Apple Faces Renewed Pressure to Enable FM Radio Chip in iPhones Amid Strong Hurricane Season [Updated]

[dwig]

...

It wasn’t perfect, and required a wired antenna (in the form of headphones), so it would have limited use in a phone situation with everything going wireless and no headphone jack.

This is a significant point. The lower frequency (~0.1 ghz) of FM broadcast, compared to WiFi (2.4 & 5.0 ghz) and cellular frequencies, makes a longer antenna a requirement. Without a wired headphone, where the headphone wire can be used for the FM antenna, enabling FM radio is a non-starter.

 

[elvislives]

Come on Timmy! Turn it on!

 

[NightFox]

Update: FCC chairman Ajit Pai has issued a statement that directly calls on Apple to "step up to the plate and put the safety of the American people first"

Or how about putting the safety of all people, irrespective of nationality, first?

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

...or you know...walk down to the local Walmart and pick up a battery powered AM/FM radio for $10.

Apple isn't your keeper.

 

[Maury]

oops

 

[loekf]

Do any of these technical nitwits understand that for a FM antenna you need at least 75 cm ? Good luck with your iPhone 7, 8, X without a 3.5" jack plug.

And no... producing iPhones with a Broadcom WIFI/BT chipsets which includes a FM receiver does not mean that you can automagically turn on FM reception.

I had expected more of the Macrumors editors.

 

[NightFox]

Waiting for Apple to enable this. In conjunction with their release of a $35 co-axial to Lightning adapter.

 

[gnipgnop]

Can you still buy a dedicated FM radio for cheap in the U.S.? If so, problem solved.

 

[Slidemonster]

I laugh at the people who think that enabling the FM receiver would cut into Apple Music revenues. lol, the whole reason people got Apple Music is because its not radio! You Apple haters always hate on Apple because they give you no choice, well that's what FM radio is. You listen to their playlist and their commercials. lol, no thanks.

Totally Agree. The benefit of FM is for the purpose of local news and announceme

An FM wavelength is huge compared to a digital LTE wavelength. On Samsung phones, it uses the headphone wire to act as an antenna. How would Apple do that on their jack free iPhones?

You bring up great point which I failed to consider regarding the newest phones. Do the newer models have a metal band around the phone and if so, I wonder if this would be enough to act as an antenna at least for short range FM?

 

[Smith288]

Or how about putting the safety of all people, irrespective of nationality, first?

He's speaking specifically on behalf of Americans being the FCC commissioner.

*there's always one...*

 

[newellj]

This would be a great idea, and I find it puzzling Apple has kept this feature disabled. There have been numerous times when listening to FM was preferable over streaming. And not even emergencies.

Apple — this very discussion shows there's great interest in this idea. Do it.

How many here have owned and used a Nano with FM? The second biggest issue is that battery life truly sucks. But the big issue is this (see below). There's no internal antenna...you have to use wired headphones, which many people don't like to do (many iPhone owners probably don't know where their headphones are), and even if you can find your wired headphones, it means only one person can listen at a time, which is not always what you want in an emergency.

I have never understood why this was not done a long time ago. Tuners in Phones was a standard practice at one time and made a lot of sense both for when no data link was available, in emergency situations as outlined above and generally for saving data bandwidth. The headphone on these phones always acted as the arial so not sure how this would be handled today in the Apple world where the headset has been removed.

yeah this - all the phones I've ever used that had FM radios (mostly old Nokias back in the day) required headphones to be connected to act as the antenna. I suppose Apple could support with the lightning dongle but may be an issue

 

[randyhudson]

Where do I go to buy stock in Apple not doing this by end of 2018? Any prediction markets that dumb?

 

[Slidemonster]

Can you still buy a dedicated FM radio for cheap in the U.S.? If so, problem solved.

True, but it sure would be nice to have your camera, phone, GPS, and FM radio (for local announcements/news) built into one device that fits into your pocket, instead of having to carry around multiple devices.

 

[newellj]

Do any of these technical nitwits understand that for a FM antenna you need at least 75 cm ? Good luck with your iPhone 7, 8, X without a 3.5" jack plug.

And no... producing iPhones with a Broadcom WIFI/BT chipsets which includes a FM receiver does not mean that you can automagically turn on FM reception.

I had expected more of the Macrumors editors.

I've owned two devices (iPod, cellphone) that had FM capability. The wired headphones are sorta/kinda OK, but just OK.

If you think about it, you realize that a bad antenna is going to seriously limit FM reception, which is already pretty local, and in the case of the disasters that Mr. FCC Chair is bleeding and bleating about, there's a very good chance that the local FM stations that he is imagining people could receive are, in fact, off the air due to power issues or damage/destruction involving their transmit facilities.

So... :eye roll:

 

[bsimpsen]

IMO, the conspiracy theorists that believe "the ability to access free content over the air, like music on FM radio stations...is a key reason why Apple hasn't enabled the functionality" are wrong. The are various apps (some free with ads) that will stream any of thousands of radio stations. So it's not the access to free content that's influencing the decision.

I seem to recall in a prior mention of the topic something to the effect that the antenna systems were not specifically designed to include support for FM radio, and that reception would probably often fail to meet expectations. Could additional antennas be added? Probably. Do enough people want over-the-air FM enough to pay more, or give up some other functionality for it, or have a clunkier form factor?

That having been said, the minimum useful response would be a reasonably candid explanation of why they haven't already done it.

edit: to further that notion, there used to be an FM plugin for iPods, although ISTR it was only supported on the classic. I think it used its cable as an antenna. As I recall, the reception was ok if the signal was strong, but not all that useful in the boonies or near a power line.

