1. FM receiver to listen to the radio on the touch
2. FM transmitter to play the touch on a radio
3. Neither
4. Don't care
2. FM transmitter to play the touch on a radio
3. Neither
4. Don't care
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iPod touch Which would you rather have on the touch....
- Thread starter SuperDaddy
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Neither..
a) I havn't listened to the radio in years
b) any integrated FM transmitter would complicate regulator approval, require multiple builds for different regions, and make the unit bigger.
a) I havn't listened to the radio in years
b) any integrated FM transmitter would complicate regulator approval, require multiple builds for different regions, and make the unit bigger.
I'd go for the FM Transmitter... if it didnt make it any bigger.
Else if it it made it bigger, I'd rather not having it.
Else if it it made it bigger, I'd rather not having it.
I'd like an FM receiver. Sometimes you just get tired of the music you have on your iPod and it would be nice to be able to listen to something fresh. It would also let you hear certain songs that you may want to download to put on your iPod.
Neither, I would rather have support for AirTunes than either of these, and as far as I can tell, AirTunes could be supported by a software and shouldn't really require any new hardware. And in means of the radio transmitter, I bought an iPod so I wouldn't have to listen to the radio, and in means of of broadcasting a signal for cars to listen to it, my car has a tape deck which I threw a stereo-mini to tape converter in, which gives much better music quality than a FM transmitter could, and most new cars now (including my parents, I'm 16) have direct stereo-mini inputs.
A FM reciever would be nice but, considering the built in WiFi is based on similar technology, I can imagine a FM reciever draining the touch's batteries rather quickly.
Not necessarily true.
What makes WiFi drain the battery so quickly is related to transmission, not reception. It doesn't take much power to receive a signal, but it takes more than a little bit more to send one. I've got a little pocket FM radio that lasts for 30± hours on a single AA battery.
An FM transmitter on the other hand... yeah. That'd seriously suck down the juice and probably sound horrible to boot.
Don't care. Or more specifically, I wouldn't mind either way, as I don't listen to radio, and since obviously others do, I won't say no to it.
Go for the FM receiver at the very least.
For some reason the board thinks I've voted already. In any event put me down for the receiver at the very least.
The reasoning is simple I don't always want to listen to recorded content. Frankly you can get some local character from an FM radio that you simply can't with prerecorded content. In other words FM can be great when traveling.
As to the technical issues, there are very few. First; FM has been added to a number of Wifi networking chips. Do a web search to find what is available, but you will find that much of the circuitry can be had for very little impact on circuit board area. The second issue is the antenna which is still needed. That could be handled via the lead to the ear buds and has been shown to work on other platforms like so. Personally I'd like to see the option to lug in an alternative antenna, but I believe it can be handled without if need be. Third; we are very close to the point where FM and a lot of other radio technology could be handled as a Software Defined Radio (SDR). That is all the processing done digitally by the iPods CPU.
Ultimately SDR is the way to go. Since the Radio is software one can taylor the "channels" to the local requirements very easily. Bigger battery drain yes but extremely flexible.
Dave
For some reason the board thinks I've voted already. In any event put me down for the receiver at the very least.
The reasoning is simple I don't always want to listen to recorded content. Frankly you can get some local character from an FM radio that you simply can't with prerecorded content. In other words FM can be great when traveling.
As to the technical issues, there are very few. First; FM has been added to a number of Wifi networking chips. Do a web search to find what is available, but you will find that much of the circuitry can be had for very little impact on circuit board area. The second issue is the antenna which is still needed. That could be handled via the lead to the ear buds and has been shown to work on other platforms like so. Personally I'd like to see the option to lug in an alternative antenna, but I believe it can be handled without if need be. Third; we are very close to the point where FM and a lot of other radio technology could be handled as a Software Defined Radio (SDR). That is all the processing done digitally by the iPods CPU.
