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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."
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.
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.
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
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...
I could not agree more about what unclearchannel consolidation has done to homogenize our community media.
If a community doesn't support its local radio station to the point that the station needs to sell out to a national chain in order to exist, then was it truly community radio to begin with? Is it better for the station to close down and have the equipment removed, or to be in place so that it can be used do disseminate emergency information when necessary? Why does it matter what it plays at other times?
At least we do have NPR with real engineer, tech and talent that knows the phone numbers for local resources.
Our "NPR" tech/engineer works in the big city 60 miles away and has the numbers for resources 60 miles away. That's not local. There are places where that 60 miles is more like 180 and a four or five hour drive.
The fact that the handset vendors are selling $k phones without such a simple, basic lifesaving resources as an FM receiver + weather radio (~162 MHz) is criminal.
For those to be "lifesaving", they need to be listened to. Most people don't know about NOAA radio, and even most of those that do don't listen on a regular basis. How many people have a properly configured and working weather radio where they are? I have one and I have yet to hear it alert on anything, including the alleged regular tests. It's basically useless.
And yes, I'll go with transistor radio, because those can get AM radio, which is where I'd go for my news. FM is full of Clearchannel crapola so even in an emergency I probably won't think to turn on FM radio.
Don't just top at AM if you are getting one for emergency. Get one that handles the shortwave bands too. The shortwave bands can pick up radio from all around the world so the can get signals that are come from outside of a disaster area. If the disaster is big enough it might take out all the AM stations in range of your radio.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
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.
Just download the emergency broadcasts before the hurricane starts and listen to them later in the comfort of your soon to be destroyed home.
All you smart people and you can't come up with this obvious solution! Come on guys!
Most pocket-sized radios use the headphone cable as an antenna. So just plug your headphones into your iPhone ...... Oh.
Have gnu, will travel.