by apps from the official app store. Therefore does Apple have longstanding contracts with streamers with the proviso that Apple will not implement FM tuners in their devices.

If there was a financial advantage to having the FM tuners activated in the hardware already in use in the phones, Apple would have implemented it years ago. The fact they haven't means it's going to be a costly exercise to use FM tuners. My betting is on the use of IP
 
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anthogag

macrumors 68020
Jan 15, 2015
2,100
3,471
Canada
I have this feature in my BlackBerry 10 Passport. I often use FM because hearing people talk between music tracks is often better than listening to curated lists from Radio Tunes, Jazz Radio, Apple Music, Spotify, etc.

Apple should enable this feature. FM won't compete too much with Apple Music because FM still has issues like hearing static when you're in a building.
 

cheesyfox

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2017
8
10
Hartford, CT
I have very little reason to believe that FM would hurt apple music. Radio isn't on demand; Apple Music is. Radio has ads; Apple Music does not. The free market would fend for itself, and we would see some limited adoption of FM, but it would marginally decrease the subscription base for Apple Music. The point, Apple should enable it and allow for people to tap into the full functionality of their phone.
 

imronburgundy

macrumors regular
Nov 1, 2013
236
280
Pai noted that he is a believer in free markets and the rule of law, and he thereby cannot support a government mandate requiring activation of these chips, nor does he believe the FCC has the power to issue such a mandate.

That's rich. "I support a free market, as long as I can make the market work for my biggest donors."
 

RecentlyConverted

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2015
875
629
FM Radio might hurt Apple Music subscriptions, though. What to do...

Yes, it would cause TC a bit of a conflict. Try and maintain the image of an ethical company or try and protect the money? Probably will get some countries to have a common emergency FM frequency and the iPhone will be made to only get that frequency. So no choice for music. But you never know.
 

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,084
31,015
Apple has it disabled as they want to push you to purchase or stream music. And if you want radio, buy an app, they get a cut. Thier stance is very clear, take the action that results on $$$$$. A free FM radio ......no....not under Tim Cook
TuneIn and iHeart apps don’t require purchase. Try again.
 

gsurf123

macrumors 6502
Jun 1, 2017
463
820
This has more to do with NAB protecting their dying format by forcing it on us. I am not surprised by their stance as it is similar to them charging satellite and cable companies to rebroadcast the channels which are already broadcast over the air for free using licenses the government provided them for free. More onerous is the protectionism they exercise by specifically denying the satellite and cable companies to broadcast local channels from other markets. In effect we are forced to pay for local channels, but cannot buy local channels from another market. Where I live the local networks are crap. I'd prefer to have the Washington, DC or New York local channels. There monopoly will come to an end soon. TV as they know it is dying off and very few young people watch TV news as they have grown up watching the news blurbs they want on demand versus having to suffer through 30 minutes to get the one story that is of interest.

The safety argument (second only to "doing it for the kids") is commonly used as a half-reason to justify anything someone wants to have their way. If you are going to depend on an FM radio with a battery you cannot recharge for safety updates then you are out of your mind. Just get a cheap FM radio that takes a 9V battery and keep it in the house with a few extra batteries. It will last for several days of continuous use on one battery, which is what you will need in order to here the warnings/messages that are intermingled with the rest of the crappy music, idle banter, commercials and attempts at laughter that have sucked the life out of FM radio. Or better yet, just move to a safer place and take responsibility for yourself.

Apple makes a commercial product and it is their decision what functionality for it to have based on what they perceive the consumers want. We do not want the government deciding what "features" our electronics have. 911 is the only government functionality mandate we need.
 
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anthdci

macrumors 6502a
Jun 8, 2009
664
265
i want it purely for listening to local football (soccer) commentary. I can get the same free to air stations via the various online radio apps, but their licensing doesn't allow commentary broadcasting over the internet, only over local FM radio. I've been saying it since I got my first iPhone knowing there was the chip inside to do it, but no actual antenna.
 

thisisnotmyname

macrumors 68020
Oct 22, 2014
2,438
5,251
known but velocity indeterminate
Article title should be changed to "NAB Begs for Relevance."

edit: the telegraph could be an important method of communication in "emergencies" if an EMP takes out all our electronic communications systems. Pony express could be critical if all mechanized transportation is ever destroyed in a catastrophic event. I'll be writing my legislators to lobby... err, I mean encourage... them on these important safe guards.
 
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JRobinsonJr

macrumors 6502a
Aug 20, 2015
667
1,205
Arlington, Texas
Has there been any evidence of the iPhone containing an FM receiver? Internationally devices that contain Fm receivers have been locked in the us, however there is no iPhone model with fm receiver listed as a function internationally. It sounds like this article has no foundation on the truth of the hardware, unless somewhere it is cited that iPhones DO have a hidden receiver crammed in there, and even then it seems strange that it has never been found or jailbroken into use.

If I've read the article correctly, the premise is that both the Qualcomm and Intel wireless chips that handle WiFi and Cellular already have built-in FM tuners. It's just a function of engineering the necessary antenna and writing an app.
 

Michael Goff

Suspended
Jul 5, 2012
13,329
7,421
Remove Apple from this article and replace it with Samsung and it’s the same.

Don’t just single out the larger company for media recognition, National Broadcast Service...

Not really. I have to just download a radio app and it can use the FM radio in my Note8. Same with a lot of Android phones.
 
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b11051973

macrumors 6502
Apr 8, 2006
426
543
In the past, I didn't really care. I have FM radio in my car, but use it maybe once a year. So, I don't care about having FM on my phone. This emergency situation really has changed my mind. If the hardware is already there, just enable it Apple. The fact that I have FM in my car and never use it shows that people are still willing, and maybe just prefer, paid/free streaming, podcasts, etc... over FM radio. So, Apple can still make money selling their online services.
 
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lunarworks

macrumors 68000
Jun 17, 2003
1,972
5,213
Toronto, Canada
I think there is more to it than just enabling it. The antenna would likely involve some extra engineering effort. Some devices historically have taken advantage of the headphones, which don't exist on the iphone anymore. Apple also cares about the user experience. They won't enable it if it's going to suck, which it likely would. Even the best FM antennas are pretty lousy.
This is exactly it. The chip may have FM capabilities, but it's not going to do jack unless it's wired to an antenna.

My old Nokia, and the iPod Nano, had the chip wired to the headphone jack so it could use the headphone cable as an antenna, but that's kinda not gonna work with their current setup.
 
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