Ultimately SDR is the way to go. Since the Radio is software one can taylor the "channels" to the local requirements very easily. Bigger battery drain yes but extremely flexible.
Dave
I would say receiver considering you cannot buy one. Plus, listening to the same old stuff gets boring and I think a radio would be good for some variety without having to connect to a computer and add music...
This might interest you.
Personally, I do not want to pay for things that I do not need or want to use.
Circuit board redesign maybe yes but a simple version could be add on the same platform we have today. From the standpoint of the circuitry there is a number of approaches including stand alone chips, and radios integrated into other components. There is little reason to not have at least a receive function on one or more models. What is bothersome is for Apple to have all these models and no FM at all on any of them. That to me is strange.
To me this is simply a matter of having one or more models in your line up that gives a segment of your customer base what you want. FM certainly isn't wanted or needed by many but I believe there is enough demand to support at least a couple of models. For the Touch I would think this would be a no brainer as it needs some sort of Wifi chip anyways.
For reference: http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wt...ateId=6123&navigationId=12762&contentId=29993 is just one example of the highly integrated RADIO chips out there. This one having WiFI, BlueTooth and FM integrated. Broadcom and others have their own solutions for new hardware. The important thing to gather here is that future platforms from Apple could have all of its RF needs integrated into one chip. Well all as in the majority of the circuitry, interface to the analog world is still required. Things look real good for the near future with respect to handhelds. Even better battery life and more features are in the offering.
Dave
It has been said that the chip in the iPod Shuffle already supports FM receive. Apple just choose not to implement the hardware. I only point this out because in the electronics world you often have hardware that you didn't know was there or don't need.
In any event I think the big thing here is that yeah I would like the feature, that is FM on an iPod Touch. But that is only one of a number of features I'd like to see. For example Bluetooth, and more flash storage would be of higher priority for me. The point if that the next round of chips should allow each of us to have his favorite feature. I expect the next revisions of the Touch to actually split into a low cost model and a model at the current price point with expanded features.
Dave
AirTunes would definitely be the coolest feature. It would be the perfect "remote" for your stereo and would help Apple sell more Airport Expresses.
Another cool feature would be to use the Touch/iPhone as a true remote control for the AppleTV over the network, letting you manage whats playing and build playlists.
Another cool feature would be to use the Touch/iPhone as a true remote control for the AppleTV over the network, letting you manage whats playing and build playlists.
Although I don't see it happening, I would like the FM transmitter. I would like to listen to my iPod on the radio in my car. I know it's do-able with 3rd party accessories, and I have one, but being able to do it without anything plugged in would be kindof cool.
I'd prefer to have Bluetooth, if the iPod Touch were to get any hardware upgrades beyond more capacity. Don't care for the radio, much (I get anything really interesting through podcasts), and all the wireless transmitters I've seen have had horrible sound and reception.
Doubt it.
But even if it were true, one chip does not a radio make (Yoda talk).
There are other things to consider. You need a tuner circuit of some sort, you need tuner hardware and software, etc.
Personally, I see no need for an FM tuner function. And if I did, I could always get an add on FM tuner like the link I made above.
To each his own.
Hum, I have one of those. Worked flawlessly in my iPod 5G, iPod Nano 1G, and iPod Nano 2G. Works flawlessly in my iPod Nano 3G.
I tried it once in my iPod Touch, and got a dialog box saying that it was incompatible. Maybe that's changed in a subsequent software update?
Then each individual feature:
- music playback
- video playback
- wifi reception
- Safari
- YouTube
should be priced individually, instead of bundling it all together in a single purchase price. The January Apps also should not be bundled with every new iPod Touch that's shipped since then.
This is the same reasoning that justifies the continued existence of Combo drives in the lowest-end MacBook model, even though in all likelihood it'd actually be cheaper (from a production cost perspective) to use SuperDrives everywhere. Especially considering the fact that many WiFi chipsets already have all the necessary hardware for FM reception built-in.