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why no FM radio for iphone?

Michael CM1 said:
Honestly this makes about as much sense as "why isn't there a TV tuner built in so I can watch broadcast channels?"
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supposedly the iphones broadcom chip is capable of recieving FM signals, but they have it disabled (perhaps for a great reason, i just dont know).
There is also a clear difference between wanting FM and a TV tuner. Aside from FM's audio quality being far better than a TV tuner's video quality, there is a giant FM market... which is why every car still comes with one (unlike your TV which hasnt come with an antenna in about 15 years).
 
Live sports are often blocked by third party apps due to rights restrictions. Sometimes you want to be able to hear the game when you're out.
 
mantan said:
Live sports are often blocked by third party apps due to rights restrictions. Sometimes you want to be able to hear the game when you're out.
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I cant believe more people aren't saying what you said. All of these apps that stream radio cannot stream sports due to rights, so you miss out on all of that with those apps. Also, streaming all of the radio apps takes up a lot of data costing more on your data plan.

And for everyone saying no one listens to radio anymore, maybe its because no devices have it...hmmm.
 
Sorry if this has been covered before - heard this radio story (on my car radio) about every iPhone having an FM radio tuner built in, but disabled carriers. Apparently in Europe the tuners are enabled.

The link is to Vermont Public Radio, who is encouraging listeners to contact their carriers to unlock the radio.

Sounds good to me - what do you think?

http://digital.vpr.net/post/unlock-fm-radio-hiding-your-smart-phone

"Every smart phone manufactured today contains an FM chip, but unlike in Europe, most in the U.S. are not activated. Increasingly, the device that people use for connecting to the world is their smart phone. For that reason, NPR and APM are working with our friends in commercial radio and religious broadcasting to urge the major cell phone service providers to activate the FM chip that is already in all the mobile phones they sell."
 
Add poor information to the list of reasons (TONS of commercials, poor music selection, terrible audio quality, reception range, etc etc) why we should drop FM. :D
 
One reason the FM radio functions aren't enabled on phones is because of antenna requirements.

It's hard to fit an efficient FM broadcast antenna into a phone body. Some devices use the headphone cable as an antenna, but if you remember from your walkman in the 80s and 90s, it doesn't work too well; the signal fades in and out as you move around.

The engineering required to make FM radio work well in such a tiny form factor is a pain, and since so few people demand this feature the phone makers just leave it out.
 
Sure it may be there, but there are no antennas for it to work good by any means.

Just like the NFC chip in the new iPads. They disabled the actual NFC function and only used the chip for its secure enclave to store cards for online purchases.
 
mauka said:
The link is to Vermont Public Radio, who is encouraging listeners to contact their carriers to unlock the radio.

Sounds good to me - what do you think?
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Right. And you'd use what software to control this radio if you had it?
 
Not sure about the technical aspect, but smartphones all have a cellular antenna, could it could also work as an FM antenna?

The story mentions emergency broadcasts, which could be the only thing still operating after a major storm event. Apparently using the FM receiver requires much less of your devices battery charge than the cellular circuit.

I agree with the commercials, but I listen to public radio, which has commercials, but they are far less tiresome.

Regarding software, if enabled someone would build a radio app.

Then there the question of choice -"it's already built-in, why are you stopping me from using it?
 
mauka said:
Then there the question of choice -"it's already built-in, why are you stopping me from using it?
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Who actually listens to radio anymore now that we can store thousands of mp3s on the device or listen to Internet radio? Radio is an 80s thing.
 
zorinlynx said:
One reason the FM radio functions aren't enabled on phones is because of antenna requirements.
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I don't think this is a good excuse. I used to have a bunch of Nokia N Series phones and the FM Radio would only work if you had headphones connected. They would act as the antenna.

That being said, I don't care about FM. All of my local stations also broadcast over the internet via iHeartRadio. Don't need FM on my phone.
 
It's been the case for a long time and previously noted on mac rumours and ifixit
 
mauka said:
Not sure about the technical aspect, but smartphones all have a cellular antenna, could it could also work as an FM antenna?

