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Dear Ajit Pai,

The way you get companies to do things for the public good is to REGULATE THEM using YOUR GOVERNMENT-GRANTED POWER to do so. You are the head of the damn FCC, so if you want them to do it, make them! Groveling like a baby does not make companies do things voluntarily.

Signed,
The Taxpayers who want you to do your job and stop being an industry stooge.

I'd rather the government was an industry stooge, than that any private entity whether corporate or individual, was a government stooge.
 
they do not want to do this because they want every last penny from the music subscription they have going. They even made the free radio through itunes to be now a part of the paid music subscription..... They will never enable the fm even if that meant loosing one paid music subscription cancelling and listening to free music.

Apple can shout all day long that they care about the customer, and everything revolves around customer (BS everything revolves around maximizing profit). They are simply in this just like all the rest in the business industry to make as much $$$$$ as possible.

I don’t think this is the case on this instance but a business trying to maximise profit? Well DUH!
 
Even if the present chipset has FM capability, without a suitable antenna (and connection, if that's separate), the reception would be almost useless. There used to be a dongle FM receiver for the iPod classic; it was OK but only under good reception conditions, even probably using the cable between iPod and dongle as an antenna too. Likewise, there would have to be an iOS driver, the ability to tune, switch the audio (digital or analog?? forget the latter) to where it could be played through earphones or loudspeaker, and an app to make the controls available to the user. Neither the additional hardware nor the software exist. And quite aside from Apple Music etc, the additional functionality would be one more tradeoff vs other features in slim and elegant packaging. If it's that necessary, people should have a small portable AM/FM/weather radio at home, and check the batteries regularly. In places with frequent extreme weather, they should probably have two or three of them, keep one in the vehicle, one at home, and the adults should carry one; and places of employment should have procedures in place (as Waffle House is famous for) to be very aware of conditions and how they need to respond to meet their goals with due concern for the safety of employees and customers.

Emergency vehicles and fire stations can have public address systems, too, and the latter probably have generators. All those and more were possible before pocket-size cell phones even existed. Town criers or some such could keep the populace informed before there were electronics. The real problem is that preparedness is pathetic for most individuals and too much local government (Puerto Rico, New Orleans, as memorable examples), and everybody acts like it's someone else's problem.
 
Why would Apple want to incorporate an 80yo technology of FM into there smart phone, do any other phone makers have that feature any more?
Because it shouldn't compare itself to grey mediocrisy (and reward users doing so)
 
It is Apple's fault if they did not implement an ultra low power mode like Samsung.

you might want to check your facts before posting. this option has been there for a while now.
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Dying industry wants disrupters to support their product.

Buggy whip manufacturer support group meets on Tuesdays.
I don't understand how anyone could object to a FM radio addition. Don't like it? don't use it and continue to subscribe to your "radio" safe in the knowledge you are a tech savvy "disrupter"

BTW how often does your play-lists include PSAs?
 
Good luck to hear any sort of digital radio via 3g or 4G during a football (for you americans, i mean soccer) match. it is nearly impossible to hear as too many people are using there 3G and 4G, since the speed of internet will be sluggish has hell.

While the FM, despite being a very old technology, it is something that nearly 60.000 people on the stadium can hear, without any problems.

FM technology is here to stay, either like or not.
 
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Radio is dead.

In the case of bushfire etc here in Victoria, Australia, the government now has a system that sends a message to every phone in a specified region.

Who needs radio?
 
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Good luck to hear any sort of digital radio via 3g or 4G during a football (for you americans, i mean soccer) match. it is nearly impossible to hear as too many people are using there 3G and 4G, since the speed of internet will be sluggish has hell.

While the FM, despite being a very old technology, it is something that nearly 60.000 people on the stadium can hear, without any problems.

FM technology is here to stay, either like or not.
If you're at the match why would you need to listen to digital radio instead of soaking up the experience of the event you've paid to see?

And I'm in the UK and love 5live Sport and that's a medium wave channel!
 
they do not want to do this because they want every last penny from the music subscription they have going. They even made the free radio through itunes to be now a part of the paid music subscription..... They will never enable the fm even if that meant loosing one paid music subscription cancelling and listening to free music.

Apple can shout all day long that they care about the customer, and everything revolves around customer (BS everything revolves around maximizing profit). They are simply in this just like all the rest in the business industry to make as much $$$$$ as possible.
Are you aware that Apple still supports free internet radio stations and podcasts on all their platforms. They usually get into markets to be able to either improve the experience or keep other companies from locking them out. They would prefer to just partner with companies for services like they did with Microsoft before they screwed them with Windows and Google before they screwed them with Android and started holding back features and updates to criple the partner that they turned on.
 
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Apple should also make changes to their product, at their expense, to support my struggling industry too!
You mean because Apple bought Beats Music in 2015 it never added FM features to other products after introducing it to the iPod nano in 2009? And all other smartphones without FM features don't have it because their manufacturers are owned by (or own) Spotify?
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Can’t they just make a cheap app and have similar function over 3G/LTE. Fm does not extend everywhere and it’s extremely limited in its functionality
The only point about adding FM (from the FCC, FEMA, etc.'s standpoint) is that FM works over significantly larger distance than cell towers and cannot get overloaded when too many people try to use it (because it is one-way only). Thus it can keep working when local cell towers are damaged or without power. From an emergency point of view, it is really just a worst case fallback solution.
 
