I didn’t even realize Qualcomm removed the built in FM radio from their chips. Huh.
Or you could…ya know…just use the emergency safety features.
This is a ploy by broadcasters. Just like “think of the children!!” - they want more listeners to toss more ads at. They’ve been tossing this article around for a bit now, under the guise of “safety”, because they are losing listeners.
What emergency safety features? Making a 911 call?
The last time a major weather event happened it was really hard to get updated information, the power was out, internet was down. I only had an old battery powered radio that still had an FM tuner.
As time passes fewer and fewer devices have the FM tuners, and it’s less and less likely I have spare working batteries for them. A phone on the other hand, I’m already setup with backup batteries I can use to recharge it, I don’t need to be as “prepared” to be able to stay up to date if it could still pick up the radio
All cell phones have emergency alert capabilities. They don’t need a connection to the normal service tower, it uses any tower in the area that is available, and emergency broadcasts are put out and tested all the time. If you live in the USA, you’ll likely get one today at 2pm even…
The emergency alert system isn’t meant for informational updates.
Using it to broadcast updates on when power is going to be restored isn’t what it’s meant for
You fundamentally misunderstand the technology. For push notifications and amber alerts and such to work, you need a personal 1:1 digital connection to a nearby cell tower. The range on that connection is not very far, and every alert needs to be sent individually.
An FM tower could broad-beam disaster information for tens of miles around with much simpler technology, out of one location on generator power. It is a far more reliable way to get information about a major disaster out to everybody simultaneously with far fewer infrastructure layers involved. No need to spool literally millions of alert pings out.
Also a continuous voice stream carries a lot more info than a damn push notification - obviously.
i dont understand. what do the broadcasters get out of this? is it just exposure about the existence of radio? u can always not use the radio in your phone
FM radio has been removed from most phones for a while now. They want it added back. Having an FM radio in the device for “emergencies”, means that now phone producers will be required to have working FM radio capabilities, and if they have that much - it’s a no-brainer for them because they’re required to have it, to just add the FM radio app to the device by default. THAT is what broadcasters get out of this. They don’t actually give a shit about using FM capabilities for emergencies - it’s just a convenient way for broadcasters to force phone manufacturers to add the capability back when they don’t really care to.
i get that, but i feel like most people still wont listen to radio, even if they have an unremovable app for it.
i hate how every quality of life feature now has to be pitched as essential safety, instead of simply being there because it’s good. can’t have quality anymore unless it’s literally necessary
Meh, I haven’t listened to FM in years. It’s just not a feature as far as I’m concerned.
I know I’m a minority opinion but I like having the option. It’s like IR blasters, SD cards, removable batteries… things I didn’t use all the time but sometimes come very much in handy.
The problem is that you have to make the line somewhere. Sure, one small feature is kinda miniscule, but you could easily name dozens, and that starts eating into costs and/or other actually useful features fast.
There’s also the fact that when you have a “swiss army knife” of phones chances are it doesn’t do anything really well.
Return of the IR blaster would be absolutely killer for me. I LOVED that feature on my old Samsungs, especially because my SO has a tendency to just… leave the remote places
Actually many modern electric cars are trying to get rid of FM radios because the electric motors can cause all sorts of interference (or so they say)
right next to the electric flares/beacons
In the US, you can get magnesium road flares. IIRC, some places in Europe don’t permit them due to fire risk, but in the States, I can get them even in California (which is probably about the most fire-conscious state out there).
That’s bullshit.
Ride around in a golf cart listening to the radio sometime. It works fine.
Part of the reason the manufacturers want to get rid of the radios is because they make the entertainment center style consoles that all cars have now much more expensive.
For most people, the best radio they own is the one in their car. Radios near interference sources like rotating iron parts need to be well shielded and a lot of the design techniques that will accommodate high selectivity and sensitivity are shared with interference tolerance.
So even the shittiest car had to have a decent radio.
Nowadays the shittiest car could have a godawful quality infotainment system if it weren’t for the damn radio that buyers expect. And it’s not like the manufacturers can just slap down a trash radio into the infotainment system, it would require shielding, separation and a host of other components and techniques that are just left off crappier digital electronics all together.
Since so many other countries have sunset analog fm, theres readily available cheap shitty infotainment systems for use in the rios and versas that make up the majority of car sales in the us and have razor thin profit margins.
So… no, the electric motors aren’t keeping them from putting a radio in electric cars.
E: but if you don’t wanna believe gayhitler420s rant about radio, plenty of electric cars have am/fm radios in em, including the Toyota bz4x.
IIRC that’s just an issue with AM radios. And it happens with petrol cars too. A friend of mine’s car has this weird quirk where, while running below 50km/h, (I assume) the alternator generates RF interference in the AM band.
We have nothing broadcasting there though, so no biggie.
Is this the latest “sneaky” way to insist all phones need headphone jacks?
My current phone has an FM radio, and no headphone jack. It uses the headphones as antenna via the USB-C adapter.
Never used it, though - and rarely used radio in any phone which had that feature before that.
Phones should have FM radio not as an emergency feature, but as a method of banging out the tunes. I wanna jam out at a campsite with no downloaded music and no cell service.
I don’t own an FM radio small enough to shove up my ass, which a phone with FM would solve. I’m sure phone designers will realize their untapped market soon enough.
I don’t own an FM radio small enough to shove up my ass, which a phone with FM would solve.
There are FM radios smaller and more phallic than there are cell phones. You might not own them, but that’s not a problem specific to the radio; clearly your existing cell phone doesn’t do FM or you wouldn’t be running into this problem in the first place.
Maybe the 3.5mm jack and headphones could double as an antenna!
There were a few Motorola smartphones that did that actually. It worked quite well tbh.
All phones I’ve ever owned did that. The radio app would tell you to plug your earphones.
I had one that didn’t require it. I think Prestigio PAP4044 DUO. It could pick up almost nothing, but almost at least wasn’t nothing.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite does that. If I’m not mistaken, some budget phones nowadays still do that.
Even if they don’t, as long as there’s a headphone jack, it might be possible to add good FM Radio support with NextRadio/Spirit2. You might need to root your phone, though.
