I hate this idea. FM channels have more advertisements than they have music. And there’s no technical way (yet) that I know of to automatically block said advertisements. Advertisements have driven the world into madness, as now anything that requires them to stay profitable either jams them into everything, or has a huge focus on rage-bait in order to get people to listen/watch/click. This rage-bait has made our world more angry, more divisive, and more chaotic than ever. Fuck advertisers.
Phones should have FM radio again
Submitted 1 year ago by corbin@infosec.pub to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.spacebar.news/p/phones-should-have-fm-radio-again
Comments
thantik@lemmy.world 1 year ago
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The point of the article is to have them there for emergencies since we already have systems in place to broadcast emergency info over radio, and it’s a lot simpler to implement than satellite for when cell signal is down.
PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 1 year ago
And it’s way better than the xitter.
thantik@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I don’t see the necessity for FM Radio to be used for this. They’ve removed them from most of today’s phones, and adding them back would be just as complex as adding an even lower frequency radio like LoRa for emergency messages.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s not like you have to use it. My phone has it, I’ve used it to listen to local football games while camping. Worked great. Some people like to have the option to use it though.
FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There are some channels that aren’t like this if you’re lucky enough to live in an area with something like NPR stations or donation funded music radio.
catfishsushi@midwest.social 1 year ago
I just built a website that makes it easy to find and stream community radio stations (which you refer to as ‘donation funded’) There are over 100 stations listed. Just choose from a drop-down and hit ‘play’. Looking for more beta testers AlternateAirwaves.com
Ataraxia@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
The emergency channel has no ads…
cbarrick@lemmy.world 1 year ago
If you live near a University, tune in to the local student radio.
It’s usually run by the University without ads.
I rock out to WPTS radio in Pittsburgh and both WUOG and WPPP in Athens, GA.
grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I love our local university radio. They actually play jazz sometimes. It’s basically mindless pop, frozen in time 90s, or you can pick between new country and even newer country where I live.
danwardvs@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Our local college has an alternative rock station that radio students come on air. Minimal ads with great music and personalities.
Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Imma just leave this here: www.campus-fm.com
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 year ago
There is also WSOU in northern New Jersey. Seton Hall’s Pirate Radio.
PixxlMan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Oh no! Imagine being forced to have the option to listen to another form of communication!
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
I hate it when this hypothetical radio app downloads itself and turns itself on every time there’s a radio ad break!
Candybar121@lemmy.world 1 year ago
What, you don’t like watching 2x 15 second ads before every youtube video, which has 1 minute + dedicated to today’s sponsor?
ikidd@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Ublock Origin and SponsorBlock makes youtube bearable.
user224@lemmy.sdf.org 1 year ago
That’s not all radios for sure. For example the Bulgarian Radio 1 seems to be almost exclusively music. Sometimes there are advertisement blocks that are long, but usually it’s just music. Then there may be local stuff like college radios (e.g.: KGRG) that won’t have as many advertisements, if any. In Slovakia there used to be Rádio Anténa Rock that was also mostly music as well, but they shut down as it wasn’t profitable. They are now owned by Bauermedia and operate as “Rádio Rock” with only 3 low-power FM transmitters which barely cover 2 cities. At least they’re in DAB+.
Anyway, there are some radios that do not have as many advertisements.
elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I could use public radio.
Haywire@lemm.ee 1 year ago
The reason they had FM in the past was because broadcasters lobbied for it to be a requirement.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’d like to listen to my local NPR station. It’s not an advertising nightmare.
Genericusername@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There are gaming phones, phones with crazy cameras, and iPhones where the lack of features is a feature. What I wish to have is a phone with as many features and functionality as possible.
That includes (but not limited to): IR blaster Headphone jack MicroSD card slot FM Radio RGB Notification/Status LED
Rather than a slim phone with a glossy finish that will pick up scratches right away unless wrapped in a phone case, the outer cover of the phone should be rugged and replaceable. Like with old Nokia phones. I don’t care about few extra grams, or another millimeter of thickness. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.
I was hopeful about the Fairphone at first, but they started removing features as well.
nomecks@lemmy.world 1 year ago
When I changed in my iPhone 3g for an original Galaxy S, with barometer, I thought that by the iPhone/Galaxy 10 we would all be rocking tricorders. What kind of crazy sensors would they jam in by then? Zero. Here we are at generation 15 with no additional cool sensors.
