Future Samsung Phones Will Have a Working FM Radio Chip (androidpolice.com) 215
A few months ago, LG announced a partnership with NextRadio to unlock the FM chip in its smartphones. Now, Samsung is doing the same. Android Police reports: NextRadio made the announcement, rightly explaining that FM radio is essential in areas with low connectivity and in emergency and disaster situations where a connection might be difficult to obtain or maintain and where access to information could be a matter of life and death. With the chip unlocked, users will be able to listen to local radio on their phone using the NextRadio Android app. The press release mentions that "upcoming [Samsung] smartphone models in the U.S. and Canada" will have the FM chip unlocked, however I did find several existing Samsung devices with their FM chip enabled on NextRadio's site.
antenna (Score:5, Insightful)
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for antenna, just plugin your headph..... crap.
Samsung phones have them, at least for this year
Re: antenna (Score:2)
Instead the reason for the push is to make sure you can get emergency alerta when you have no cell coverage. And...of course..the new FCC keeps adding alert systems for every little thing. Lik
One Word: (Score:3)
Super!
(Apart from that, why the FUCK was that locked in the first place and who was benefiting from that an/or who paid them to have it off ????)
Re:One Word: (Score:4, Insightful)
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OK, that may be the reason, but the manufacturer of a cell is not really related to the service suppliers or - we use your phones to con our customer to buy them when you turn off the FM chip..
Who wins there and who looses. Seems the 2. part is getting more and more overhand and the abuse increases.
Really gotta put a stop on this, the only goal and focus here is $$'s, other values are gone out the window...
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I think the carriers wanted people listening to streaming services using their data plans.
That's what I do. Generally, the sound quality is much better than FM, especially when walking between buildings.
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Oh, I couldn't guess oh, wait:
Slacker Radio
RadioTunes
Jango
AccuRadio
Others [wondershare.com].
Top 25 Free Internet Radio Sites to Stream Music at Ease
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If you're referring to the 1800s.
Re:One Word: (Score:4, Interesting)
The real reason is less interesting. The FM radio needs a reasonably long antenna to work, so wired headphones are required. Market research supposedly showed that nobody wanted to have an FM radio in their mobile phone.
Pretty much every mobile phone sold since the late 1990s has had a fully implemented, but disabled, FM radio chipset but no provisions for an antenna and no way to turn it on.
Re:One Word: (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems to have been a US thing. A lot of phones released in Europe and the US differed in the mobile chipset (bands, GSM/CDMA) and that the FM radio was available here.
More recently phones have had world band chipsets so Europe gets disabled FM as well.
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What about HD Radio? Does HD radio require the same kind of antenna as FM radio? I'd like to see HD radio on cell phones instead of vanilla FM, because there are a lot more station choices. I've got an old MP3 player that has HD radio and it gets all the local FM stations and a lot more. Great quality, too.
I'm not sure if there's HD in the rural areas, though. I live in what would be a rural area, except we've got tens of thousands of students here nine months of the year, so there's very good broadcas
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HD Radio requires the same antenna, it uses the same bands after all. But the problem is HD radio (it doesn't stand for "high definition", it stands for "hybrid digital" and refers to the fact that the st
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Ah, that's definitely a problem. I had no idea.
I've been lucky enough to have lived either in big cities or college towns that have good FM stations outside the mainstream. But yeah, you get into rural America and you're limited to three types of FM stations: Country, Western,
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The real reason is less interesting. The FM radio needs a reasonably long antenna to work, so wired headphones are required. Market research supposedly showed that nobody wanted to have an FM radio in their mobile phone.
Pretty much every mobile phone sold since the late 1990s has had a fully implemented, but disabled, FM radio chipset but no provisions for an antenna and no way to turn it on.
Huh? Every smart phone I've had, starting with the 2012 Google Galaxy Nexus, has had a working FM radio.
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if they unlock it wtf for do you need an app for it though? can't they have a tuner app built in..
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The real real reason was that many years ago when they were designing the multiband radios they didn't know what features the future would want and they had existing IP blocks for the FM radio. And it only takes a tiny bit of space on the chip. So the chips were designed with the feature.
