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The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

npr.org

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Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#81

Post by ctdonath »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #65
mrshoe wrote: post #51

While half-baked conspiracy theories are fun, a good journalist would've consulted a few more sources to get to the bottom of this story. FM radio requires a large antenna. It will not work without one. The 5th generation iPod nano (2009) was the first iPod with an (enabled) FM radio. We used the headphone wire as the antenna. It worked well enough. While there was a tiny speaker in those iPods, headphones were the o…

Every phone supports headphones. Headphones are not a horrible experience.

Requiring them is.

Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#82

Post by blfr »

kevinskii wrote: post #9

But Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, resists the move to turn on the FM chip..."What Americans really want is the ability to stream, download and customize music playlists to meet their personal preferences," Carpenter said... I wonder if the people whose job it is to make these sorts of patronizing arguments privately feel embarrassed when doing so.

It seems silly to disable a perfectly good chip but to be fair, I only checked if my phone can receive FM radio after reading this post yet I have used AntennaPod, Spotify, and SoundCloud for hundreds of hours.

Motorola shines again btw. Not only do they not cripple their phones but also include a simple FM Radio app by default.

Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#83

Post by aluhut »

ghshephard wrote: post #78
mrshoe wrote: post #51

While half-baked conspiracy theories are fun, a good journalist would've consulted a few more sources to get to the bottom of this story. FM radio requires a large antenna. It will not work without one. The 5th generation iPod nano (2009) was the first iPod with an (enabled) FM radio. We used the headphone wire as the antenna. It worked well enough. While there was a tiny speaker in those iPods, headphones were the o…

I listen to the radio all the time on my $28 Nokia 105. It has a headphone detector, and won't launch the Radio App if it doesn't detect headphones. If a $28 phone 1/5th the size of the iPhone (with a 20x battery life) can play radio stations flawlessly, I can't think of very many reasons why a $900 iPhone can't do the same thing.

I can think of one: iTunes.

No other reasons required.

Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#85

Post by whichfawkes »

tinco wrote: post #72
mrshoe wrote: post #51

While half-baked conspiracy theories are fun, a good journalist would've consulted a few more sources to get to the bottom of this story. FM radio requires a large antenna. It will not work without one. The 5th generation iPod nano (2009) was the first iPod with an (enabled) FM radio. We used the headphone wire as the antenna. It worked well enough. While there was a tiny speaker in those iPods, headphones were the o…

It wasn't their intention to be good journalists in this article. > "But the mobile industry, which profits from selling data to smartphone users, says that with the consumer's move toward mobile streaming apps, the demand for radio simply isn't there." They are positioning the mobile industry so they look as if they're trying to profit from denying users FM radio. It's sad that a news agency that prides on being for…

Does NPR actually make money from their radio broadcasts?

Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#86

Post by bcg1 »

> "NPR, along with the NAB, has been part of a lobbying effort to require this free radio feature to be enabled"

Do we really need a law for this? If people wanted it they would just demand it from manufacturers and/or carriers

> "Smulyan's lobbying has prompted the Indiana Senate to urge mobile carriers to activate the FM chip."

Total newspeak. Government bodies don't "urge", they force.

> "When the power grid is out, the only lifeline for the American public is having an FM tuner"

If you can't afford a battery powered radio, you can't afford a cell phone. And BTW if the FM tuner is your "only lifeline", you might want to reevaluate your preparedness for anything serious at all.

> "Every time you buy a phone, you've paid for that radio," Smulyan says.

Probably not true. In all likelihood the cost of the chip has no bearing on the cost of your device, and even if it did it would probably cost more to design separate chips (one with and one with the tuner) for separate markets, and that cost would get passed on to consumers

> "What Americans really want is the ability to stream, download and customize music playlists to meet their personal preferences," Carpenter said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "and that's not what the traditional FM radio offers."

What an arrogant asshole. His condescending presumptuous attitude aside, neither of these options precludes the other and what consumers probably want is every option at their disposal.

Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#88

Post by whichfawkes »

mrshoe wrote: post #51

While half-baked conspiracy theories are fun, a good journalist would've consulted a few more sources to get to the bottom of this story. FM radio requires a large antenna. It will not work without one. The 5th generation iPod nano (2009) was the first iPod with an (enabled) FM radio. We used the headphone wire as the antenna. It worked well enough. While there was a tiny speaker in those iPods, headphones were the o…

If you like half-baked conspiracy theories, what do you have to say about the removal of microSD cards from Android phones? I think that's far more damning.

Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#89

Post by tinco »

whichfawkes wrote: post #85
tinco wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't their intention to be good journalists in this article. > "But the mobile industry, which profits from selling data to smartphone users, says that with the consumer's move toward mobile streaming apps, the demand for radio simply isn't there." They are positioning the mobile industry so they look as if they're trying to profit from denying users FM radio. It's sad that a news agency that prides on being for…

Does NPR actually make money from their radio broadcasts?

Good question, according to wikipedia:

"In contrast with commercial broadcasting, NPR's radio broadcasts do not carry traditional commercials, but has advertising in the form of brief statements from major sponsors which may include corporate slogans, descriptions of products and services, contact information such as website addresses and telephone numbers."

They have a revenue of about 180 million.

I don't actually think they're doing this for the money, they are a non-profit after all. I believe them when they just want the public to have access to FM radio. All the more reason for them not to engage in dirt writing like this.

Re: The hidden FM radio in your pocket and why you can't use it

#90

Post by toomuchtodo »

grecy wrote: post #23
kevinskii wrote: post #9

But Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, resists the move to turn on the FM chip..."What Americans really want is the ability to stream, download and customize music playlists to meet their personal preferences," Carpenter said... I wonder if the people whose job it is to make these sorts of patronizing arguments privately feel embarrassed when doing so.

I work at a telco that constantly makes ridiculous patronizing arguments. The people making those statements are drinking so much kool-aid they honestly don't even know they're talking nonsense. They actually believe it to their core.

I'm 32, pay $10/month for Spotify, and T-Mobile doesn't count music services towards my data cap. I haven't listened to the radio in my car in over a year.

Even if I'm an outlier, Spotify still has a free tier. Why would I go back to the radio? That would be like trading Netflix back in for Blockbuster Video. shudder

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