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FCC Chief Tells Apple To Turn on iPhone's FM Radio Chip (cnet.com)
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai pushed Apple on Friday to activate the FM radio chips in the iPhone. From a report: In the wake of three major hurricanes that have wiped out communications for millions of people over the past month, Pai issued a statement urging Apple, one of the largest makers of cellphones in the US, to "reconsider its position, given the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria." FM radios that are already included in every phone could be used to access "life-saving information" during disasters, he said. For years the majority of smartphones sold in the US have included FM radios, but most of them have been turned off so that you couldn't use the function. Why? Mobile customers would be a lot less likely to subscribe to streaming music services if they could just listen to traditional, free broadcast radio. This incentive is especially true for Apple, which has a streaming music service. Apple said in a statement: "iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models do not have FM radio chips in them nor do they have antennas designed to support FM signals, so it is not possible to enable FM reception in these products."
Apple lies.
No internal antenna.
When I was in Korea a few years back I was intrigued to see everyone on the subway watching OTA broadcast TV on their phones. This wasn't "streaming" video coming in over their data plan - The phones and tablets had antennas that extended from them and they were watching broadcast TV.
my LG G6, which I hate and its a slow chunk of crap, just tells you to plug in a set of headphones for an antenna cause FM radio is not that hard to pick up
That doesn't really help if the receiver part of the chipset is just terminated, but it really wouldn't kill anyone to enable that feature in the future
FM a threat to streaming? Hardly. In USA, FM is a wasteland of Clearchannel-controled homogenous superficial pop garbage, interspersed with talk radio.
NPR is a lone shining beacon, and is usually my power-out news outlet... until the hurricane either kills their power or topples the transmitter's antenna.
As for built-in antenna, I bet the older iPhones (and others) were using the headphone cable as antenna, just like old Walkman-type radios.
But now? Due to Courage there's no more headphone cable.
Huh. I wonder if the dongle adaptor + headphone would work.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
He could try to shame the tech companies to support his plan or he could use the FCC authority to do so. But of course to Pai that would be a outrageous attempt at interference with the free markets, no matter how many lives it saves
Having an FM tuner is one of the requirements when I change my Android phone (the others being 4G, USA+Europe frequencies, 3.5mm headphone jack, SDXC >64Gb, screen >=1920x, screen >=5.5", removable battery, >2Go mem, >16Go onboard, 150g). This being said the last 3 phones I've had had shitty radios that kept on changing channel by themselves. I have no idea why. I suspected that the cabling of the earphones had something wrong and sent some fake 'next channel' signal, but it happens with different earphones and some phones are worse than others.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
iPhones were shipping with the FM support disabled long before Apple Music or Spotify existed.
Why not just buy like a transistor radio with solar cell charging, their very cheep. Where's my Swiss knife pop out of my Iphone, that would be more useful.
In an emergency my pocket radio powered by 2 AA batteries will significantly outlast any smartphone. And last time I checked you could even get them with a crank handle that recharges batteries using a dynamo . Emergency, what a dumb excuse.
As Apple pointed out, their phones truly just do not support OTA radio broadcasts. But Pai could not be bothered to uncover this little technical fact first....Now, if he were really serious about this "life-saving" stuff, he could use his R majority on the FCC to mandate that - after, say, 2020 - all smartphones sold in America must be able to receive and play OTA broadcasts but the chances of THAT happening are below zero.
Tell Samsung, Tell Pixel, Tell Motorola, tell ALL the smartphone manufactures to turn on the FM radio chip so i can at least get local broadcast FM radio music, news and weather
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
How are people going to download the updated firmware to enable the FM radio? If they were in a position to do so, they wouldn't need to anyway.
I feel so old. I actually remember when Slashdot pretended to have editors...
In order to get FCC Approval, Apple has to submit not only samples of their "production-ready" Phones; but full documentation, including SCHEMATICS and SPECIFICATIONS...
TO THE FUCKING FCC!!!
But now, that same Clue-Free MORON has the temerity to attempt to make Apple look like "Bad Guys" that have simply REFUSED to "turn on" that which does not exist!
And he Bloody-Well SHOULD have known that, BEFORE he even made his "Demand"!!!
FFS! Our Tax Dollars at Work...
...that someone could "think different" about FM radio.
Sure, most of the wifi/bt chips have an FM radio built in too.
It enable the feature it requires an antenna. It's usually done via the headphone cable, as you can't really make a decent antenna for ~100MHz signals inside a phone. The optimal length is around 1.7m. The headphone jack needs low-pass filters so it can be used an antenna. It can't be electrically connected to the metal body of a phone without a filter.
Why? Mobile customers would be a lot less likely to subscribe to streaming music services if they could just listen to traditional, free broadcast radio
Is that really the justification? Seems pretty weak. My car has an FM radio, yet I still choose to pair it with my phone so I can listen to streaming stations -- radio is not a substitute for a station where I get to pick the music.
And since cellular providers are always whining that their customers are eating up valuable cellular bandwidth with streaming (which forces them to cap "unlimited" plans), seems like they'd be *happy* to reduce streaming.
NT?
One question will the radio function still work with any wire set connected to the lightning connector? Or does it only detect lightning not modulated rf? Maybe if the function is reactivated then the red cross can send in emergency head phone adapters for all the poor disconnect iPhone users on the islands, along with a hack to reactivate all the disconnected iOS radio software. Either way I don't see an easy solution to getting newer iPhones to pick up radio stations again. By the time Apple reacts and releases an update to activate the function most likely full cell service will have been restored.