But these chips were mostly designed years before the cell phones using them finally made it to the masses, and the carriers didn't care about that feature, they never asked for it, it was just an extra thing the chip could
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He's just astroturfing for them. If consumers in the US realized that everyone in other countries had native FM radio support in their cellphones all along and why that was the case, there would be massive outrage.
Yeah, well OK (Score:4, Interesting)
That's nice but if the carriers disable it (I'm looking at you, Verizon) what's the point?
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That's nice but if the carriers disable it (I'm looking at you, Verizon) what's the point?
Get unlocked, unsubsidized phone. You'll get faster update as well
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Sprint too. My Sprint LG V20 has FM unlocked. Not rooted or modified in any way, it came with FM out of the box.
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Great! (Score:2)
Cigar? (Score:2)
Pretty close... [wordpress.com]
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The author of the link knows a fair bit about radio, including cellphone radios, being also the author of non-trivial SDR software [fyngyrz.com] and a long-term RF engineer.
The author of the linked article, OTOH, knew, and reported, that the device in question made available three bands that the radio in the cellphone is (a) not designed to operate on and (b) not permitted to operate upon.
In light of those facts, you might want to temper your remarks. Or not. Free-ish country and all that.
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Does NextRadio use the FM chip, or Wifi? (Score:5, Interesting)
I just tried it on my Samsung Galaxy S5, and it works, but it appears to be using WiFi. How do I know if it's using the FM chip?
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Re:Does NextRadio use the FM chip, or Wifi? (Score:5, Informative)
It turns out that the Samsung Galaxy S5's FM chip is supported by NextRadio -- provided your mobile provider hasn't disabled it. Mine has (Verizon.)
There's more information on supported devices and networks here. [nextradioapp.com]
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Turn off your fucking WiFi? Jesus H Christ.
Yes, of course I tried that already! And the signal stopped. Then I tried connecting without WiFi on, and it worked. My network icon doesn't show activity, but still I wonder. Going to airplane mode disables the app, so that test is out.
There's no obvious indicator in the app that shows an FM chip was found. I suppose I could try watching my data usage after a few minutes of listening, to see whether my provider is streaming the signal to me.
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FM ... (Score:2)
... broadcasting is easy peasy for a lot of techs like ham radio operators and Radio Shack project dweebs.
This could be the answer to mesh networking.
That will be the "next radio" step.
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We don't need no steenkin' app from Next Radio.
It will all be underground and illegal.
This is how terrorists will communicate.
I'm serious, kinda, except I didn't include white nationalists and sovereign citizens and stuff.
Headphone jack on s9 confirmed! (Score:2)
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A bit late (Score:4, Informative)
Norway has already abandoned FM completely, the rest of Europe not far behind.
Re:A bit late (Score:5, Informative)
You are generalising. Introduction of DAB radio is not the same thing as choosing to abandon FM radio. Most of Eastern and Central Europe don't have any DAB broadcasts at all and most of the others are only doing trials.
Sweden has decided not to discontinue FM radio broadcasts for the time being after strong objections from the Ministry of Defence (emergency broadcasts) and because of lack of customer demand for DAB radio.
People tend to instead replace their FM radios with personalised streaming services on their cell phones, for which there is also more commercial interest.
DAB does not offer any tangible benefits over mobile streaming and FM. In good conditions, DAB could provide either better audio quality or more channels than FM, but not both.
In bad conditions, weak reception of emergency broadcasts over FM can still be intelligible where as the same over DAB would just cut off.
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Re:A bit late (Score:4, Informative)
Actually Norway was first, but there are dates set to sunset analog radio in most countries. IIRC around 2024 there would be no FM transmissions in Europe.
Surprisingly, analog radio sunset is harder than move from analog to digital TV. TV switchover was much quicker, it was mostly done few years ago. But radio 1) is much easier and reliable to use in emergencies; 2) is used in many cars, and a car have about 15 years lifetime.
Encroachment ... (Score:2)
... via Simple Data.
Eavesdropping on what station(s) you prefer, what genre music you like, you know ... just like apps do now and stuff.
Full Pockets (Score:3)
This would be really handy. If I want to listen to the radio commentary at my local sporting games, the streaming services are 30 - 60 seconds delayed.
They force non-commercial broadcasters to route through their app if they want to stream, but delay it so you can't stream it "live" and commercial-free over the top of the TV broadcast.
