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FM radio inside your mobile.

On my Nokia Lumia there is an FM radio app - uses the headphones as an aerial though
 
Hmmm, how true is this? And why would phone manufacturers fit a part that they never intend to use?
 
FM in mobile phones (on headphones) was extensively used in parts of Asia more than a decade ago. The sale of FM radios fell as a direct result. It was popular in Bangladesh and India and probably still is. The BBC WS Bengali Service rebroadcasts on FM had a bigger estimated audience than it's SW as a result, but with some resulting issues of local censorship.

There's quite a lot of mobile technology use in developing countries that is as a result of the lack of existing facilities/equipment. Transferring money by mobile has been in regular use in East Africa for many years. They have largely skipped the step of installing cash machines and/or needing debit cards.

John
 
Ive got an FM radio app on my phones and theyve come a long way from the Nokia 8310.

Thats all Im bothered about
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
Hmmm, how true is this? And why would phone manufacturers fit a part that they never intend to use?
Click to expand...
There is a chip in the phone which handles any DSP required. An old Uni friend was involved in the design - dunno if it's current; he sold out to one of the majors. You can do FM radio using DSP.

It's cheaper nowadays to throw a whole load of functions into a chip and program the particular field use you require.

It's not like it makes the thing larger; if I remember the chip in question is something like a 3mm by 3mm SMD.
 
kabayiri said:
There is a chip in the phone which handles any DSP required. An old Uni friend was involved in the design - dunno if it's current; he sold out to one of the majors. You can do FM radio using DSP.

It's cheaper nowadays to throw a whole load of functions into a chip and program the particular field use you require.

It's not like it makes the thing larger; if I remember the chip in question is something like a 3mm by 3mm SMD.
Click to expand...

Ahh I see, like a miniature FPGA? would it not be necessary to have any external components to make use of the FM capability?
 
Most likely as the Moblie service providers want to make money on there data plans so want you to stream content over there networks rather then listen for "free"

With this "requirement" in mind, the handset designers might not have completely engineered the "Free on chip" solution so you might have weak signal reception or spurie noise tones at certain frequency that could completely "Jam" radio stations at spot frequency's...

This FM receiver must work in a VERY RF intensive environment - without the benefit of error correction or frequency hopping that allows "digital" based RF networks to work along side each other.
 
The FM radio in my Samsung works just fine. As said above they use the headphone cable as an aerial so you can't use FM through the speaker...
 
I'm not saying it cannot be engineered correctly, but that for some handset manufacturers it was not a design requirement....
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
It might be a bit above my skill set to build one but I get the general gist of how it works, pretty cool and an interesting article.
Click to expand...

There was an Indian IT contractor who worked with me a few years back. He was really keen on the further education scene and ended up going to MIT.

He used to tell me of departments back in India which were short of funds, so they would get in old Wiis; Xboxes; Mobile phones; and cannibalise them to see what they could come up with. Maybe they discovered things not switched on.

I liked the spirit, but I don't know what came of it.
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
Hmmm, how true is this? And why would phone manufacturers fit a part that they never intend to use?
Click to expand...

Because, if you launch the phone with features A, B and C in version 1, you can add D and E to the device for version 2 but not have to re-engineer the electronics. D and E are built into version 1 but not accessible.

Similar principle applies in a lot of electronic musical instruments and devices
 
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