FCC Urges Apple to Protect Safety of Americans by Activating FM Radio Chip in iPhones [Updated]

[aolbites]

Maybe there is a way the Radio ca be enabled when an impending natural disaster is expected.

Could be used in unnatural disasters. Better to just enable it and have it available when needed. Otherwise, when a fertilizer plants blows up in TX, would Apple be liable if they had the on/off switch and didn't turn it on fast enough afterwards. I feel like it'd be too onerous to manage if that were the case.

 

[Cloudkicker]

Call me cynical -- & I am towards Apple -- but it seems to be a dog whistle TO Apple FROM the FCC to lobby them harder in money for them to drop it in order to keep the Apple Music cashcow fat. Think of it as "$10 million now is worth the price if it saves us $100 million in potential lost revnue" (I use a random numbers on both ends to make my point)

 

[Zaft]

Could be used in unnatural disasters. Better to just enable it and have it available when needed. Otherwise, when a fertilizer plants blows up in TX, would Apple be liable if they had the on/off switch and didn't turn it on fast enough afterwards. I feel like it'd be too onerous to manage if that were the case.

You're right, im just thinking Hurricanes and such but there are other things that can happen.

 

[now i see it]

FM radio on an iPhone kills the iTunes music store & Appe Music business model. Plain & simple.

 

[Jakeoster]

*IF* the fm receiver in the iPhone works just fine, then Apple should activate the dang thing. We deserve the phones full capabilities given that we paid for them.

If it’s a technical problem, then that’s different. However I think I remember the iPod Touch having an fm radio tuner but I could be wrong...

 

[BvizioN]

Completely agree. Apple should Enable it for safety precautions. For those living where Hurricanes are more Prevalent, this could be a useful tool when they need it most.

Just curious, is there any reasons Apple does not do this? I would personally never use radio on phones but if this is to save lives Apple should do it.

 

[mikosk]

http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-update-radio-2016-9
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/04/u-s-galaxy-s8-units-feature-an-unlocked-fm-radio-tuner.html

Verizon apparently blocks FM too, which makes sense because they want to sell you data. I hope the FCC is going after them as well since even if Apple enables it, I and any other Verizon customer are SOL.

But given this is a thing in the Android world, I would hope Apple would at least enable it. Then we can all complain about Verizon.

 

[mi7chy]

Here's what the built in radio app looks like on a $30 Moto G. Probably too expensive to implement on an iPhone.

 

[andiwm2003]

in case of an emergency the iPhone won't have good reception to begin with. On top of that you run out of battery in less than a few hours. If you live in a hurricane area it would be better to have a emergency radio with AM/FM and solar or dynamo independent charging of the electric grid. They cost 20 dollar on amazon and include a flashlight and some even allow you to charge your phone (not very efficiently but still...).

 

[marty11]

I'm not even sure why they decided to disable it in the first place.

App revenue from companies that charge you subscriptions to listen to content you can hear on FM/AM radio for free. They want to control the content everyone is exposed to and decide how much it will cost you.

 

[cult hero]

I love all the "FM is going to kill Apple Music" comments. Yeah. That's it. Because FM is exactly the same but for free. Oh wait, it's either commercial radio playing commercials and 10-song playlists with annoying DJs or public radio asking me to be a contributing member all the time. Yay?

Also, please see the comments about antennas. This isn't just a switch that's been turned off.

But hey, let's not let reality get in the way of inane theories.

If you live in a disaster area, crazy idea, but maybe you should have the right tools on hand. It's not like hurricanes generally just "appear".

 

[NT1440]

http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-update-radio-2016-9
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/04/u-s-galaxy-s8-units-feature-an-unlocked-fm-radio-tuner.html

Congratulations, two of the hundreds of android phones out there (the flagships no less, which is an extreme minority of Android usage) have FM chips enabled. Now how about the other 90+% of the user base?

 

[mi7chy]

in case of an emergency the iPhone won't have good reception to begin with. On top of that you run out of battery in less than a few hours. If you live in a hurricane area it would be better to have a emergency radio with AM/FM and solar or dynamo independent charging of the electric grid. They cost 20 dollar on amazon and include a flashlight and some even allow you to charge your phone (not very efficiently but still...).

You always have your phone with you but not this emergency radio.

 

[Mac 128]

One thing people don't understand about Ajit Pai. He is a very strong advocate for FREE TV and radio, which has been guaranteed in the US for like 75 years now. And he's a technology guy who's smart enough to realize there's no technical reason this functionality is not being enabled.

So he supports free TV and Radio, a dying medium, but wants to charge for internet access to the next generation?

 

[69Mustang]

Congratulations, two of the hundreds of android phones out there (the flagships no less, which is an extreme minority of Android usage) have FM chips enabled. Now how about the other 90+% of the user base?

Just gonna leave this here for the other 90%.
https://www.slashgear.com/does-my-phone-have-fm-radio-inside-09471304/

 

[aolbites]

Congratulations, two of the hundreds of android phones out there (the flagships no less, which is an extreme minority of Android usage) have FM chips enabled. Now how about the other 90+% of the user base?

per the article, 6% of those with FM turned off are android or some other tech, 94% are iphones.

 

[andiwm2003]

You always have your phone with you but not this emergency radio.

hurricanes are announced weeks.

I'm not against activating the FM chip, to the contrary. I would like to have it for NPR or whatever.