Genericusername@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s intentional. They’d like to drop features to cut on design and manufacture costs, while taking out features most of the target audience doesn’t really care about. Some of these are just greedy. Phones used to rely on microSD expansion, but once you drop this option you could charge for additional space much more than what the equivalent microSD card would cost. You can also stop shipping phones with chargers because most people have them anyway. This is pure profit as the customer is paying the same price, but doesn’t get a charger.
As for other features, they probably dropped them because people just didn’t care enough.
It seems to be incredibly difficult to design a phone from scratch, and that’s why we only see a handful of manufacturers, with the small endeavors being able to make something that looks obsolete by the time it rolls out and even then it takes a few months to overcome all the bugs and glitches. Fairphone is the closest we’ve got, but it’s still far off and strays further with each generation.
pimento64@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
“You don’t need practical capabilities, you need to be an obedient consumer.”
—OEMs
Pxtl@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Disappointed Moto Mods didn’t catch on. The obvious approach of “skinny phone with minimal features but you can slap whatever you like onto the back” just makes sense for me. I loved my old Moto Z.
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Still have my force 2 with the click on battery, loved that phone.
kratoz29@lemm.ee 1 year ago
That includes (but not limited to): IR blaster Headphone jack MicroSD card slot FM Radio RGB Notification/Status LED
My Poco F2 Pro has all of those but microSD slot (none of my recent phones have had it, and I’m starting to miss it right now with 128 gb of base storage) and the IR blaster has saved my ass more than once!
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I still have my LG v20 because of this. I’d love to upgrade but nothing that’s come out since even comes close.
thenightisdark@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I still have my V10 and v20. My v60 is better though. Definitely some trade-offs but I will argue that v60 is better
InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 1 year ago
The v60 is the best phone ever.
All the features, very fast, 2 screens.
My v35 was on par and had the back fingerprint, but otherwise the v60 was the ultimate phone.
FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’ve been saying this for a while now. FM radios and such are invaluable in emergency situations.
There have been times in the past where I’ve lost power to my house. No internet, no electricity etc in the middle of an emergency weather situation. I had to rely on battery powered radios to learn about what the situation was elsewhere and how long we’d be stuck etc. There is basically no reason why this can’t be incorporated into phones, aside from the fact that phone makers would rather you use Apple Music etc. It should be legislated for I believe.
Piers@lemmy.world 1 year ago
One reason is that every implementation I’ve ever tried relies on using the wired earphones as an aerial and Apple magically convinced everyone that having a 3.5mm port is somehow a bad thing.
doktorseven@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Exactly. The real plea here is “bring back 3.5mm ports.” I’m afraid of the day my old phone dies because I have this fear that even cheap-ass phones are going to abandon 3.5mm headphones for cheap, unreliable, garbage bluetooth trash.
CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Just buy a $15 FM radio. Especially since if you have no power and you can’t charge your phone when it dies, but a small radio takes AA batteries which can sit in a drawer for 10 years until you need them.
Pxtl@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
You’d think so but every device around my house that I “put batteries in it and forget it” when I need it I find the batteries have exploded and the device is ruined (regardless of the decade on the expiry-date label of the battery). So my plan now is to keep the device separate from the batteries like it’s a freaking handgun and make sure my phone is charged so I can use its light to make my way to the drawer where we keep the batteries.
DrinkMonkey@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Im addition to being able to take AAs, my FM radio has a solar panel and a hand crank to recharge the included rechargeable battery, which can charge a phone in a pinch. Win all around!
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 year ago
A weather radio is even more useful. It usually has FM as well, but getting National Weather Service alerts can be vital.
jcit878@lemmy.world 1 year ago
one of those windy radios you crank for a bit would be better for emergencies
knotthatone@lemmy.one 1 year ago
Yes… but… this becomes one of those things that everyone should buy to be prepared but few actually do or they forget.
I keep a little crank-chargeable radio in our emergency kit but most people don’t. If the cell networks go down (and they usually do in severe weather and most other big emergency situations) most people will lose all of their access to information.
knotthatone@lemmy.one 1 year ago
I wholeheartedly agree, but I don’t think there’s any saving it at this point. Car manufacturers are dropping it from new models and that’s the only actual AM/FM radio most people actually buy these days.
