Rumor: Apple to awaken dormant FM tuner in iPhone
Summary: According to 9 to 5 Mac Apple may soon enable the dormant FM tuner hardware currently sitting idle in the iPhone and iPod touch.9 to 5 reports that Apple is developing an app that offers the same functionality as the FM radio found in the new fifth generation iPod nano.
According to 9 to 5 Mac Apple may soon enable the dormant FM tuner hardware currently sitting idle in the iPhone and iPod touch.
9 to 5 reports that Apple is developing an app that offers the same functionality as the FM radio found in the new fifth generation iPod nano. The new radio.app will be able to run in the background according to the source and "could also be incorporated into the iPod.app before release."
The chipset in the iPhone 3GS and the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch models include FM radio tuning, Apple just hasn't yet activated it in software.
This wouldn't be the first time Apple awoke sleeping hardware functionality from its mobile products. Apple sometimes chooses to leave hardware features dormant in their products until they feel the time is right. For instance, Apple didn't enable Bluetooth in its 2nd generation iPod touch until 9 months after it was released. Apple also hasn't enabled the 802.11N +5GHZ wireless networking (which we also hope to see updated shortly) in its latest iPhone and iPods.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
I bet there will be an activation fee
Silly Penguin !
More BS from Apple
Kinda like buying a car, and having an airconditioner control on the dash but being unable to operate it until a softwre update 18 months later.
Interesting though that most people would probably associate that sort of thing on a car with a quality assurance problem (ex. they rushed the car to market, they couldn't make it work right, etc).
Get your camera ready. The Apple fanboys will shortly fall all over themselves to get this cool "new" feature.
Yeah Seriously
The two of you... silly.
have yet to find a use for it myself, but I guess I'm glad its there as
long as it does not get in my way:P As for the radio maybe Apple was
waiting for it to be ready in terms of power use issues which seems to
be a major concern with products like these. It could also be that
there had to be UI considerations taken into account and a smooth
solution had yet be devised. It could be a combination of these
factors and others. As for Version 3.0 I think and catch me if I'm
wrong there was a lot more to 3.0 than Cut n Paste was there not?
Personally I have no use for FM on my iPhone. I can't imagine using it
but hey if it makes some people happy and again it does not get in
my way go for it Apple. After all if there were people gaa gaa over
Apple adding cut n past it was likely because there'd be one less
pointless complaint from people like the two I am responding to who
kept bringing it up as one of the iPhones faults. IT'S THE FEATURES
BLANK IT. WHY DON'T YOU APPLE PEOPLE GET THE SIMPLE CONCEPT
THAT IF MY PRODUCT HAS MORE FEATURES IT IS BETTER!?!
Pagan jim
It's actually a very common error
I work in the medical field and I see it ALL THE TIME. Vendors sell the "big feature list" then the buyers are left wondering why their technologists are having trouble managing a 10 page, windows based, control screen on the ultrasound units.
The Koolaid is strong with this one!
Well though out arguments, Oh wait... NOT:P
I'm with ya
As for the FM radio... meh. I have the Pandora App, the XM/Sirius radio app, Slacker radio app... yeah it would be cool but I'm don't really care about it either way.
RE: Rumor: Apple to awaken dormant FM tuner in iPhone
They just want you to go out and buy a 'newer' device that is not much better than the one you already have to get the features that even a 2g iphone could have used if the software wasn't overly restrictive.
Seriously??!!
and hit your head or something.
nothing wrong with cars ...
People use car references to compare in IT all the time. It's a familiar and well understood product.
OTOH
So basically, if you have one of these products then you have a product <i>that does everything advertised at the time you purchased it</i> and presumably does what you purchased it for. Now there is the <i>rumor</i> that you might get extra functionality beyond what you were promised and beyond what you had any right to expect at purchase time so you bitch and moan? If there is a fee and you don't want to pay it, then simply use the device for the purpose you bought it for.
Strike up the band, it's time to throw a pity party.