But the AM/FM broadcasts are instantaneous, so I always have a pocket AM/FM radio with me at the game.
Carrying one less thing would suit me fine.
The HAM in me is wondering... (Score:2)
What they aren't saying... (Score:2)
is that they are turning on the analog FM for people just when countries are turning it off and switching to digital FM. /s
Digital (Score:2)
But the followup questions are:
1) Analog, digital, or both?
2) And if not also digital, why not?
Comment removed (Score:3)
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For less than 80 New Zealand dollars I can listen to FM radio on these two feature phones without using headphones as antennas. https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz... [thewarehouse.co.nz] https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz... [thewarehouse.co.nz]
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My Galaxy S2 had an FM chip and a free FM application built in, made by Samsung itself. My Moto G2 has FM too, my Zenfone2 too. What's the big deal? It's because people who buy $1000 phone will be happy to pay for data and stream music, while people who buy (unlocked) mid range phone, like me, sometimes does not have data plan so the FM is free to use, it's marketing?
iPhone case (Score:2)
This is so obvious. (Score:2)
This is technology that basically has been around since the steam age. In terms of "feasible and mature" it's way off the carts compared to anything else. I remember building battery-less radio receivers as an 8 year old. Adding radio receivers to modern smartphones is trivial and I personally wouldn't mind if lawmakers made it mandatory for vendors to do this. For people in distress and desaster zones we can only hope that vendors come to some sort of gentleman's agreement to build radios in by default. Th
But FM is being phased out (Score:2)
Re:But FM is being phased out (Score:4, Informative)
Long-wave AM requires a long antenna to pull in a decent signal. It's a shame, but that's physics for ya.
Interesting throwback. (Score:2)
I think my last 5 phones have had FM receivers, but I don't use it because I don't like any of the stations here. I basically stopped listening to FM radio years ago when I had had enough of the narcissistic hosts. Plus I lost my taste in pop music.
The music station I do listen to now is available on DAB, though. But that hasn't taken off as a smartphone trick yet. It doesn't help that DAB coverage is way worse than FM. Especially in things like building penetration or train tunnels (where it completely fai
This used to be a common feature in phones (Score:2)
Just like past ones? (Score:2)
Wait, what non-Apple phone produced within the past fifteen years doesn't come with an FM radio?
Of course many need a headphone plugged in to act as an antenna but a few, such as the Alcatel Pop, don't.
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You must be European... in USA the past 15 years were the years of phone locked to death with features removed. Of course the $2 WiFi/BT chip also support FM, but it was disabled so people had to pay data to stream music.
I am sure the consumers will be fascinated by this (Score:2)
They actually took time to make an announcement? What a joke.
Huh. This is a thing? (Score:2)
My HTC M7 had an unlocked FM chip. So did the M8.
I did know of some carriers that locked the chip in various phones. Oh yea, my Sensation 4G did also.
But My U11 doesn't have an FM chip, which is in the middle of the list of reasons why I probably have purchased my last HTC phone. Time to move on to another manufacturer, with different annoyances, just to break an 8 year streak of HTC highs and lows.
No DAB on these otherwise digital devices? (Score:2)
Come on guys, add DAB. Or is that on the same slow track as IPv6?
There's no demand? You mean there's no device to use the technology and create the market demand - or it costs crazy amounts, making nobody any money because nobody is buying it until patents expire.
Korea - TV (Score:3)
This wasn't packet data carried over their data plans - This was OTA broadcast-TV.
You could see all these people commuting on the train watching broadcast TV - Even on flip-phones.
Picture:
http://modernseoul.files.wordp... [wordpress.com]
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Sure, find a place in the phone to put an AM antenna [scitoyscatalog.com]
You could have AM radio. (Score:5, Informative)
My Galaxy S7's FM radio has worked with NextRadio (FM broadcast band) for quite some time now. AM is possible, if they are so inclined to make that happen. Because...
Also interesting is that for an FM radio to be practical, you need an antenna, and so far, that's been the wire to the earbuds / headphones, which is decently longish. So very likely implicit in this "there will be FM radio" lies an "there will be an audio jack", and also, "if we want AM radio, we can do it." Ever since low power software defined radio has been possible, this stuff can be done. Particularly in a high-power availability device like a cellphone. It can be done the old way, too, but not nearly as well.