I'm just against the false sense of security they promise and I think it's a PR gimmick to sound smart. If you were in Puerto Rico by now your battery would be dead and you would not have FM reception through your phone.

 

[seatton]

I miss my old Nokia phone that I could listen to my favorite FM station.

 

[aolbites]

hurricanes are announced weeks.

I'm not against activating the FM chip, to the contrary. I would like to have it for NPR or whatever.

I'm just against the false sense of security they promise and I think it's a PR gimmick to sound smart. If you were in Puerto Rico by now your battery would be dead and you would not have FM reception through your phone.

True, but it likely wouldn't be dead in the hours following a major disaster, which is when information is needed most urgently. After that, most people have been able to get to a safe place and are likely not in need of the emergency information. Better to have that information for an hour or two than to lose it as soon as the cell towers go down.

 

[VulchR]

in case of an emergency the iPhone won't have good reception to begin with. On top of that you run out of battery in less than a few hours. If you live in a hurricane area it would be better to have a emergency radio with AM/FM and solar or dynamo independent charging of the electric grid. They cost 20 dollar on amazon and include a flashlight and some even allow you to charge your phone (not very efficiently but still...).

Radio masts need not be connected in a network like the mobile phone masts are. Perhaps somebody has actual evidence on this point, but I would imagine it is easier in an emergency to keep one radio station going, with it's single mast, than a mobile phone network covering the comparable area. It just seems a waste of money, electricity, and metal to buy a separate radio if a chip on the phone can do the job at little cost. Now, if the cost is high, then Apple should respond by explaining why this is the case.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the FCC approves communication devices for sale in the US - surely they could take into account the utility of the devices in an emergency when making the decision....
[doublepost=1506620054][/doublepost]

True, but it likely wouldn't be dead in the hours following a major disaster, which is when information is needed most urgently. After that, most people have been able to get to a safe place and are likely not in need of the emergency information. Better to have that information for an hour or two than to lose it as soon as the cell towers go down.

And there are solar chargers and many people carry top-up external batteries or battery cases to charge their phones.

 

[gbc204]

This seems like a good idea, but the fact that it's Ajit Pai calling for it makes me wonder....

 

[simonds79]

Or you could just buy an FM radio that will last for days on batteries, as opposed to using your phone which will last for hours.

In an emergency disaster situation, it is far more likely that a displaced person would have their phone with them, rather than think to grab some radio they stashed away. Instead of sheeping behind every move Apple makes, I'd rather rally for a feature that could possibly save a life.

 

[VulchR]

FM radio on an iPhone kills the iTunes music store & Appe Music business model. Plain & simple.

You've obviously not listened to radio in the UK. It's awful with respect to music....

 

[Tork]

Yeah, not sure why only some people are getting this. They can’t enable it because there is no antenna! FM requires a long antenna (the headphone wire) and there’s no headphone jack. I’d be really surprised if it’s possible to use a non-analog port (lightning) to pick up FM transmissions in the same way using lightning EarPods. Try removing the antenna wire or stick from a radio — instant static.

 

[jkichline]

Why would anyone argue against adding a FREE new feature, that cannot hurt, but can only help save lives?
This feature ALREADY is built into every iPhone ever made, the impact on battery life should be minimal, as there is no transmission.

No it's not built into the phone. There's a tiny chip onboard that's an FM receiver. Period. You still need to have an antenna hooked up to it and have logic run to the chip to control the frequency, etc. Not to mention other signal processing you may want to add.

You people OBVIOUSLY don't understand wireless needs antennas. Did you ever notice that your car has a big, honkin' antenna on the front of it? It's about 3 feet long? Maybe your car's is shorter, but you may notice the wire wraps around the core of the antenna. That's because an FM antenna MUST be a certain size to be effective.

FM radio operates between 2.78 to 3.41 meters (that's the size of the radio wave). Ideally, the antenna would be approximately 3 meters long. However you can half or quarter that antenna to approximately 75 cm (quarter). That's why most FM antennas are that long or are telescopic.

In comparison, cellular operates at much higher frequencies. This means the antenna can be (and must be) shorter. For instance, if you are running cellular around 1 Ghz or less, the antenna length becomes 7.5-9.0 cm in length. This can easily fit inside of the enclosure of a cell phone.

So your only hope is an external antenna. At that point, you need to connect it to a port (like say a headphone jack) and have enough UNSHIELDED wire to for an antenna. Again, you need about 75 cm. This causes issues with radio transmission, shielding from external electrical interference during regular listening, etc.

So... while there's a tiny chip in the phone, it by no means contains all the parts to have an FM radio. Apple would need to reengineer much of the phone and included headphones.

To put out the most obvious question... Why? Why is it so important to have FM when you ALREADY HAVE CELLULAR? You can accomplish the same types of things. Cellular text alerts and warnings for instance. The only real benefit to FM is that you can have a larger antenna that carries for a longer distance. But still, if an antenna blows over, it blows over. If the FM antenna does, you lose 100% of coverage. Cellular by its very nature, is mesh. That means even if one tower is damaged, another could still work. It's more resilient for that reason.

I just don't see the point. Go out and buy yourself a $5 FM radio receiver if you are facing a hurricane. Or better yet, have the government buy everyone one... oh wait, that's right. The government doesn't want to be the government any more, only outsource it to the highest bidder...