The story mentions emergency broadcasts, which could be the only thing still operating after a major storm event. Apparently using the FM receiver requires much less of your devices battery charge than the cellular circuit.

I agree with the commercials, but I listen to public radio, which has commercials, but they are far less tiresome.

Regarding software, if enabled someone would build a radio app.

Then there the question of choice -"it's already built-in, why are you stopping me from using it?
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A quarter-wave antenna for cellular is a couple of inches. A quarter-wave length antenna for broadcast FM is 32 inches. An antenna for cell frequencies would really suck for broadcast FM.
 
And I bet you that Apple only put it into the iPods because they saw the money opportunity. Hear something, tag it, go buy it on iTunes. Not that I don't love that feature (I do, it's amazing). :D

I don't think it's appropriate to rely on a cellphone for emergency broadcasts. I would rather something that was powered using batteries, because once your battery is out, it's out, especially when there's no power.
 
With digital radio, FM is an ageing technology.

Why would I want to listen to fuzzy, crackly radio which cuts in and out, when I have synced music, spotify, and internet radio?
 
Brian Y said:
With digital radio, FM is an ageing technology.

Why would I want to listen to fuzzy, crackly radio which cuts in and out, when I have synced music, spotify, and internet radio?
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SeilerBird said:
Who actually listens to radio anymore now that we can store thousands of mp3s on the device or listen to Internet radio? Radio is an 80s thing.
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When you don't have data or even power perhaps? When you might want to get some latest news in cases like that? Plenty of reasons for people who might care or want that. Why does it matter of some don't care about it to justify it not being enabled when it's already there (and can be functional)?
 
macgeek10 said:
I remember when the nano had FM built in, now we use iTunes Radio :)
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I forgot my little square "watch" Nano had the FM radio. Of course I haven't used that Nano in about two years.

I remember I couldn't get a decent radio signal in my house. I think that's how it would be if the radio was enabled on the iPhone. Imagine the battery drain.
 
JackieInCo said:
I forgot my little square "watch" Nano had the FM radio. Of course I haven't used that Nano in about two years.

I remember I couldn't get a decent radio signal in my house. I think that's how it would be if the radio was enabled on the iPhone. Imagine the battery drain.
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Would there really be more of a battery drain? Not sure if it's the same kind of thing as cell or some other signals.
 
C DM said:
When you don't have data or even power perhaps? When you might want to get some latest news in cases like that? Plenty of reasons for people who might care or want that. Why does it matter of some don't care about it to justify it not being enabled when it's already there (and can be functional)?
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These are great reasons that FM radio should be supported in mobile phones.

Streaming a radio station costs a lot more energy than simply receiving an FM broadcast. Networks can become congested with traffic.

Almost all of my local radios stations now offer streams, but my data allowance would be quickly consumed if I streamed all the time. FM radio is just a lot more affordable than paying for more data.

Are there radio apps for jailbroken iPhones?
 
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zorinlynx said:
One reason the FM radio functions aren't enabled on phones is because of antenna requirements.

It's hard to fit an efficient FM broadcast antenna into a phone body. Some devices use the headphone cable as an antenna, but if you remember from your walkman in the 80s and 90s, it doesn't work too well; the signal fades in and out as you move around.

The engineering required to make FM radio work well in such a tiny form factor is a pain, and since so few people demand this feature the phone makers just leave it out.
Click to expand...
Many smart phones in Europe do have the FM Radio capability but I have never seen it in the Iphone even in Europe. The Antenna is never a problem because the headset is used as the Antenna and believe me it works very well.

It is a feature that is very useful and avoids having to use data bandwidth to listen to the Radio.
 
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I have wondered this for years, how is it my $150 dollar iPod Nano can get FM, but my $850 iPhone 6 cannot?

I would love to have this feature for tuning into FM stations at my gym for TV watching & being able to get access to information if there were congestion or cellular communication did not work. Just because it doesn't appeal to many, whats stopping someone from making an app that taps into it?
 
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