why no FM radio for iphone?

[Retired Cat]

FM needs to be activated! For emergencies. What if the power goes out and internet/phone service access goes with it? Natural disasters happen and having FM radio access to hear emergency and news updates would invaluable. Think beyond your daily activities people!

For this very reason I keep an emergency FM radio at home. It can be powered by hand crank or AA batteries (I stock NiMH rechargeable cells with low self discharge, as well as conventional Alkalines as backup).

I have always found Apple's decision to disable the FM receiver to be perplexing. Most cell phones with FM tuner use the wired headset for an antenna rather than an antenna on the phone itself, so there should be no technical hurdle there. I suspect it has to do with Apple's propensity to delete older tech like floppy drives, optical drives, and ports.

 

[dominiongamma]

Haven't touched the radio since 2000, not sure why people want to go backwards with ancient tech.

 

[C DM]

Haven't touched the radio since 2000, not sure why people want to go backwards with ancient tech.

Probably because it's still perfectly regularly used tech.
[doublepost=1487304043][/doublepost]

For this very reason I keep an emergency FM radio at home. It can be powered by hand crank or AA batteries (I stock NiMH rechargeable cells with low self discharge, as well as conventional Alkalines as backup).

I have always found Apple's decision to disable the FM receiver to be perplexing. Most cell phones with FM tuner use the wired headset for an antenna rather than an antenna on the phone itself, so there should be no technical hurdle there. I suspect it has to do with Apple's propensity to delete older tech like floppy drives, optical drives, and ports.

There's not much as far as removing older tech as they aren't removing anything and the tech is still there and just simply isn't enabled.

 

[uscgrad]

I'm far too impatient these days to sit through ads or songs I don't love so I can't say I've missed it.

 

[jblagden]

For this very reason I keep an emergency FM radio at home. It can be powered by hand crank or AA batteries (I stock NiMH rechargeable cells with low self discharge, as well as conventional Alkalines as backup).

I have always found Apple's decision to disable the FM receiver to be perplexing. Most cell phones with FM tuner use the wired headset for an antenna rather than an antenna on the phone itself, so there should be no technical hurdle there. I suspect it has to do with Apple's propensity to delete older tech like floppy drives, optical drives, and ports.

Yeah, the iPod Nano (I forget which generation) has the ability to use the headphones as an antenna. I guess Apple figures everyone will just use Bluetooth headphones. Though, I personally prefer wired headphones due to reliability, cost, and the absence of a battery that you have to remember to keep charged (much more convenient).
[doublepost=1487341797][/doublepost]

I'm far too impatient these days to sit through ads or songs I don't love so I can't say I've missed it.

I agree with you about the ads, but the issue of "sitting through songs I don't like" isn't so much of an issue for me since I can always listen to talk radio. Though, even with talk radio there's a chance they might talk about something you don't care about. But then I often listen to podcasts of talk radio, which don't have commercials since they're uploaded after the show.

 

[Mark Hall]

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."

I dont understand people reactions during an emergency ..power blackout storm etc ..information is vital ..and having a battery powered radion in the hands of the american people ..that works with out cell service or wifi should be an Emergency Prepardness govt implemented mandate

 

[I7guy]

I dont understand people reactions during an emergency ..power blackout storm etc ..information is vital ..and having a battery powered radion in the hands of the american people ..that works with out cell service or wifi should be an Emergency Prepardness govt implemented mandate

During the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, two weeks without power in a house (it seems pretty unbelievable we survived), copper to the house, plain old pushbutton phone, fm radio boom box, lots of batteries, no cell service in home or cable, limited gasoline supplies..etc. We were able to charge our cell phones using the generator and listen to news with the fm and make calls from the home number due to copper wiring.

I think apple should go to great lengths to enable the fm, seems like a no-brainer.

 

[Mallard245]

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.

So I still have the IPod touch gen 6, which has the radio, It also uses the headphone wire as the antenna, and works really well. I think the iPhone could do the same....

 

[colodane]

So I still have the IPod touch gen 6, which has the radio, It also uses the headphone wire as the antenna, and works really well. I think the iPhone could do the same....

Are you sure you aren't using an app in conjunction with wifi?? If so, the headphone wire is not an antenna. This topic is about using the FM broadcast detector capability built into one of the chips to receive over-the-air FM broadcasts. To the best of my knowledge this is not possible with any iPad Touch or iPhone.

 

[bushman4]

While every individual iPhone has an fm tuner built in don't ever count on Apple enabling it. An FM tuner would hurt iTunes business

 

[Sc4252]

Not picking on you, but for some reason people can't seem to understand that radio is NOT for music only. There are a lot of talk/news stations that people enjoy. Pandora and all the other million music streaming apps are music only.

[doublepost=1504107304][/doublepost]True. In addition to many things that already mentioned, FM radio receiver does not depend on cellular signal so it is useful when disaster happens.

 

[sdwaltz]

To answer OP's question:

Because it's 2017?

 

[CTHarrryH]

I'm sure there are plenty but how many people listen to FM radio in their cars - how many AM?

 

[Nic727]

Hi,

According to a website, a lot of phones have a FM chip, but most of the manufacturers don't activate the chip. Apple is one of them and it look like the iPhone has the chip.

I think it could be great if Apple could activate the FM capabilities in a software update. How many Time I'm just sit in the bus tired to listen to the same music that I downloaded on iTunes. With the FM radio it could be much better.

http://freeradioonmyphone.org

What do you think? Should Apple activate FM capabilities in the iPhone?

I don't know why nobody created a Bluetooth FM receptor (a small item you put in your pocket that take FM radio and sync it on the phone)?

Thx

 

[Givmeabrek]

So I still have the IPod touch gen 6, which has the radio, It also uses the headphone wire as the antenna, and works really well. I think the iPhone could do the same....

What headphone wire?

 

[C DM]

Hi,

According to a website, a lot of phones have a FM chip, but most of the manufacturers don't activate the chip. Apple is one of them and it look like the iPhone has the chip.

I think it could be great if Apple could activate the FM capabilities in a software update. How many Time I'm just sit in the bus tired to listen to the same music that I downloaded on iTunes. With the FM radio it could be much better.

http://freeradioonmyphone.org

What do you think? Should Apple activate FM capabilities in the iPhone?

I don't know why nobody created a Bluetooth FM receptor (a small item you put in your pocket that take FM radio and sync it on the phone)?

Thx

Sounds like this thread addresses it all fairly well.

 

[Knowimagination]

I feel like I'm in back 2 the future or something

 

[joeblow7777]

To answer OP's question:

Because it's 2017?

That's an ironic answer to a question that was asked in 2011.

 

[sdwaltz]

That's an ironic answer to a question that was asked in 2011.

Apologies, didn’t realize this was an old subject.

Comment still stands though.

 

[C DM]

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-activating-fm-radio-chip-in-iphones.2073441/

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/28/apple-still-urged-to-enable-fm-radio-in-iphone/

 

[Nic727]

I found this old discontinued iFM from Griffin...
https://www.allputer.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2086

I wish they could make a new one in the future. I wrote to Griffin about making a new iFM 2.0 and they said they will take that under consideration, but the more we are, more chance we have.

Plz write here : https://support.griffintechnology.com/contact/

Just a simple plug and play radio could be awesome.