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The reason why FM receivers are present on smartphones is that they can be used to locate your position by noting a simple thing as signal strength of transmitters. More advanced methods makes use of SNR, frequency deviation and multipath interference characteristics. And the same method can be used for WiFi which of course makes collection of such data very useful for localization purposes where GPS etc isn't useful. Arrival time of a radio signal that is reported to the operator from many devices may also be used for the same purpose.
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Smartphone with FM Radio Tells Your Position
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belief, n:
Something you do not believe.
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday May 21 2014, @04:48PM
Its 2014, nobody listens to FM radio anymore. The purpose of the FM RX is to be a marketing bullet point so people who fondly remember listening to FM radio decades ago, will feel a similar fond nostalgia and buy the phone. Doesn't matter if it works or not (usually the latter). It sells better to older people obviously, because younger people will have never had the experience of enjoyable FM radio listening.
Perhaps in 30 years to cash in on nostalgia, the Apple iImplant direct brainwave stimulation device will advertise "Pandora compatible" so people who still remember Pandora, and remember it fondly, will buy it. Maybe spotify or whatever other fad. The new "myspace" phone, to be followed in a couple years by the "facebook" phone.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday May 21 2014, @04:56PM
I listen to FM all the time when I'm driving. Mostly tuned to NPR so I can get some real information with the news. Also get good jazz and classical music. Now..Get off my Lawn!
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21 2014, @10:04PM
NPR so I can get some real information with the news
While NPR might be slightly better than regular for-profit radio, it has corporate sponsors.
...then there are the topics you will never hear at all on their airwaves.
The content of their shows is molded as to never upset those sources of income:
What is said is suspect as to its completeness.
In my area, the only truly uncensored, non-commercial radio is an affiliate of Pacifica Radio. [wikipedia.org]
Pacifica only accepts money from listeners.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Wierd0n3 on Wednesday May 21 2014, @05:24PM
I can very easily say that statement is false. At my office we have a XM Radio running all day, go into a restaurant, Either a local TV or Radio station is on. my car radio has the nearest top 40 station currently set. for me, listening to the radio is fairly mindless background filler, but I like it because it keeps me from hearing compressors and cooling fans and road noise and whatever.
I guess you could call me techno-challenged, because i refuse to pay for a cellular data plan when I’m already paying $80/month for 6M/s at home. (Live in the sticks and the cost of internet goes up) so that rules out Pandora while driving (never mind theres a 40 mile dead-zone around my town, service is damn good in town though, we just got 3G)
Just remember, what is true in a hundred-thousand person city isn't necessarily true for the rest of the country/world
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21 2014, @05:40PM
Its 2014, nobody listens to FM radio anymore
I guess me and my family and their families are 'nobody'.
I take it you do not own a car and do not work in an office where people listen to the radio. Many do. Most of the people I know who use XM style radio use it for the first year they get it for free in their car. Then use the FM radio. There are a few I know who pay for it. But they are after stations that the local market does not carry.
I can tell you live in a fairly urban area and probably commute to work via public transportation. You probably work with people who are very similar. You are mistaking your life for 'everyone'. Dont, it makes you look snobbish when it is easy to demonstrate how you are wrong. and "the Apple iImplant direct brainwave stimulation device" a bit cynical :)
I have an FM radio in my phone. Never use it as I get 0 signal where my office is. I bought it to get a variety of music. I also use pandora for similar reasons. But mostly I goto my non insignificant music library that I ripped, and listen to music I paid for. I do it that way as when I want to hear a particular tune I do not want to google around for it or wait for pandora to bring it up in its play list.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday May 21 2014, @06:28PM
Are you in Europe perhaps? Or just older generation?
Nobody I know (I'm 23, located about 60 miles southwest of Boston) listens to the radio. Except my parents. Everyone around my age puts MP3s on their phone and listens to those. A few use Pandora or some other internet radio. 99% of cases people are plugging their smartphone into the car. The remaining few are using CDs. The only time I ever see anyone use FM is if it's with an FM transmitter plugged into the phone.
The last device I saw sold with an FM radio included was my Archos 5 MP3 player that I got about 5 years ago -- and I recall even then thinking it was a pretty absurd feature to have in an MP3 player. I've *never* seen a smartphone around here advertising FM reception.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday May 21 2014, @09:01PM
Doesn't matter what you've seen in the way of smartphone advertising.
Just about EVERY modern smartphone has an FM receiver in it and comes with an FM app.
The last device you saw sold with an FM receiver included was just about EVERY FRIKIN VEHICLE on the market.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday May 22 2014, @01:01PM
My Galaxy S5 didn't. My previous S3 didn't (although apparently the international versions might). As far as I can tell, none of the iPhones do. Samsung's market share is 30%, Apple's is 16%, so that's damn near half of the entire smartphone market right there. So no, they are certainly not included in "Just about EVERY modern smartphone".
