Hidden 'Radio' Buttons Discovered In Apple's iOS 6.1

tad001 writes "CNET is reporting 'Discovered last night within a freshly jailbroken iPad: a set of buttons and code references for "radio," a feature found in iTunes on Macs and PCs, but not on the iPad or iPhone.' ... 'The buttons hint at Apple's much-rumored radio service, a product that will let people stream music much like they do on the popular Pandora service, but with deep ties to Apple's iTunes library.' ... 'The discovery follows a high-profile jailbreak of iOS 6.1, the updated system software Apple released just last week. A team of developers came up with a tool that gives users deep system-level access to do things like install applications from third-party app stores, change the look and feel of iOS, and add new software features.'"

Comments

Another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network?

[Internal Modem]

This seems like another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network, which can definitely use the boost. Advertiser-sponsored streaming radio stations (a la Pandora) with a paid option to remove advertising.

These buy buttons seem like the obvious tie-in with iTunes to buy a song as it is streaming. This falls in with Apple's announcement that they will start separating software revenue from hardware revenue in quarterly reports. I guess they won't be propping up iPod revenue with iTunes anymore (since music players don't affect the stock any more).

Apple's software is getting stickier.

Re:Another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network?

[Sockatume]

Interestingly enough, iTunes runs at around break-even, with Apple using it largley as a way of getting people to buy iDevices by ensuring there is content available for them. I wonder if this means that the market has shifted and it now has to pull its own weight as a profit-making part of the business.

Re:Another revenue stream for Apple's iAd Network?

[tlhIngan]

2013, we now know the sales projections were conservative, and with a need to show revenue growth to investors, I'm sure Tim Cook would not announce that Apple would begin quarterly reports of software revenue (e.g. iTunes) without being certain he can produce big numbers.

iTunes sales numbers are right there in their financials. It's marked as "online services" or somesuch, and it earns a few billion dollars in revenue annually (note timespan).

Of course, those numbers pale compared to even Mac revenue numbers (order of magnitude higher).

And revenues aren't profits - no one outside Apple knows how much the iTunes store makes in profit - though I suspect it's saddled with the cost of the datacenter Apple set up and iCloud and processing fees and such.

If I were Apple...

[sootman]

... I'd dedicate one measly megabyte of iOS to random icons and product ID strings just to fuck with people. Seriously, it'd be fun. For every one feature accurately hinted at there would be ten bogus ones.

Re:I predict the imminent retun of Slashdot Radio.

[Anonymous Coward]

Check the FAQ, they changed it. You didn't use to, but you do now.

Now, on to the actual topic: Why? There is already a free app out there for both iPhone/iPad and Android that will let you stream almost any radio station in the world; they advertise it daily on KSHE. My guess is that they were originally going to put some sort of radio feature in, it got half finished and everyone was using the free app so they shelved it.

Meanwhile, five years ago someone I know had a dumb phone that had an AM-FM radio built in. Not internet radio, of course, but still -- it seems to me that every smart phone and feature phone should have a built-in radio and TV receiver. If the telcos weren't a bunch of bald faced liars (like every corporation is these days) they could save a lot of their bandwidth. Thios pretty much indicates that their data caps are bullshit that has nothing to do with saturating their frequencies, but is just a ploy to extract more $$$$$ from their customers.

If Android had a built-in TV and radio reciever (most of the curcuitry is already there and all of it for a sound radio), I'd buy one. A tablet with built-in radio and TV would really be nice!