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
A: Antennas not installed.
I have a few questions about this.
Why single out Apple? The same criticism applies to many Android devices as well. It would be nice to be able to tune FM radio on Android phones, too.
Would the transmitters be powered for many of the stations? If the islands are largely without power, and even two out of three of the NOAA weather radio transmitters in PR and the USVI are down, would anything still be transmitting at this time?
Also, speaking of NOAA weather radio stations, what are these tuners capable of? NOAA weather radio stations are between 162.4 and 162.55 MHz, and have much less bandwidth than commercial FM stations. I'd also expect that the 2-meter band (144-148 MHz) is useful for amateur radio operators. Could a phone FM radio tuner even tune these stations?
You need more than a demodulation unit in the SOC, you need an antennae that can tune to FM wavelengths, but such a large antennae will not fit into modern phone form factors. This is what happens when you appoint a political hack to run a technical agency.
It's a headphone cable into the lightning adaptor. The phone needs the headphone because the wire acts like an FM antenna. If that antenna stops at the adaptor, it doesn't act like one for the phone.
Dumbass.
Also, why not require Apple to integrate an FM antenna into the Lightning (or USB C when they go that way,) dongle?
This is nothing but a BS excuse. All the FCC has to do is withhold approval for any radio transmitter or receiver sold unless it contains the ability to act as an FM radio, and includes an ad-free, free-to-use app that will allow users to access it, and have full access to stereo features, etc.
Frankly, I'd love to see Apple forced to produce a "AM/FM/WXR" app that lets you use any/all the radios as SDR, or whatever. Why? Courage. :)
Apple, enable the goddamned radio on the phone.
It shouldn't take a FCC action to do it.
That's the issue. Not that the FCC chairman requested it.
Enable. The. Fucking. Radio.
The Apple answer is not complete. What about earlier models?
Pai could read up on WEAs. They work with existing cell phones with no additional hardware necessary. They use out of band signaling so a flooded network does not affect them and cell sites don't actually need MSC connectivity to send them out.
Pai could also call out the CTIA et al, for dragging their feet and suing the government to not be required add backup power to cell sites. This was something the FCC mandated after Katrina but got thrown into legal limbo for years by the CTIA.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
If you happen to have an iPhone 6 and can get internet for the âoeupgradeâ to FM radio, you can get your news. How much is a FM radio these days? And a purpose built radio will work head and shoulders above a radio inside a cell phone with no antenna. Sheesh.
Anyone who can afford a recent iPhone can afford an inexpensive emergency radio. In Japan, where earthquakes, floods, landslides have raised awareness for people to stock basic emergency supplies including hand crank charging radio/flashlights which are fairly inexpensive and more reliable in an emergency. Of course these are typically left at home. Phones usually with a person but unless on a hike should be near some place with a functional radio. Yes, would be helpful if iPhones offered FM radio. Apple stingy on this small feature should be explained. As others indicated an antenna adapter could be an accessory. Many folks would probably forgo and use the $20 for a more functional dedicated FM/AM radio. My Sony Walkman has FM radio though signal often poor but good enough for hearing voice warnings. Think Apple will wait for a calmer time to address this issue which is being amplified due to the emergency. iPhone scoped out the feature since rarely important to most. A water proof iPhone 7 could be argued more durable and useful when a hurricane rolls through. Sorry but I think the outrage is over blown on this feature missing in an iPhone. If important get an Android or a dedicated radio.
Get whoever makes something like this: hd radio to make a bunch of them. If you believe the reviews, one set of batteries goes a long way.
Basically we need to stop relying on FM radio. It is obsolete, and those frequencies are going to go all digital sooner or later, hopefully. Television for most probably isn't feasible. They have better things to do than provide power to a bunch of tvs, and gas for generators is apparently very scarce. Even portable ones would require at least a moderately sized solar panel, and that would be better used to charge a phone.
Just jailbreak your iPhone, then you can switch on the radio chip. I do it all the time, and switch on the microwave chip every time I need to reheat a coffee.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
With a system that's designed to only stay "alive" for ~120 hours in standby and has ~20 hours of low-power (like FM radio) usage. Puerto Rico is facing months of power loss, I'm pretty sure very few of the iPhone/Android devices on the island are powered at this point.
If you want people to listen to FM radios, provide them with them with one that doesn't require power, you know like a crystal radio, you can get them mass-produced under $0.50 - so for less than 1 year of Ajit's salary, you can provide the ENTIRE island of Puerto Rico with radios.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
What a dummy. Everyone knows you have to download your FM radio shows using iTunes at $1.99 per station.
If the FM stations in other parts of the state were like those in North Central Florida (Ocala, Gainesville), there was very little helpful information broadcast after the storm. So, even if phones had FM radios in them, it wouldn't have done much good. And, not everyone in the world has a cell phone (yours truly included).
It should read, "Idiot Bureaucrat Demands the Impossible."
It's almost like FCC Chairman Pai barely know what's going on in one of the industries he regulates.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If Ajit Pai is interested in emergency communications, he should ask his outgoing audio media chief if it was really a good idea to pull the license for 3 synchronous A.M. boosters for the only Puerto Rican radio station that continued to broadcast after Hurricane Maria.
Ajit is a total idiot! Period.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.