So you are saying
The point is the hardware was put in the device and this rumor/news makes it look Apple intentionally disabled it for unknown reasons. Just seems a bit shady to me.
maybe they just had higher priority features...
table at the current time... could be as simple
as that. that's what they said about copy and
paste.. do you think they would take designers
off of enabling MS Exchange support to do copy
and paste OR FM radio?.. if you only have so
many resources you need to make choices.. the
reason people have iPods in the first place is
because they hate radio and would rather play
their own music on their own terms.. i call
putting FM radio at the end of the heap a
pretty good call.. i'm not going to use it even
if they enable it.. why? i have my own music.
why would they not put in the all singing, all
dancing chip and just provide as much features
as they can to take advantage of as much of the
available hardware as they are able to at each
release? so are you all saying you would
rather they put in chips that only do exactly
what they are able to provide software for at
the time of release.. then when they are able
to produce software for new feature sell new
hardware that as well has the capabilities as
the current software can provide? that's
stupid.. you'd be spending 100s of dollars to
get they next feature instead of nothing in the
case of iPhone and $10 ever now and then for
for major releases for iPod Touch.
think it through guys.. stop thinking about
bogus conspiracies... apple puts the best,
future proof chips in the device as they can
get their hands on irrespective of what they
can currently supports and provide software
for.. then when they have the resources to
provide the software to take advantage of all
the hardware capabilities they write said
software.. think guys!! does that not make all
kinds of sense?
If you're the "conspiracy minded" type
"Just seems a bit shady to me."
An FM tuner ability was never hinted at or implied by Apple to be available for the iPhone. Perhaps look for a better explanation. They got an FM tuner thrown in by the manufacturer at minimal cost. Why not throw it in and figure out what to do with it later? But rather than rush an unstable and half-baked tuner app out the door, that they will have to revise a dozen times down the road, they are waiting until the app is ready.
Did they disable it or simply not enable it?
some odd reason to see something sinister where Apple is concerned
that sounds like a personal issue to me and not one Apple has to
address. Maybe the chip set needed to do something else came
bundled with the FM ability as well? Maybe it was a power issue or a
UI issue and Apple considers those two WAY more important than FM.
Maybe it was simply a time and resource issue and it was very low on
the priority list. The first problem you had is to assume that Apple to
any action to disable the FM chip set rather than simply not enabling it
in the first place. Sheeeeezzzzzzzz.
Did Steve Jobs give you a swirly in HS and we just don't know it?
Pagan jim
Just Apple's Track Record
And as for the title of your Post "Did they disable it or simply not enable it" is like saying "I didn't lie, I just didn't tell you"
Not a lie... it FM was not listed as a feature.
a product that had said. Or was it not all that important just a wish
item? I guess based on the satisfaction and continued robust sales of
the iPhone it would be the later. I am well aware that Apple does not
compete based on "features" alone. That is my point exactly. I could
not list the features that others manufacturers but in their MP3
players only to find and continue to find that they could not put a dent
into Apples wild sales. Which again goes to prove my point.... keeping
the UI or the product simple and focused is better than adding the
kitchen sink in many ways. As for the iMac I a few months ago
bought the top of the line iMac and as far as I know it does not have
an SD or multi card reader nor do I care but am I wrong here? I don't
think I'd use it but hey one never knows I actually for a couple years
did not think much of the iPod... could not see a reason for one.
In the end "IF" Apple wants to take the time to get the important
things right and add to it's products feature list as time goes by I'm
good as long as I the consumer understands that when I purchase an
Apple product it will do X and not Y. As the consumer I have no
complaints as long as it does what I'm told it will do. If Apple has
other reason for not enabling a given feature or features but chooses
to do so later again I'm good. I may never need or use said but hey
one never knows. I don't know what I would do differently if I had an
SD or multi card reader in my iMac nor would I have bought an iMac if
I had a need for said and it did not have it.
I can't tell you over the years how many so called "features" that
people from the PC/Windows world have mentioned that we in the
Apple/OSX world are lacking. Both in the Mac line, OSX, iPhone and
iPods. I can honestly say that to date I have yet to want or need any of
them. One of the many reasons I tend to look side ways when
someone start spouting "features". I know what features I need/want.
I purchase based on those wants/needs. I don't suffer from "features
envy" nor do I drive a sports car:P
Pagan jim
That's interesting