[UEF]

Apple Developing FM Radio Application for iPhone and iPod Touch? - Mac Rumors

The Broadcom combination Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chips used in the iPhone and iPod touch have long also had the technical capacity for FM radio reception

[bobbytoad]

Originally Posted by UEF

Apple Developing FM Radio Application for iPhone and iPod Touch? - Mac Rumors

dont understand how BT or wifi could be relevant to radio reception unless its being streamed bt BT or wifi?

[UEF]

Originally Posted by bobbytoad

dont understand how BT or wifi could be relevant to radio reception unless its being streamed bt BT or wifi?

see the quote above

At the end of the day, BT/Wifi things are radio receivers

[akki007]

Yeah, the Broadcom chip is BT/WiFi/FM...

Broadcom’s combo Bluetooth/WiFi/FM chip certified for Bluetooth 3.0+HS spec

[jaykay2]

Only problem I can see with this, is people having to update to an official firmware to get access to radio?

[Desmo]

What's the problem? It would just be like any other OS update. A pain in the backside if you like to jailbreak though as you'll probably be playing the waiting game again.

[Autopilot]

Don't really care much for FM radio reception, but FM transmission would be great.

[Pistol1]

FM radio reception would be a killer addition for me. Practically the only thing I listen to on the radio is football commentary, which can't be streamed over the net for legal reasons. Frustrates me no end, that does.

[HSC]

according to iFixit this is the chip inside the iPhone4
Broadcom.com - BCM4329 - Low-Power 802.11n with Bluetooth

BCM4329 - Low-Power 802.11n with Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR and FM (Tx and Rx)

so come one Apple, switch it on already...

[crocandy]

Originally Posted by Pistol1

FM radio reception would be a killer addition for me. Practically the only thing I listen to on the radio is football commentary, which can't be streamed over the net for legal reasons. Frustrates me no end, that does.

Do you mean so that you can pick the team you want to follow rather than having to listen to predetirmined games?

[Pistol1]

No. Local BBC FM radio carries the football commentary of my local team. The same station, on internet radio, is taken off the air as they do not have the rights to broadcast the commentary online.


Oh, and I don't think we're ever going to see Apple turn on the FM radio functionality of the chip. If they were going to do it, they'd have done it by now

[Markee]

This has been a rumour for ages - gotta be over two years!

It's long been know that the radio chip in the iPhone (3G and up I think?) has a radio in capable of receiving FM broadcasts.

The question has always been:

1. Has the necessary hardware been "wired up" to enable it to work.
2. Apple to develop and app to make the software link to the hardware.

My suspicion is that if they haven't done it yet, they aint going to. But then hey, this is Apple we are talking about - start of with a small sub-set of features then keep adding to keep interest high.

I very much doubt this will be compatible with anything lower than an iPhone 4 though, because if they do it on iPhone 3G/3GS it's another reason not to upgrade to iPhone 4.

[peterjcat]

Does FM (Tx and Rx) mean that the chip could be used for local FM transmission too? (eg from your iPhone to your car stereo?) Now THAT would be handy.

[dllord]

No FM Radio on my 3GS is one of its biggest letdowns for me, if Apple give us FM Radio i'll be well chuffed!

[smithy37]

All seems a bit late in the day if you ask me. Digital switch over in the uk will mean fm becoming defunct

[UEF]

Digital radio switchover is a much longer way off though surely?

If the hardware question is taken care of, I wonder if someone could write a Cydia app for it