Does anyone care about an FM Radio on the iPhone?
Posted on 14 October 2009, at 9:30 am, by Larry Greenberg
There are several unconfirmed reports floating around that Apple is working on an FM Radio application for the iPhone and iPod. It seems the devices have always had the ability to receive FM Radio but the feature has just never been turned on by Apple. The latest iPod Nano, the 5th generation, which was released last month, has an FM Radio built it.
Its also being reported that users will be able to listen to the radio in the background, while other applications are running just like you can do now with the music on your iPod. Also it seems reasonable to think that it’ll have some sort of feature like Shazam that allows you to identify the song your listening to and then jump to the iTunes App Store to buy it.
The real question is though does anyone care? With Satellite radio in my car, iTunes on my computers and the iPod and Pandora on my iPhone I can’t recall the last time I tuned in a FM station.
What about you?
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October 14th, 2009 at 10:36 am
It’s not something I’ve been clamoring for for but I would use it, no question.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:43 am
I think it depends. Now that it’s on the Apple players, I think it may be the greatest thing ever. When it was on the Zune it was a useless feature.
Personally, I’ve only used the FM tuner a handful of times. I can’t think of too many places I’d prefer to listen to the radio over what’s on my player unless I need up to the minute news on something. And if that’s the case, FM is almost always useless. Most News radio stations seem to be AM.
As for FM, I’ll listen sometimes, but generally tune more into talk radio now. I only hit FM when I want some music that isn’t on my MP3 player for whatever reason and generally that’s only in my car.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I’d like to have an FM tuner on my smartphone, because I don’t have any data plan and I often listen to music during walk and work.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Yes, give me FM! O.K. I have ooTunes, Stitcher, WunderRadio, TWiT.am, Pandora, Public Radio, NPR Addict, Slacker, iHeart Radio, AOL Radio, FlyCast, LastFM, Live365 Radio and Simplify Music. I do most of my listening on Stitcher, ooTunes, Pandora and Public Radio in that order and when the kids are along, they love to access their playlists using Simplify Music. However, the one thing that is missing for me is no delay sports broadcasts.
When I go to local amateur and semi-pro baseball games I want to tune in to the action, get the play by play and the color commentary without delay (or drops). Same for high school football games. Additionally, I can’t seem to get any of the above apps to hold on to a UW Badgers football game for more than a series without dropping out. So, yeah, I’d like an FM radio!
October 14th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I have had 2 Nokia phones that had FM, and I used it on both. I wish my RAZR had it.
@paschott:
Too funny, and right on the mark probably! If the iPhone gets FM, then Apple will declare the HD Radio of the ZuneHD “useless”.