Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 15 submissions in the queue.

Smartphone with FM Radio Tells Your Position

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday May 21 2014, @03:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the Radio-Gaga dept.

kaszz writes:

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.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Smartphone with FM Radio Tells Your Position | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 32 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 22 2014, @04:24PM

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday May 22 2014, @04:24PM (#46433) Journal

    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.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday May 22 2014, @05:09PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Thursday May 22 2014, @05:09PM (#46458) Journal

    Nobody gets XM for free. Maybe a 6 month introductory offer.

    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.

    Virtually every model of HTC phones has a FM radio, as well as most Motorola phones, and most LG phones and most sony phones.

    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.

    I suspect your difficulty finding radio in phones has more to do with your circle of friends than any actual research.

    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.