Same thing happened to the phone network. It used to actually be possible to call 911 when the power was out. The central stations all had battery banks and diesel generators. Unless the lines were cut, you had service.
Cihta@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I wanted to tag on to your post. I’ve been without power for weather stuff too a few times and one thing i learned was that my cheapie 40" TV would only pull 10-15watts with backlight all the way down. With a small battery bank you can go a good while on that and tune into your local station via OTA. It was very watchable especially given the only light around was my candle.
For a couple more watts you watch shows off your memory stick as well once the event is over and you are just waiting for the power lines to get fixed… my phone drained nearly as much but to be fair i left the radio enabled so it was hunting for a tower.
Just something to consider for your gear if you live near the coast or in Texas. Battery banks are pretty cheap.
Ataraxia@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
I’m glad battery backup can keep the internet going for a long time but I also have data to use and never get close to making a dent in it. If service providers went down though I do have several radios around the house. I don’t go anywhere but I’d I did i would carry a little radio lol. That being said, I miss my smart phone and flip phone that had radio on it. I don’t care about headphone jacks but I definitely would love radio.
Dremor@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The components to make the phone able to decode FM radio take place. Which, in such small device, is valuable. If you really need FM radio for emergency situations, why not take a dedicated miniaturized FM radio receiver?
stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Not sure if this is still the case, but in the past the FM radio functionality essentially came “free” as part of either the SoC or modem. Since it used headphone wires as the antenna, the death of the headphone jack pretty much killed any purpose for including it.
elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 year ago
FM radio was integrated in even smaller phones 20 years ago. And the tech to “decode the signal” is already present in today’s phones. FM are radio signals, just like NFC, Wifi, Bluetooth and cellular.
Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why? Have you heard radio? Every station is just a glorified shitty playlist that they cycle through a dozen times a day
Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 1 year ago
Because if the cell networks fail, right now there’s no backup method to get crucial information to everyone’s hands.
Radio are an easy secondary, really long range mechanism to get information INTO disaster stricken areas when normal means of communications have failed.
CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 1 year ago
That’s what happens when we “removed regulations” and allowed Clear Channel (aka iHeartRadio) to buy up most every major station in the country.
However you can still do short range FM transmissions yourself, as a lot of people do with elaborate Christmas light displays, plus it’s useful in emergency situations.
mriguy@lemmy.world 1 year ago
plus it’s useful in emergency situations.
Yes, in case of emergency, tune to a Clear Channel station so they can tell you how the emergency is the fault if the Woke Left.
coin@feddit.nl 1 year ago
every major station in the country.
Which country?
WhoPutDisHere@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
Back home we had a local station, felt like a way of tuning into “the city.” Very few breaks outside of their pledge drives once/twice a year. Listening to the Jazz station here on short drives these days. Very few ads, and some pretty gnarly shit. College radio stations are also pretty easy to find and escape that ad insanity.
Don’t let radio and broadcast TV die quite yet, it’s still very viable, especially as we sort out net neutrality and failsafe systems in cases of emergency.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 year ago
Maybe if you live somewhere with good radio stations… the radio is pretty much dead here. Nothing but Christian talk and static.
Soolonkivi@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Wait, you guys don’t have FM radio?
anon_8675309@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why? ClearChannel has all but ruined it.
_number8_@lemmy.world 1 year ago
i remember old ipods could listen to the radio with headphones and i thought it was the coolest thing in the world. listening to a live feed like that is so much more…viscerally satisfying than just streaming a song or even listening to internet radio, where it could easily be just a playlist on shuffle with random ads put in
Pretzilla@lemmy.world 1 year ago
For emergency purposes, mandate cell tower batteries with solar supplement.
And generators for bigger hubs.
Cellular internet is critical infrastructure now.
Same for ISPs. My internet wifi has battery backup, so as long as the ISP stays up we are good.