The FM radio band occupies 88-108MHz. The lowest frequency cellular band supported in iPhones is 800MHz. The entire body of an iPhone is used as the cellular antenna. To achieve the same antenna gain at 1/8th the frequency would require an antenna eight times the length. That's why the iPod Nano used the headphone cable as its FM antenna. Reception with an internal FM antenna would be abysmal. It would be possible to use the charging cable as an antenna, but that's an ugly solution. Headphones were a necessity to use the iPod Nano, a charging cable is not a necessity for use of an iPhone.

I have a pair of hearing protectors with built in FM radio and six inch stub antenna. While my car radio is able to pick up several dozen FM stations in my suburban neighborhood, that headset can pick up only four and they're all iffy. If you take them off, they don't receive anything as they use the wearer's body as "ground". I suspect the same problem would require users to hold their iPhones while dangling the power cord free of their bodies to get good FM reception.

 

[newellj]

On reflection, the fact that a senior administration official from a technological agency is bleating about an issue that is so completely constrained by technological limitations while the administration can't get so much as a loaf of bread or a case of bottled water to Puerto Rico is Actually Outrageous (tm). This is bread and circuses, pure and simple.

 

[javiN]

I don't understand this requirement from FCC. Apple and all Android devices have built-in a system for receive emergency and AMBER alerts from mobile networks: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202743
This kind of radio-diffusion is like Radio FM (broadcasting in one way), but with data using the mobile network.
This statement looks like a form of strategy of lobbing from NAB.

 

[tjuagut]

Well, no... Samsung has their FM functionality readily available, and I believe all US carrier variants since the S6 have their FM radios unlocked. See attachment-- I'm getting FM channels on my S8.

Screenshots from on air radio? That is a app what also possible is on a iPhone.

 

[840quadra]

This is a significant point. The lower frequency (~0.1 ghz) of FM broadcast, compared to WiFi (2.4 & 5.0 ghz) and cellular frequencies, makes a longer antenna a requirement. Without a wired headphone, where the headphone wire can be used for the FM antenna, enabling FM radio is a non-starter.

Not exactly a non-starter. These devices have a lightning port, and, most MFI Lightning cables are shielded. The wire mesh providing that shielding and resilience could also act as an antenna.

With regards to FM, it takes roughly 26 -38 inches to achieve a true ¼ wavelength antenna. Strictly speaking, anything longer or shorter isn’t ideal. Since headphones fall into a wide range of lengths, that aren’t ideal, iPods and other devices are already at a disadvantage with regards to antenna attenuation.

That said, Many of us have had one of those baby boombox radios, or clock radios with short wire antennas that fell far short of the sweet spot. While not stellar, those devices could receive signals well enough to hear something as simple as NPR or a weather report. Stepping back to the iPod Nano, a 3 - 6 inch 3.5mm Line-In cable would provide plenty of signal for that device in my use. In fact, I still have one in my garage with a 6-inch cable that feeds audio (often FM Radio) to a set of Audioengine powered speakers.

As an aside,
I don’t expect Apple to be able to add software to older phones, as, I am sure the devices don’t have a physical connection to the FM receiver portion of the chipset.

I don't understand this requirement from FCC. Apple and all Android devices have built-in a system for receive emergency and AMBER alerts from mobile networks: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202743
This kind of radio-diffusion is like Radio FM (broadcasting in one way), but with data using the mobile network.
This statements looks like a form of strategy of lobbing from NAB.

FM / AM can travel farther distances than cellular. In the event of a disaster the distance is important, as you can receive at a distance furthar than the (likely) destroyed cellular towers nearby. Also, FM stations tend to have their own emergency power sources, where that is less likely in a cellular grid.

 

[mi7chy]

Profit is more important than people's well being so doubtful it's going to happen unless they make it a law.

 

[NIKKG]

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...

I was surprised today, but I just found out my Note 8 also have FM radio that works, you just got to install the app NextRadio and it plays the radio even if disable data and wifi. You just need to put on the headphones so it can capture the signal, but you can also have it output through the phones speaker. I think the S8 and S8+ also support it when I was reading about it on XDA.

 

[MH01]

TuneIn and iHeart apps don’t require purchase. Try again.

Try again. WIFI..... you are missing the point of this thread. TuneIn Offers in app purchases which makes your point mute, assume the other app also does.
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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...

Sorry incorrect.

Nextradio, will allow radio playback on the S8 without cellular or WIFI.

Situation is not at all the same. There is no way to enable to FM radio on apple devices, and for apps that do offer radio, it's actually over WIfI or cellular so never use the FM function which is disabled on purpose.

http://nextradioapp.com/supported-devices/

The big difference is other major manafactures do not disable the FM like apple does

 

[C DM]

Profit is more important than people's well being so doubtful it's going to happen unless they make it a law.

Not that there could be plenty of other things in play aside from profit.

 

[javiN]

FM / AM can travel farther distances than cellular. In the event of a disaster the distance is important, as you can receive at a distance furthar than the (likely) destroyed cellular towers nearby. Also, FM stations tend to have their own emergency power sources, where that is less likely in a cellular grid.

You are right, but I don't think the implementation in Apple will be as easy as pushing an update. So Apple could collaborate with the local authorities to improve the system already implemented.

 

[HarryWild]

Apple number one goal is to maximize profit! That means keep minimum RAM, low resolution screens and maximizing data use for all Apple mobile devices through apps exclusively! Having storage to be like 64GB as base model and have 4K video camera so that people know that 256GB is the only choice since no 128GB! LOL!