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> 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 ubiquit
by 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 agoIndeed. And one of the reasons I'm clinging on to the venerable LG V35
- WithinReason 4y agoVery 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 agoMost 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 agoDidn't they all require wired headphones to function? That's probably why it got dropped.
- sumtechguy 4y agoIt 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 agoI 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 agoEither 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 agoIf 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 agoAs I was writing that I was thinking how I missed being close to a college radio station, or a good indie station.
- selimthegrim 4y agohttps://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 agoI think the lack of a headphone cable to act as an antenna may have something to do with that...
- kuschku 4y agoMotorola 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 agoNot 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 agoThat's an interesting definition, considering an order of magnitude more of these feature-complete devices gets sold than of flagships.
- Gigachad 4y agoShow one phone that sells an order of magnitude more than the iPhone.
- kuschku 4y agoThat'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.