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NAB, RIAA May Seek Mandate For FM Radios In Mobile Devices
Trintech writes with this quote from an article at Ars Technica:
"Music labels and radio broadcasters can't agree on much, including whether radio should be forced to turn over hundreds of millions of dollars a year to pay for the music it plays. But the two sides can agree on this: Congress should mandate that FM radio receivers be built into cell phones, PDAs, and other portable electronics. The Consumer Electronics Association, whose members build the devices that would be affected by such a directive, is incandescent with rage. 'The backroom scheme of the [National Association of Broadcasters] and RIAA to have Congress mandate broadcast radios in portable devices, including mobile phones, is the height of absurdity,' thundered CEA president Gary Shapiro. Such a move is 'not in our national interest.' 'Rather than adapt to the digital marketplace, NAB and RIAA act like buggy-whip industries that refuse to innovate and seek to impose penalties on those that do.' But the music and radio industries say it's a consumer-focused proposition, one that would provide 'more music choices.'"
any FM radio has to have some sort of antenna to receive the signals
WHERE WILL YOU PUT THIS ON AN iPHONE??
My symbian has an FM radio built in, the antenna is the earphones which you attach to it. You need the earphones to listen to the radio, even if you put it on speaker.
Nokia sell over 20 different models in the USA with built in FM - http://www.nokiausa.com/find-products/phones
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
My android-based smart phone has an FM tuner (HTC Incredible) but why on earth would I use it when I can use pandora?
From the US-based perspective I can see your point, but in Realityimpaired's case, being Canadian means he doesn't have the option to listen to Pandora without a VPN.
Being Canadian myself, I worry our government will decide to play along if yours passes this. I agree that it would be nice to have the option but I'm of the mind that my phone should just be a phone.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
I wouldn't buy an MP3 player without an FM radio. It's how I listen to NPR. The MP3 part is how I listen to audiobooks and podcasts of NPR shows that aren't carried on my local station or are on when I'm at work.
No, it is free. You may be thinking of groveshark which only had a few day trial on my phone (I don't know what their web based pricing is like). Pandora on mobile actually has fewer audio ads than on the web (and the google on screen ones are as unobtrusive as ads get). The 40 hour/month limit might still apply.
There's probably a number of size and power constraints as well that result in every single leading cell phone lacking this 'feature.'
I can't remember the last mobile phone I had that didn't have an FM radio built-in; certainly my last one (LG Viewty) and my current (HTC Desire) both do; perhaps the situation is different in the States.
Of course whether or not you consider either of these phones to be "leading cell phones" is another matter; the Desire is pretty popular over here at least though.
It's official. Most of you are morons.