I suppose that's technically true, though generally a car isn't what I think of when I say 'device'. But as I mentioned, nobody I know actually uses the radio in their car. Shit, people even get XM for free and don't touch that either! Again, maybe it's different where you live, but around here it seems people don't even consider radio as an option for music. If they're listening to the radio at all it's gonna be talk shows and crap on AM. Or maybe if they're painters or construction workers, although I've even seen some of them plugging in an iPod to the boombox. Even at bars you can often tell the music is playing off someone's phone from the occasional text/email/whatever notification in the middle of a song...
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 22 2014, @04:24PM
Nobody gets XM for free. Maybe a 6 month introductory offer.
The only iOS device that features a built-in FM tuner is the iPod nano, since the fifth generation (the tall "candy-bar" style before they shrunk to the square shape). The sixth generation iPod nano still has the FM Tuner.
Virtually every model of HTC phones has a FM radio, as well as most Motorola phones, and most LG phones and most sony phones.
Samsung, not so much.
A quick search on GsmArena returned 2241 results of phones with radio which are currently available. Even a few Samsung models.
I suspect your difficulty finding radio in phones has more to do with your circle of friends than any actual research.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday May 22 2014, @05:09PM
You'd be surprised. It actually seems to be quite common for used vehicles -- ie, you buy a former corporate car, and the corporation either prepaid that subscription or just never bothered to cancel it. As a result -- you get free XM.
I never said you couldn't find ANY phone from whatever obscure manufacturer that included it, I only said it certainly wasn't "EVERY modern smartphone". Not even a majority. Sony has less than 2% market share (it's in the combined 2% 'Others' category according to Nielson). Not a single one of the manufacturers you listed is above single digits. So yeah, maybe ~20% of smartphones contain an FM radio. If it was a feature in high demand it would be on far more.
Quite possible. That's why so many of my statements were qualified with "Around here..." "Nobody I know..." "maybe it's different where you live..." and such.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21 2014, @09:41PM
What's an MP3, is that some sort of fancy Edison Cylinder?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday May 21 2014, @06:06PM
Really? I must be nobody, then.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21 2014, @06:13PM
If what you are saying is correct, if one were to "cut the cord" and get their TV free over the air, they are considered cutting edge and making use of current technology, but if one chooses to not get their radio free over the air, they are fuddy-duddies.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 21 2014, @06:40PM
"cut the cord"
Most of the stuff is the same on TV, cord cut or not. Well, I take that back, the resolution and bitrate is usually higher if you cut the cord.
Not so with music, unless you only listen to top40. OTA there's like six stations competing for the small local maxima of adult contemporary, an urban or two, and a country, and thats about it. Also there must be like a law or something where you're forbidden from broadcasting music between 4am and 9am, its all morons laughing uncontrollably at fart jokes, which I guess is supposed to be appealing. Well, in between 50% commercial breaks, anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21 2014, @11:33PM
six stations competing
Where I am (supposedly one of the top radio markets), it isn't that much better.
top40[. . .]country
Here, the "Country" stations *are* Top40.
There was a station that had *one* show 10PM - midnight that would play stuff as "old" as the Urban Cowboy craze (as far back as their disc collection went, it seems).
They even quit that late last year.
Apparently, anything older than 2 months is passe.
Hearing Haggard or Jones around here is a novelty.
I only know of 2 hours per week of interesting twangy music being broadcast here.
http://howdylicious.com/ [howdylicious.com]
College station; very loosely affiliated with NPR; all on-air personnel are volunteers.
There was another for-profit station around here playing Smooth Jazz but they recently changed the format radically.
Now I'm down to 1 station [ksbr.org] that plays that part-time. [ksbr.org]
(Their 3-hour Blues show once a week is good too.)
Again, college station; very loosely affiliated with NPR; gets headline news from AP.
What is arguably the best Jazz station remaining anywhere in the country is around here. [kkjz.org]
That's on the grounds of a college; run by pros; loosely affiliated with NPR.
They also do a 4-hour and a 5-hour Blues show on the weekend.
A DJ whom I'd nominate as The Best Anywhere is syndicated there: Bob Parlocha. [wfmt.com]
His eyesight is failing and he has health problems due to his advanced age, so I don't know how much longer we'll have him.
Conversely, I hate it when AOR DJs talk over the music like they're on an AM Top40 station and it's 1963.
The Album Rock station here that started with the promise that *It's all about the music* has started that shit (personnel changes and looser standards).
The legacy AOR station has alway been that kind of shit.
Now, maybe my musical tastes are too narrow and I'm missing something great that's being broadcast locally--but I doubt it.
Seems like it's mostly programed by childern for children.
-- gewg