5 ms·

It also replaced 13 of the 15 items on this radio shack ad from 1991: https://www.trendingbuffalo.com/life/uncle-steves-buffalo/everything-from-1991-radio-shack

It also replaced 13 of the 15 items on this radio shack ad from 1991: https://www.trendingbuffalo.com/life/uncle-steves-buffalo/everything-from-1991-radio-shack-ad-now/ https://www.trendingbuffalo.com/life/uncle-steves-buffalo/ev... (one of which is indeed a compact camera)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rob74 4y ago
> AM/FM clock radio, $13.88. iPhone Only if you squint and accept streaming and/or webradio as a replacement for "real" AM/FM radio. Funnily enough the ubiquitous Qualcomm chipsets already include a radio receiver, but most manufacturers don't activate it...
- ravoori 4y ago
  Indeed. And one of the reasons I'm clinging on to the venerable LG V35
  - WithinReason 4y ago
    Very cheap phones still often have FM receivers, but as a phone gets more expensive features get removed: No radio, no SD card slot.
    - sumtechguy 4y ago
      Most chipsets have the FM receiver. Most do not bother to hook up the antenna. As it would be one more thing for them to support and test.
      - Gigachad 4y ago
        Didn't they all require wired headphones to function? That's probably why it got dropped.
        sumtechguy 4y ago
        It is just a pin off the chipset. The headphones was just a cheap way to get a 'free' antenna. Those chipsets do a lot of stuff. If you printed out the docs it would probably be a couple of reams of paper. They fuse things out for different cost points and just do not hook things up for others. It can also be if they hook it up it is an extra dollar per device. Not saying that is what happens but it is a distinct possibility considering the way they bifurcate the cost of those chipsets. From a consumer PoV though it is frustrating as the HW is there...
- ilyt 4y ago
  I guess just not used enough to bother ? I had that feature enabled in custom firmware but I don't think I ever actually used it outside of "oh, that's neat" testing.
  - rob74 4y ago
    Either that, or you could lend credence to conspiracy theories like "providers want you to use up your data package faster, so you have to stream everything"
- brk 4y ago
  "Real" AM/FM radio has gong to shit in most markets anyways. Tons of advertising for traffic lawyers, diet pills, donut shops, etc. DJs talking too much, limited playlists. I think "AM/FM" radio is really just the equivalent of "free music you can stream".
  - wbobeirne 4y ago
    If you live in a town with a college, there may be a great student-run station. Personally KUTX and KOOP in Austin are great for me, and often get me to not stream from my phone.
    - brk 4y ago
      As I was writing that I was thinking how I missed being close to a college radio station, or a good indie station.
      - selimthegrim 4y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33608892 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33608892 https://www.campus-fm.com/ https://www.campus-fm.com/
- Damogran6 4y ago
  I think the lack of a headphone cable to act as an antenna may have something to do with that...
- kuschku 4y ago
  Motorola still supports it, Nokia still supports it, Huawei and Xiaomi still support it. Just like Dual-SIM or microSD slot or 3.5mm jack. It's paradoxical how "flagship" devices have less features for more money.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    Not really surprising. It's all stuff that the vast majority doesn't care about. So you have the mainstream devices targeting the mainstream users, and the weird alt devices which tack on everything possible to capture the remainder of users who have this one weird requirement.
    - kuschku 4y ago
      That's an interesting definition, considering an order of magnitude more of these feature-complete devices gets sold than of flagships.
      - Gigachad 4y ago
        Show one phone that sells an order of magnitude more than the iPhone.
        kuschku 4y ago
        That's not what I claimed. What I claimed is that the category "cheap android phones with all the ports and features" beats the category of "ultra-high-end devices without any reasonable ports" by far. Flagship phones are halo devices, more jewelry than actual phones (this includes iPhones, the Pixel main line, the galaxy fold series, the S22 ultra, etc). The vast majority of sales is in the mid range, including the Google Pixel A series (which still kept e.g., the 3.5mm port until last year) or most of Xiaomi or Huaweis phones. But while with flagships, there's the one device to rule them all, in the midrange there's a different phone for everyone. Samsung alone has almost a hubdred different devices in this range at the same time. And all of these have microSD, 3.5mm, FM Radio support, and many dual SIM support.
neallindsay 4y ago
Even one of the surviving two, a radar scanner to detect speed traps, is in danger. Apple Maps (and I think Google Maps as well) will tell you of upcoming speed traps as long as other people have reported them.
throw0101a 4y ago
This ad is some of my go to examples of deflation: getting more goods/services for the same amount of money. That US$1600 Tandy 1600 runs a 286 CPU and has a 20MB hard drive, and supported 640×200×16 resolution (720×350 mode for monochrome monitors): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000#Tandy_1000_SL_and_TL_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000#Tandy_1000_SL_and_T... What kind of computer can you get nowadays for $1600? Barry Ritholtz's take is also interesting: > But Inflation is not inevitable. There are numerous countervailing forces that have been at work for much of the past 50 years. The three big Deflation drivers: 1) Technology, which creates massive economies of scale, especially in digital products (e.g., Software); 2) Robotics/Automation, which efficiently create more physical goods at lower prices; and 3) Globalization and Labor Arbitrage, which sends work to lower cost regions, making goods and services less expensive. * https://ritholtz.com/2021/02/stop-stressing-about-inflation/ https://ritholtz.com/2021/02/stop-stressing-about-inflation/