I suspect the whole "there will be FM" thing is known somewhat gleefully in the hallowed corporate halls at Samsung as "taking advantage of Apple's... courage."
Re:You could have AM radio. (Score:5, Informative)
Antenna (Score:3)
You can't fit a decent FM radio antenna inside a phone, especially if the case is metal. Walkman-type radios used the earphone wire as an antenna, which is probably what the phones are going to have to do. This means you'll have to have wired earbuds for the radio to work.
The smallest workable AM antenna is a ~5 inch bar of iron with a super thin wire wound around it hundreds of times. You're *never* going to fit that into a modern cell phone.
Re: Antenna (Score:2, Insightful)
You obviously never had the experience of building a crystal radio as a kid
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Re: Antenna (Score:2)
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Walkman-type radios used the earphone wire as an antenna, which is probably what the phones are going to have to do.
That's what they already do, if they have FM radio.
The smallest workable AM antenna is a ~5 inch bar of iron with a super thin wire wound around it hundreds of times.
Am I the only one old enough to remember car radios and the whip antennas they had, which provided AM coverage? I have an old car radio in my office right now that works fine with nothing more than a 3' piece of wire.
The "magic" is that the impedance is very high with such a short antenna, so the radio has to be designed to deal with that.
IF there were an AM radio chip that matched the size of the FM chips they have for cell phones, the earphone wire wou
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Am I the only one old enough to remember car radios and the whip antennas they had, which provided AM coverage?
The whip antennas were for FM coverage. Inside the head unit of the car radio is one of those bar-type AM radio antennas. I'm 100% sure because I used to work for a company that did TA/QA testing for car stereo systems.
The "magic" is that the impedance is very high with such a short antenna, so the radio has to be designed to deal with that.
Impedance doesn't matter. The length of the antenna needs to be an evenly divisible fraction of the wavelength of the middle of the band you wish to receive for optimal reception. For FM the shortest you can get away with is a few feet, which is the length of a whip antenna, or the wire for a
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You can't fit a decent FM radio antenna inside a phone
Yes, you can. Literally in the last few minutes, I have been listening to FM radio on two feature phones without using earphones as antennas. They both have built-in antennas. https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz... [thewarehouse.co.nz] https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz... [thewarehouse.co.nz]
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You can't fit a decent FM radio antenna inside a phone...
Yes you can [sciencemag.org].
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Re:You could have AM radio. (Score:5, Informative)
For FM, sure, for AM? Not so much given the very long wavelength. But you also have to have a headphone jack, something not as common as it once was.
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The ones I had required extending the antenna in order to work halfway decently.
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As bobbied has already said, a 1/4 wavelength antenna length for FM is a bit less than a metre. A bit shorter than the average length of headphone cords. The shield of the headphone jack is connected via a low-pass filter so it can be used as an FM antenna.
Trying to get a usable signal for a 525kHz carrier is going to be quite hard with a headphone lead sized antenna. It's a 570 metre wavelength. The top of the AM band isn't too much better at 180m. That's why portable AM radios use ferrite rod antennas.
Re:You could have [dead] AM radio. (Score:2)
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Video killed radio [youtu.be].
No, US carriers killed radio.Calling Verizon to ask for their ROM to not block the FM chip in early Notes was met with "all you have to do is subscribe to our radio streaming service if you want radio!"
Re: You could have AM radio. (Score:2)
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Re:Wait I want AM radio (Score:4, Informative)
Depends on how remote, at least during the day, using a standard radio. Where I am right now, I get a lot more FM signals then AM even though the transmitters are about as far away.
If you're really remote, you should have a good multi-band radio, though I believe shortwave is being used less and less, a strong AM signal can cover a good chunk of the continent at night.
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Frequency Modulation (Score:2)
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Yep! There it is, right beside the plug in headphones they need as an antenna, but have no way to actually plug in...
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WTF do I need FM for?
Disaster situations where the cellphone service is down and/or saturated.
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Just tried it on my phone and it does appear to be using the chip. Either that or they're invested in the radio illusion to the point that they model static and IMD to give you that authentic listening experience.