Report: Apple to Activate Latent FM Radio in iPhone, touch

Ed Sutherland ()

Apple may enable iPhone and iPod touch users to receive FM radio via a built-in feature previously dormant, says a report. The Cupertino, Calif. company is developing a radio.app that operates similar to the FM feature in the latest iPod iphone-fmNanos, according to the 9to5Mac blog.

Although the latest iPhones and iPod touch devices have long been able to broadcast via an FM signal, allowing hands-free operation in cars, reception of FM signals until now has been limited to the Nike+ system. Release of the Apple-built FM app is delayed as engineers work out kinks in integrating Mobile iTunes Store transactions. The function, already available for the iPod Nano, lets listeners of radio stations that support tagging to get song information available from iTunes and purchase music.

Apple has a history of enabling sleeping features after shipping products. The company waited 9 months before activating Bluetooth in second-generation iPod touch devices. Cupertino has yet to switch-on 802.11n wireless networking in new iPhones and iPods.

[Via 9to5Mac and Gadget Lab]

DON'T MISS
Apple Event: New iPod Nano Features

10 comments »

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in News |

  • dbg

    This year: FM + camera in the Nano.
    In the bigger, better iPhone / iTouch: nothing til *next year*.
    WTF!?

  • Mark Smalley

    If iPhones “have long been able to broadcast via an FM signal, allowing hands-free operation in cars”, then please please, please, tell me how to access that feature. I can find no results searching the web for such a feature. Oh, and there seem to be an awful lot of companies selling devices (fm transmitters) that plug into an iPhone and convert the output to fm and transmit from said add-on device. Jeez. . . doesn’t anybody proofread anymore?

  • Gene

    Um, hold on -
    “the latest iPhones and iPod touch devices have long been able to broadcast via an FM signal”?
    I don’t know about yours, but mine has no such capability. What it DOES have is Bluetooth audio, not FM.

    Oh, and the “latest” devices having “long been able” is stretching time to fit hyperbole, don’t you think?

  • Gene

    AND – what in the world does the Nike+ system have to do with receiving FM signals?

    Methinks it’s time to start again with this post.

  • http://merchantcashadvanced.com Chris R

    I don’t know about you whiners, but I like the idea of adding FM radio to my iPhone.

  • Simon H

    To all those asking what they are on about:

    From what I can tell, the same chip that is used for Nike+ and wifi/bluetooth has both FM transmission and recieving capabilities that are just not yet utilised.

  • Travis

    Agreed with the other’s on this post – I have a sucky FM modulator in my car as we speak – I hate the thing.

    So are you saying that we will be able to ditch the FM modulators once this feature is turned on? Please, oh please….and make sure it has an “International” version so we can tune it below the 89.1 frequency.

  • http://www.interactivelogic.net/ InteractiveLogic

    This would be very useful if we could also record the FM signal a la Sandisk’s Sansa devices and the Creative Labs Nomad, but I’m not holding my breath on that. However, it would definitely be a great third-party app opportunity if that functionality was opened up, complete with an API.

  • @TheWorld

    pro FM here as well!

  • scstsut

    The author is apparently mixing up the iPhone/iPod Touch’s Bluetooth and FM radio.

    I use an iPod Touch so I’ll use it in my explanation.

    The iPod Touch 2nd Gen included a Bluetooth chip which was later activated in a firmware update. With Bluetooth it is able to support bluetooth headsets (like for a phone) or headphones (for listening to music; A2DP).

    The iPod Touch 3rd Gen that was just released has a radio chip that supports FM broadcast as well as reception. It is presumed that they will activate an FM tuner like the newest iPod Nano’s and (not necessarily at the same time) activate an FM broadcaster so that you can listen to your iPod by tuning any near by radio to the frequency the iPod is broadcasting on.

    [And hopefully they'll fill that empty space with a camera]