If these agencies are really concerned about safety maybe they could encourage people to buy emergency radios. Or maybe offer discounts on emergency radios.
 
If a $69 BLU smartphone from Amazon has FM radio, Apple can certainly do it.

No one is asking for crystal quality FM audio, but having a radio is better than not.
What about shortwave radio? Or a police scanner? Or CB radio in general?
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If you stop and think what their point is, it's for emergency use. As in Katrina levels the entire LA/MS coast and took out cellular towers with it. There are still FM waves reaching the area. Everyone clings to their phone before they ever would a stand alone radio.

They can get safety and potentially life-saving updates from said iPhone w/FM chip.
Given how long phone batteries last these days, the window between cell towers going down and your phone running out of battery is relatively small. Any battery powered standalone FM radio will last way longer. If you are serious about making that window as useful and large as possible, you'd also asking for phones to get an emergency FM mode where power consumption is reduced to a minimum while only providing FM radio functionality.
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they do not want to do this because they want every last penny from the music subscription they have going. They even made the free radio through itunes to be now a part of the paid music subscription..... They will never enable the fm even if that meant loosing one paid music subscription cancelling and listening to free music.
I'm pretty sure that apple just wants its users to not get free music out of fm radio and they want customers to spend 10 dollars every month for apple music.
Sure, Apple didn't add FM features to the iPhone from 2007 through 2015, because they all along knew they would buy Beats Music in 2015. That is the only reason that can explain the lack of FM functionality over all those years.
 
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If I remember correctly the Nano used the headphone wire as an antenna for FM. There is no headphone jack anymore to receive analog FM signals with, so they would have to make a wired headset with circuitry to receive and convert FM signals to digital to be transferred over the lightning port. And will people really have wired headphones available in an emergency anyways given the popularity of wireless? Maybe now, but what about in 5 years?

I love a good pair of wired headphones, but the general public seem to prefer wireless.
 
I want a CB radio in my iPhone!

And heck -- while you're at it, give me a shortwave too!
Those can be very useful in an emergency as they are two-way and thus allow to send requests for help. Thinking about it, a satellite phone feature should also be built-in.
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Cook doesn't give a damn about anything other than profit margins
Which explains his outburst at the shareholder meeting a year or two ago when in response to a shareholder criticising the environmental efforts of Apple he said that if you wanted maximum profits you shouldn't invest in Apple stocks.
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I'm not sure what kind of crappy smartphone you bought.

Audio playback:
Up to 80 hours​
I highly doubt you can get 80 hours without going to airplane mode.
 
Does no one understand that for FM you need wired headphones to act as the antenna (as has been mentioned multiple times on this thread). Yes, maybe previous wireless chips in iPhones had the capability to demodulate FM signals, but you still need the signal before you can do anything.

Firstly, Apple is promoting a fully wireless world, so adding functionally that requires wired headphones would be completely nonsensical.

Secondly, I believe FM will die in the not too distant future - the only time I ever listen to the radio these days is when I’m in my car, and even then I prefer listening to my own streaming music or a streaming radio station. The reception is better and I have more choice. Developing worlds yes - FM will continue for years, but that’s not their primary target market. Maybe it would make sense on a device like the SE, but then their lineup would have a bit of an inconsistency.
 
FM radio at this point is basically like your spam inbox, due to companies like Clear Channel. It has nothing to do with promoting the arts or informing the public. It's pure junk.

That's BS now that there are several thousand new LPFM (Low Power FM) stations on the air all over the country; many of these are free-form stations that are way more fun and stimulating than the Clear Channel junk you think has taken over the airwaves.

If you want it for emergency use, the cellular network is doing fine for that.

Oh sure. When we had the quake out here the cellular networks, all of the carriers, collapsed in seconds. The FM and HD stations were the only way we could find out what was going on. My Motorola phone and my iPod Nano both have great FM apps.

Get rid of FM radio, and use that bandwidth for enhanced cellular service that can reach into buildings.

The FM band is 88-108 MHz in the US and is physically impractical for "cellular service that can reach into buildings" but it reaches into your bank account whenever you use it. FM and HD are free.
 
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I've no idea what the radio service is like in the USA but for me in the UK I would pay extra to NOT have that facility on my next iPhone!
Garbage, especially regional stations.
Isn't radio dead like newspapers anyway?

Well if you like listening to advertisement and non-sense with a touch of music thrown in the FM is for you.
[doublepost=1508409530][/doublepost]Next up a senator from Floridah will push a bill to force Apple to provide batteries that last 4 weeks with every iPhone sold.
 
Edit: perhaps my post is misleading. Sure the Broadcom chip may/may not have FM capabilities...only Apple can tell us for sure. Can it be enabled via an OTA software update? Nobody knows for sure. It's weird that Apple said the hardware was missing from the 7/8, only to magically admit it's there but possibly turned off. Tim being sneaky for no reason at all.

You guys do understand that the missing hardware element is not the chipset but the antennae? Everything prior 7 had the "antennae connector"... Yep, headphone cord is the antennae hardware that can't be attached to new iPhones.
 
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