I don't get it, why do manufacturers bother adding an FM chip if they never activate it?
Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
81–90 of 329 posts
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#82More 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…
Is this just an american thing? I haven't heard of it over here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_Weather_Radio
I remember one of my parents' old cars (mid-90s) having a WX channel on the radio. More recently i've only ever seen it available over VHF radio while boating.
Also, most airports will have weather broadcasts, but I think this is only accessible with an aviation-band VHF radio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_airport_weather_stat...
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#83I just bought an internet radio for my stereo (yes, I'm that old, I have a stereo). I was surprised to discover it also had a wire in the box that turned out to be an FM antenna. I thought with internet radio, who needs an FM tuner? (all the local stations have streaming URLs) Turns out I actually like it. It's handy when the internet fails, or when you're nearing data caps, or just want to run it all day without int…
It's funny, I really like listening to a number of local stations for the variety of music I get introduced to; but somehow, the fact that there is a real person curating it makes me enjoy it. Listening to spotify, it doesn't do it for me. Something about having someone come on, make a little human conversation, that's part of the experience for me. Algorithms don't cut it.
Doesn't the Apple Music radio, Beats 1 or what was it, have human-curated streams too?
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#84I don't get it, why do manufacturers bother adding an FM chip if they never activate it?
I think it comes with the SOC
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just block the JS. I looked around for a JS blocker, and found ScriptSafe, which makes the web really usable. I turn on JS for the servers I trust, and sites like Wired and NYT just feed me readable text without any ads.
Some of the more obnoxious sites won't let you read the full article (or any of the article, in some cases) without JS. Of course, you can just use some trickery to hide the overlay, but it gets pretty annoying.
For such sites you keep the button "temporarily allow JS execution" somewhere handy in your browser UI, but for more obnoxious sites you'll probably quit after getting bored from long loading time after getting used to how fast everything else is with scripts disabled :P
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#86I've recently returned from the British Grand Prix and resented the fact that my smartphone doesn't have a radio feature. Had to invest £10 in a cheap plastic thing they sold at the circuit, while it did the job, I thought smartphones were supposed to be an end to having to carry around single function devices, in favour of the all-in-one solution.
How about that Verstappen, eh?
What was the general feeling in the crowd while they puttered along behind the Safety Car for so long?
I want to attend one of the races in Europe next season and I've whittled my options down to Silverstone and Spa. How highly would you recommend the British GP?
Also, which smartphone do you have?
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#87I just bought an internet radio for my stereo (yes, I'm that old, I have a stereo). I was surprised to discover it also had a wire in the box that turned out to be an FM antenna. I thought with internet radio, who needs an FM tuner? (all the local stations have streaming URLs) Turns out I actually like it. It's handy when the internet fails, or when you're nearing data caps, or just want to run it all day without int…
> It's handy when the internet fails, or when you're nearing data caps, or just want to run it all day without interfering with download speeds
So basically it's useful if you have really shitty internet.
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#88Tablets sold in US also do not have voice capabilities. 8" table is an excellent phone for daily use. In some European countries you have to pay license for radio receiver. For phone with FN radio you would pay $25/year, that is lot of money with national average salary $8000.
Wait, having to pay for a license to listen to radio? Where?
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#89Apple isn't activating it because it "might undermine Beats One"? Oh give me a break. You can stream just about any FM station you want with apps like TuneIn Radio.
The point is, Apple has a vested interest in making sure you're using TCP/IP to do that streaming, instead of just tuning into a radio signal from space. The investment in the network of users is so high, and such a massive profit factor, that there is no incentive to flip the FM bit, for the users. Since it will mean less streaming will occur (you're not using TCP/IP when you're listening to FM radio..) Its Apple, j…
I don't follow your logic. The iPhone would receive audio from the station over "a radio signal from space" either way. TCP/IP is just a protocol. What is the "massive profit factor" Apple enjoys from using that protocol?
Re: Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just block the JS. I looked around for a JS blocker, and found ScriptSafe, which makes the web really usable. I turn on JS for the servers I trust, and sites like Wired and NYT just feed me readable text without any ads.
What's the advantage of using an add-on like ScriptSafe against just disabling JS in settings?
The point is not to block JS completely, but to disallow it when not necessary (which it isn't for most of the time). There are plenty of legitimate uses of JS and keeping "allow JS on this domain now" button in accessible place is very handy.
Plus of course you can lift the restrictions selectively for each domain. From my experience it usually takes one or two domains to allow in order to get the needed functionality, and the rest (usually around 10) can be kept blocked.