FM Radio Inside Our iPhones

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kidsmith98789

24 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#43011 15-Oct-2009 12:34

There is an FM radio inside our iPhone's and iPod touches:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/173635/an_fm_radio_inside_our_iphones_turn_it_on.html

I can't wait for this. Would FM reception work if i didn't have the ear phones plugged in because don't the ear phones act as an antenna?

Ham

462 posts

Ultimate Geek

#264076 15-Oct-2009 14:14

I think this is just a rumour... Some people say that the bluetooth receiver can be used to pick up radio stations but I don't think this is correct.

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craft1

77 posts

Master Geek

#264078 15-Oct-2009 14:15

I personally would love to see an FM receiver in my iPhone capable of playing the local radio stations, but i will remain skeptical until it is officially announced.

And on the pcworld article there is a response that implies that it is not possible, so I will definitely not get my hopes up just yet.

"Not only does the Zune already have a true FM receiver, the iPhone doesn't have an FM chip designed to receive radio station signals between 87.5 MHz - 108 MHz.

The Broadcom chip in the iPhone is dedicated to FM radio frequencies at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz for bluetooth and WiFi communications, not local FM radio stations.

http://www.broadcom.com/products/Bluetooth/Bluetooth-RF-Silicon-and-Software-Solutions/BCM4329

The FM application is nothing more than streaming internet music from online radio stations.

Your friends are pulling both your legs to try to get your pants down."

Ham

462 posts

Ultimate Geek

#264079 15-Oct-2009 14:21

The Edge has an app to stream their station which works great on wifi but when out and about it doesn't work very well at all, even when connected with 3G.. seems like VF can't provide the speed?

alasta

6238 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#264090 15-Oct-2009 15:05

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information around what hardware is actually in place. It's my understanding that the Broadcom IC in the 2nd and 3rd generation touches supports WiFi, Bluetooth and FM radio and these are all seperate and independant features.

However, I remain unconvinced that the aerial required for FM broadcast receiption is available as there would most probably need to be an electrical coupling between an antenna terminal on the IC, and one of the terminals on the headphone jack. I had a look at some teardown photos last night and could not find any evidence that this coupling exists, although knowing Apple it's entirely possible that they fitted it just in case they decided to enable the feature. Someone on Engadget has also suggested to me that there would need to be at least a couple of capacitors on the PCB to allow the FM receiver to function.

The article in 9to5 Mac suggests that the FM receiver has been used to interface with the Nike+ kit, but that may not necessarily mean that the hardware is fully capable of receiving FM broadcast signals.

Fossie

1240 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#264431 17-Oct-2009 00:05

The BCM4325 in the iPhone 3GS can do FM radio in the range of 76Mhz - 108Mhz. There's just the question of whether the chip is connected to the headphones, so they can act as an aerial.