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

rob74 4y ago

> AM/FM clock radio, $13.88. iPhone Only if you squint and accept streaming and/or webradio as a replacement for "real" AM/FM radio. Funnily enough the ubiquitous Qualcomm chipsets already include a radio receiver, but most manufacturers don't activate it...

ravoori 4y ago
Indeed. And one of the reasons I'm clinging on to the venerable LG V35
- WithinReason 4y ago
  Very cheap phones still often have FM receivers, but as a phone gets more expensive features get removed: No radio, no SD card slot.
  - sumtechguy 4y ago
    Most chipsets have the FM receiver. Most do not bother to hook up the antenna. As it would be one more thing for them to support and test.
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Didn't they all require wired headphones to function? That's probably why it got dropped.
      - sumtechguy 4y ago
        It is just a pin off the chipset. The headphones was just a cheap way to get a 'free' antenna. Those chipsets do a lot of stuff. If you printed out the docs it would probably be a couple of reams of paper. They fuse things out for different cost points and just do not hook things up for others. It can also be if they hook it up it is an extra dollar per device. Not saying that is what happens but it is a distinct possibility considering the way they bifurcate the cost of those chipsets. From a consumer PoV though it is frustrating as the HW is there...
ilyt 4y ago
I guess just not used enough to bother ? I had that feature enabled in custom firmware but I don't think I ever actually used it outside of "oh, that's neat" testing.
- rob74 4y ago
  Either that, or you could lend credence to conspiracy theories like "providers want you to use up your data package faster, so you have to stream everything"
brk 4y ago
"Real" AM/FM radio has gong to shit in most markets anyways. Tons of advertising for traffic lawyers, diet pills, donut shops, etc. DJs talking too much, limited playlists. I think "AM/FM" radio is really just the equivalent of "free music you can stream".
- wbobeirne 4y ago
  If you live in a town with a college, there may be a great student-run station. Personally KUTX and KOOP in Austin are great for me, and often get me to not stream from my phone.
  - brk 4y ago
    As I was writing that I was thinking how I missed being close to a college radio station, or a good indie station.
    - selimthegrim 4y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33608892 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33608892 https://www.campus-fm.com/ https://www.campus-fm.com/
Damogran6 4y ago
I think the lack of a headphone cable to act as an antenna may have something to do with that...
kuschku 4y ago
Motorola still supports it, Nokia still supports it, Huawei and Xiaomi still support it. Just like Dual-SIM or microSD slot or 3.5mm jack. It's paradoxical how "flagship" devices have less features for more money.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Not really surprising. It's all stuff that the vast majority doesn't care about. So you have the mainstream devices targeting the mainstream users, and the weird alt devices which tack on everything possible to capture the remainder of users who have this one weird requirement.
  - kuschku 4y ago
    That's an interesting definition, considering an order of magnitude more of these feature-complete devices gets sold than of flagships.
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Show one phone that sells an order of magnitude more than the iPhone.
      - kuschku 4y ago
        That's not what I claimed. What I claimed is that the category "cheap android phones with all the ports and features" beats the category of "ultra-high-end devices without any reasonable ports" by far. Flagship phones are halo devices, more jewelry than actual phones (this includes iPhones, the Pixel main line, the galaxy fold series, the S22 ultra, etc). The vast majority of sales is in the mid range, including the Google Pixel A series (which still kept e.g., the 3.5mm port until last year) or most of Xiaomi or Huaweis phones. But while with flagships, there's the one device to rule them all, in the midrange there's a different phone for everyone. Samsung alone has almost a hubdred different devices in this range at the same time. And all of these have microSD, 3.5mm, FM Radio support, and many dual SIM support.

neallindsay 4y ago

Even one of the surviving two, a radar scanner to detect speed traps, is in danger. Apple Maps (and I think Google Maps as well) will tell you of upcoming speed traps as long as other people have reported them.

throw0101a 4y ago

This ad is some of my go to examples of deflation: getting more goods/services for the same amount of money. That US$1600 Tandy 1600 runs a 286 CPU and has a 20MB hard drive, and supported 640×200×16 resolution (720×350 mode for monochrome monitors): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000#Tandy_1000_SL_and_TL_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000#Tandy_1000_SL_and_T... What kind of computer can you get nowadays for $1600? Barry Ritholtz's take is also interesting: > But Inflation is not inevitable. There are numerous countervailing forces that have been at work for much of the past 50 years. The three big Deflation drivers: 1) Technology, which creates massive economies of scale, especially in digital products (e.g., Software); 2) Robotics/Automation, which efficiently create more physical goods at lower prices; and 3) Globalization and Labor Arbitrage, which sends work to lower cost regions, making goods and services less expensive. * https://ritholtz.com/2021/02/stop-stressing-about-inflation/ https://ritholtz.com/2021/02/stop-stressing-about-inflation/