why no FM radio for iphone?

Analog TV has been turned off in most areas with the remaining few areas being switched off by April.
I'm pretty certain that FM radio broadcasting will follow suit in favour of DaB pretty soon, which would render an FM radio useless anyway.
It's old technology
 
My workplace has no wifi and I don't want to blow through my data so an FM radio function would have been appreciated by me.
 
pauliphone said:
Analog TV has been turned off in most areas with the remaining few areas being switched off by April.
I'm pretty certain that FM radio broadcasting will follow suit in favour of DaB pretty soon, which would render an FM radio useless anyway.
It's old technology
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FM Radio is still very popular in some countries according to the link I provided above; India for example. The fact that Apple still choose to include and promote the feature in the Nano, indicates that they don't see it as redundant technology yet.
 
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I get apples approach of trying to push people away from old technology, so I know it's not going to happen. but for those of us with a very restrictive data plan, surely people can appreciate why we wouldn't mind the option? And being that fm radios have successfully been used in portable devices for some time now, I seriously doubt that battery drain is much worse than 3G or wifi signals.
 
Most major sporting events that are broadcast on FM sports radio are NOT available via their online streams. I would love the ability to listen in to weekend college football games, occasional baseball games, etc, but without the FM transmitter being enabled I can't do that via my phone.
 
Yep the iPhone has FM capability already inside it but Apple have it turned off.

Its kinda odd, its like turning off FM capability in a Bentley because its not sleek and elegant :confused:
 
stevemiller said:
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I get apples approach of trying to push people away from old technology, so I know it's not going to happen. but for those of us with a very restrictive data plan, surely people can appreciate why we wouldn't mind the option? And being that fm radios have successfully been used in portable devices for some time now, I seriously doubt that battery drain is much worse than 3G or wifi signals.
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I don't think it's the drain, I think it is the interference that keeps Apple from integrating a FM receiver. the iPhone has many transceivers and they can seriously jam an FM receiver. If you put it outside the iPhone and use the headset as an antenna as well, it gives much better reception, but to cram it all inside the iPhone might give a bad user experience, something Apple tries to avoid at almost all cost.
 
SmittS said:
Why don't they slap an 8 track or cassette player on the phone while they're at it. Seriously, I hate whenever I have to rent a car or ride with a buddy and listen to terrestrial radio. It's all complete crap. With Sirius, Pandora, Spotify, Slacker, etc. why would anyone want onboard FM?
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i hate it when people talk about FM radio like its some archaic age of quality, FM radio doesnt sound like crap and there are plenty of decent stations to listen to in most places. Granted if you cant find your way out of the top 40 station you might not feel the same but i personally enjoy a few local boston stations and talk radio. Sports radio broadcast is also a biggie.

I see why its not necessary on an iphone, but i personally would enjoy it.
 
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I was fortunate enough to be grandfathered into AT&T's unlimited data plan back when they offered it but for those of you on tiered data plans, doesn't streaming music off these apps eat into your monthly data on a already data hungry iCloud intergration !?

I mean who really streams radio tunes on Wifi...If I were to really stream radio it would be in circumstances when I would normal listen to FM radio which are generally away from Wifi spots. Just wondering.
 
FM = Bad listening experience

Having come from an Android phone with FM radio I can tell you I used it just once, to try it out.

First off you need to use earphones to listen since the cord is the antenna and it's the only way to get the relatively long FM broadcast wavelength into a tiny smartphone. Then you are subject to fading and other signal problems as you move around... try walking with a portable FM radio... if you live anywhere like I do with a less than perfect signal it's not such a great listening experience.

Then you have a content issue. I love TuneIn radio but there are whole swaths of stations not carried (at the shortsighted broadcasters request) and some sports games are blacked out. But there are multiple online sources on TuneIn and I can't recall not being able to find something comparable, if not better, to what I was originally looking for. Even for sports (a large portion of which are still on AM radio) I have been able to find many games on TuneIn.

All in all, online radio offers a much better experience for most people (certainly for me).
 
Whatever some people may think FM radio is obsolete technology and there is no place for it in a modern smart phone like the iPhone.
 
Tunein is great but I do think that while FM radio will be obsolete in the next couple of years DAB or streaming is the future and an included DAB module would be more useful in the long run.
 
I just use tunein. But I don't listen to FM that much. Just can't stand it anymore. I like using Internet radio, but most of the time I just listen to my own music or podcasts.
 
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Old stuff i know.

The iPod nano as fm radio.

Lots of Android phone have fm radio.

But with my Sony mw600 bluetooth, i'm good.

But it would be nice to have fm in iphone.
 
Mr.C said:
Whatever some people may think FM radio is obsolete technology and there is no place for it in a modern smart phone like the iPhone.
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This may come as a surprise to you, but not everybody has the same needs/likes as you! Shocking!

Being a sports fan, many local professional games (Yankees/Giants/Jets etc.) are broadcast over FM stations. And a lot of people can't watch games on TV at work or when travelling (bus train etc.), and FM radio is the only way to hear the game. This is a very important feature for me as well as lots of others.

understand now?
 
Everybody seems to be forgetting that the televisions at the gym transmit over FM... That would be wonderful if I want to listen and watch some TV while on the tread mill and not have to switch devices.
 
I can remember when Wunderradio was a great app but went to crap. Tunein is great and Shoutcast isn't too bad either. I never listen to my FM radio in my car...always using my phone.
 
The FM radio in the Nano was atrocious. You can't put a decent tuner in such a small device. Another reason is when your main income is selling music, why let you listen to a crappy version for free?
 
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