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Silviu Stahie reports via Softpedia
Many of the new SoC solutions [...] have FM Radio functionalities, but Google doesn't provide any kind of API for Android devices. It's basically just something that some companies could implement if they had the time or the drive to do it properly.
[...] Most [...] things are usually difficult when [they haven't] been done before. It's true that Radio FM functions have been available on older devices, but modern devices are not doing it, so there is little to no documentation on how to proceed.
A developer from the community is now working to get this function working on Ubuntu phones, and he's already enlisted the help of the Ubuntu developers. As it turns out, this has been talked about before, but for now, it's not a high priority.
Some of the Ubuntu phones, like the two BQ devices that are now available on the market, have Mediatek hardware and they are capable for[sic] Radio FM functions--at least in theory. What's more interesting, is that they should also be able to transmit, not only to receive.
"MediaTek (Aquaris E4.5 and E5) decided to implement custom kernel drivers with a custom character device (/dev/fm) and custom ioctl commands. There seem to be userspace libraries (libfm*) including a JNI wrapper in /system/lib of the Android container on our Ubuntu phones", developer sturmflut wrote on the official mailing list.
The ideal situation would be to allow users to initialize and tune the FM radio on the Aquaris E4.5 and E5 devices and to link this functionality to the media hub. It will take a while, but it's quite possible that FM Radio will be one of the numerous features that you can only find in Ubuntu phones.
Last Summer, Jack Wallen at TechRepublic reported:
[More after the break.]
- AT&T to activate FM Radio chips next year
What if you want to hear a local radio personality? Or want to hear your local NPR channel? What if you happen to be in a college town and want to enjoy the hippest tunes spinning off the platters of the alt college station?
[...] If your carrier is AT&T, you wait until next year when every Android device with the AT&T logo will be sold with their FM chips activated. That's right, good old FM radio is set for a mobile comeback.
...or as much of a comeback as the aging technology can.
[...] According to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), this will open up an entire world to a technology that has been so desperately in need of a boost. Consider this: FM broadcast radio will now enjoy song tagging. This could wind up being a massive boon for the music industry.
Consider this: You're listening to FM radio on your Android device and a song comes on that you fall in love with. You immediately tag the song and then, say, Amazon opens so that you can purchase the song, or Spotify opens so you can add it to a playlist.
[...] [Additionally, say] you're walking along listening to FM radio and an emergency is pushed to your device giving you detailed information on the threat as well as what to do. That's important stuff and should be a part of mobility.
This plan was actually put in place years ago and groups like FreeRadioOnMyPhone.org[1] had planned on filing an anti-trust suit to get a mandate from Congress. Now, it seems as if that's not going to be necessary.
[...] Once this happens. AT&T users will be able to make use of apps like NextRadio to deliver free FM broadcasts to their devices.
Of course, this isn't the first such deal. Sprint had already inked something similar to light up FM radio chips to prove the concept could work. But the deal with AT&T is the first such agreement with a large-scale carrier. [One also hopes that] the remaining carriers will come on board with this.
Do any Soylentils see immediate use cases in your areas? Any negatives to having this enabled that you perceive?
[1] If someone can identify the 1 script to whitelist in order to see the content (out of the 27 embedded in that page), that would be useful. I don't have the patience for pages constructed by idiots who don't understand "Degrades gracefully".
Previous: Small Broadcasters: FM Switch-Off is Premature
Norway to be First Nation to Switch Off National Analog FM Stations
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Sunday December 13 2015, @07:32PM
It's true that Radio FM functions have been available on older devices, but modern devices are not doing it....
Say what? Pretty much every phone I've had recently has had FM built in. I've never used it, but it has been there. Most recently along with about a dozen Motorola branded things that I assume I have no use for.
That said, radio is one of those things that the Internet has yet to replace for any number of reasons.
It's very local - something that the 'net still doesn't do well. Try finding local emergency information on the 'net. Maybe Twitter will do it, but more often you're out of luck, or buried in a sea of misinformation repeated endlessly.
It requires extremely minimal tech on the receiving end -a $5 battery radio will do fine. Or even an insanely overpriced wind-up affair.
Even the transmitting end requires relatively small infrastructure. As long as you have a back up generator and a way to get audio to it, an FM station can continue to function long after the phone and cel services are dead.
Maintaining Internet takes a lot of infrastructure to cover a small city. FM radio needs one rack of gear plus an antenna to do the same thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:27PM
I've never used it
So, you can't verify for us that it actually functions on any of those.
but it has been there.
I remember from when I was still using Windoze that in the file manager you could right-click the C: drive and it would offer as a menu item "Format".
It didn't actually work, but it was listed.
There's a lot of sloppy design|coding|QA out there.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @11:13PM
My current BQ Aquaris E5 has a radio app that came with the phone, called "Radio FM". I've used it and it works pretty much the same like the Nokia.
Wtf is this article talking about?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @11:51PM
a radio app
...which allows you to *stream* digital bits **across the Net**.
If your internet provider goes down, you lose "radio".
That internet radio paradigm also requires your radio station to have a stream.
Some don't.
Wtf is this article talking about?
A radio receiver that grabs analog radio waves and demodulates them.
That is built into the chipset--but not accessed by the (Android) OS to adjust the tuning or to process the audio.
(See the post by frojack, below.)
With this, if your internet provider goes down, you DON"T lose radio--unless the radio station also stops broadcasting.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @11:56PM
Receiving analog radio signals from the radio station also doesn't count against your bandwidth cap.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @01:24AM
Don't be an even bigger idiot than normal, --gewg_.
The radio app called "Radio FM" is used to *stream* analog modulations **across the VHF broadcast band**.
It's exactly what it says on the tin, and of course wouldn't work on a phone without appropriate hardware and drivers to receive FM radio. But since the phone he references does have the hardware and drivers, along with the "Radio FM" app to use them, it works just fine, to the surprise of nobody but you.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday December 13 2015, @11:26PM
Exactly, its there, it works, (but usually only with headphones, because it uses the wired headphones as an antenna).
All our HTC and Motorola phones have this.
This has nothing to do with Google. It has everything to do with the Chipset Manufacturers. Typically this is bundled into the WiFI/Bluetooth/FMradio chipset, and the driver supplied by that manufacturer is responsible to export that audio layer. Usually
the chip itself exports the audio (either digitally or analog) and the phone manufacturer does what it wants with it.
Not a Blame Google problem.
Works great to listen to some music from the various college and classical stations without burning any data, and almost zero battery usage as well.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.