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Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

wired.com

41–50 of 329 posts

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#41
post #29

That is quite strange ... Here in India, most people own an android. And Radio App is pre-installed in almost all those phones. You just have to plug-in your earphones to start using it. I expected that behavior to be universal.

'in India' is the key here. Market segmentation at its worst.

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#42
More interesting would be getting the weather radio signal (not on the FM broadcast band, it's AM around 160MHz), and having the phone change which SAME code it's sensitive to as you move around.

I know you are supposed to get an SMS or something whenever there is a severe weather event, but after a million amber alerts and a flood warning a few states away, that's the first thing I turn off when I get a new phone. I've never seen it work, either.

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#43

What's going on with Wired? This page has an autoplay video ad below the article text and an anti-AdBlock full-screen subscription nagger that pops up a few seconds after page load.

Haven't read a single Wired article since. Can't say I have really missed much.

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#45
post #39

Australian here, also find it bizarre that this is a problem in the US. Biggest problem I have in my Android phone requires the head-phones to be plugged in to listen to FM...as it acts as the aerial.

Brazilian here. Also puzzled this is a problem at all.

I've had phones that needed the headphones to be plugged in, which is an annoyance but understandable. The new Moto G 4th Gen works without them so that might be changing.

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#46
post #29

That is quite strange ... Here in India, most people own an android. And Radio App is pre-installed in almost all those phones. You just have to plug-in your earphones to start using it. I expected that behavior to be universal.

The cheaper chipsets seem to be more likely to have the FM functionality enabled.

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#48
post #20

In my country one has to pay to the regime for using/owning "radio/tv receiver". That's why I am happy to have more devices without unblocked analog FM. It means for me more choice without having to pay for the brainwashing/propaganda.

if you're referring to Germany, you're obliged to pay anyways - whether you own a device or not (it's per household/company since a while). It doesn't matter how many devices you own though. And you're not paying "the regime", you're paying an independent institution. It's not a tax by design though it may feel like one. The government never gets to touch the money.

Now, there's a ton of things that are wrong with our nominally independent radio/tv stations, but if I look around and see how things go in other states on this little planet (hello fox news), I don't have any idea that works better in principle. I'll take the german system over any alternative so far offered (though the BBC is a close contender)

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#49
post #7

This annoys me so much, here in Australia DAB (digital radio) is nerfed so much that the broadcast quality is significantly lower than FM so it's not even worth buying a nice, fancy DAB unit for your home HiFi.

48 kilobit stereo AAC+ per station, 10+ stations on a single frequency.

Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

#50
post #39

Australian here, also find it bizarre that this is a problem in the US. Biggest problem I have in my Android phone requires the head-phones to be plugged in to listen to FM...as it acts as the aerial.

FM is a long wavelength (and even more AM) the antenna would take up some space in your cellphone. They might be able to fit it, but yea... costs...
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