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

wired.com

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

#181

Post by mtreis86 »

jrockway wrote: post #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…

I wish a flagship phone would come with an SDR built into it. You can currently get a rtl-sdr to work with a phone through http://sdrtouch.com/ but that requires an external chip.

I want a phone with a SDR, and an FPGA so I don't need to run the samples through the cpu for filtering. An rf-hacker phone. Someone make this, please.

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

#182

Post by davb »

siddboots wrote: post #2

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.

It isn't just their website either. I noticed over the last few years that they've gone all-out on advertising in the magazine too. It's not just so bad in the US where the magazine is around $1.50 an issue on subscription, but in the UK it's around $3.50. I unsubscribed after a few years. It was so stuffed full of adverts, I just couldn't be bothered with it any more.

Some months it would take 10+ pages of adverts to get to the first piece of content. And the worst was those glued-in cardboard ad pages in the middle - you can never really rip them out properly, and the magazine always inconveniently flops open at that page whenever you get close to it.

They're just trying to monetise the pants off the brand, and it's a real shame. I loved Wired. Not it's just another Outbrain-laden, cardboard-stuffed piece of junk.

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

#183

Post by abalone »

zymhan wrote: post #172
abalone wrote: post #64

Apple 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.

Is Beats Radio not a competitor to terrestrial radio? They both aim to provide the same service. They both pay fees to the same record labels. Far, far more people are more familiar with FM radio than TuneIn.

Disabling the FM chip function doesn't make 3rd party radio apps any less discoverable.

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

#184

Post by swiley »

mtreis86 wrote: post #181
jrockway wrote: post #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…

I wish a flagship phone would come with an SDR built into it. You can currently get a rtl-sdr to work with a phone through http://sdrtouch.com/ but that requires an external chip. I want a phone with a SDR, and an FPGA so I don't need to run the samples through the cpu for filtering. An rf-hacker phone. Someone make this, please.

That would be super cool but you would have a battery life of like 60 minutes.

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

#185

Post by rplst8 »

WalterBright wrote: post #19

I 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…

> I suppose long term FM is dead, but meanwhile it has its uses.

If true, this is really unfortunate. I've written about this before, but FM is a really great technology, and in a lot of ways it's only suffering because of the content. The sound quality of digital "equivalents" (XM Radio, HD Radio, Internet Radio, etc.) doesn't even come close to a clear FM station.

Not to mention there are millions of vintage radios that still work perfectly today with this technology.

For being invented in 1933 it's pretty amazing.

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

#186

Post by fit2rule »

abalone wrote: post #89
fit2rule wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

All the deals Apple made with the cell co's to get their users to suck up the bandwidth, duh. Cellular Data rates being what they are, I fail to see how anyone cannot see the profit motive. If you're listening to Spotify instead of FM radio, you're fulfilling one of the promises Apple made to the cell co's: we will give you users who will use our phones to suck up Cellular Data ..

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

#187

Post by fit2rule »

lostlogin wrote: post #112
abalone wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Apple make money from me using the internet apparently. /s

In fact, they do.
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