Mr_nutter_butter@lemmy.world 1 year ago
high end ones dont even have headphone jacks for starters
variouslegumes@reddthat.com 1 year ago
A lot of posts in here complaining about shitty commercial radio. Do you all not have local radio stations? I love my local stations.
nodsocket@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Imagine if every American had a shortwave radio transmitter in their pocket. Endless September for hams
JCreazy@midwest.social 1 year ago
I don’t even remember the last time I listened to FM radio. I just don’t like listening to the same 20 songs on repeat with annoying ads
CarlsIII@kbin.social 1 year ago
ITT: people who have never heard of college radio stations
brillekake@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why? My country doesn’t even have FM anymore. It shut down in 2017, frequencies repurposed for more useful things.
It’s an almost 100 years old technology…
Zoldyck@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They should have DAB+ radio. Much better.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 year ago
In 2017, Mexico passed regulation that required all smartphones with FM chips to enable them
No I’ve got in my head “I’m on a Mexican, radio…”
jormaig@programming.dev 1 year ago
Not long ago I decided to buy a radio just for emergencies. I guess having it in my smartphone would be better yes.
verysoft@kbin.social 1 year ago
FM radio is the one feature removal I don't mind. You can access all radio on the internet now, so it's unnecessary anyway.
debounced@kbin.run 1 year ago
from what i recall almost every QCOM chipset has the circuitry baked in, it's just disabled. https://www.wired.com/2016/07/phones-fm-chips-radio-smartphone/
PhilBro@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Considering when I use the radio in the car I might get 2 songs before 5 minus of commercials, no thanks. Audiobooks, podcasts, and PlexAmp all the way
JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why? So I can listen to local dealership and furniture store adverts? No thanks
m3t00@lemmy.world 1 year ago
only time i ever used phone FM was camping. not often lately. car has fm but radio commercials assault my nerves, use mp3s on a stick or streaming w/$10/mo
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Coming late to this part but Umidigi phones still do FM radio and don’t even require headphones to be plugged in any more.
Jeanschyso@lemmy.world 1 year ago
With all the blackouts I had these past 2 years, YEA PLEASE. Hell, I was a out to relearn how to make a homemade AM radio. Haven’t done it in 28 years.
buzz86us@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Certain phones have it, but use your headphones as an antenna
mojo@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I really hope not.
weedazz@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The 90s kid in me yearns for a phone with Fm radio, headphone jack, IR blaster, stylus, memory card slot, slide out keyboard and one of those click on projectors the Motorola phones used to have. I would call it the Donatello and it would be radical.
SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 1 year ago
And a translucent purple case!
Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
I’ve refused to buy these “flagship” phones that don’t have a headphone jack. The 90s kid in me will live on, damnit!
Jeef@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Same I use wired earbuds everyday at work and I refuse to buy a phone without one
ago@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Just use Bluetooth
otter@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
If there was a decent phone with FM radio and an IR blaster, I might pick it over a lot of other ones.
I miss having an IR blaster so much, I was always finding new uses for it. Now I’ve got little remotes everywhere again
ArtificialLink@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Basically all the phones with headphone jacks now have abysmal long-term support. Even the fair phone got rid of the headphone jack so they could sell their bullshit wireless headphones
witherscarf@lemm.ee 1 year ago
This is why I love Sony phones.
Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There’s a lot more capability with USB-C audio though. Even entirely discounting Bluetooth, there are plenty of high quality USB-C headphones out there that blow the pants off of what you could do with a 3.5mm jack.
Pheonixdown@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’ve an Armor 21, it has the radio, headphone jack, IR blaster and the memory card slot, plus a loud and clear speaker, actual night vision and is rugged as fuck. Base price sub-$250, upcharge for an attachable endoscope.
hoodle@programming.dev 1 year ago
Just checked it out, this thing looks sick. But it also looks ugly as shit. Is it as ugly as it looks in person? Specifically not a fan of the RGB LED ring thing on the back?
UndefinedIsNotAFunction@programming.dev 1 year ago
You’ll be happy to know that I bribed my kids into watching the 1990 TMNT live action movie this weekend. The younger one loved it, but the preteen was full of critical commentary the whole time. Go figure. But hey, I won one of them over to the TMNT side.
three@lemm.ee 1 year ago
how do you know someone was born in the 80s? they’ll fucking tell you. you can just like stuff without referencing your stupid metal lunchbox all the time.
grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I was born in the early 70s. We didn’t have anything cool.