Mobile Phone Owners would pay extra for a radio inside

[JamesK]

I've installed an Android app called "TuneIn Radio", which can be used to listen to many radio stations via the Internet. It's available in the Android Market.

[asif9t9]

I use Nobex Radio Companion on my Blackberry in the GTA. I love being able to listen to AM talk radio when on the move. Only stations I can't get seem to be Rogers radio, like the Fan590.

[hugh]

What that research was about was actually having an AM or FM tuner inside.

I have an several radio internet apps for my iPhone but I would love to have an AM/FM tuner inside my smartphone so I could listen to the local news or sports station.

With Blue Jays, you can't listen to the game on the local AM station over the internet so the internet radio app is of no value. Also a tuner means no data charges.

[jvincent]

I agree, a real FM radio is a nice thing and if fact the HTC Desire has a built in FM radio.

As it turns out the radio H/W is also in the Nexus one and if you load a Desire based ROM on the N1 the radio also works.

The dev guys are trying to get a native FM app running on the N1, which would be cool.

[asif9t9]

Absolutely a real tuner would be great. I mention Nobex just to show how even with all my 8GB of mp3's, I still just want regular radio. Now is there a reason why some phones will have an FM tuner, but never an AM tuner?

[JamesK]

What that research was about was actually having an AM or FM tuner inside.

There's an FM tuner in my Nokia N800, but I didn't use it very often.

[JamesK]

Now is there a reason why some phones will have an FM tuner, but never an AM tuner?

The problem for both is the antenna. An antenna for FM radio is much larger than for cell phones or WiFi. An AM antenna is much, much larger again. While it is possible to use some methods, such as loading coils, to improve performance, there is a limit to what can be done in such a small package. My Nokia N800 uses the headphone cable as an antenna for the FM tuner.

[BGY11]

I also think you'd run into severe interference issues if a cell phone had an AM tuner. It would probably be fairly tricky to isolate the AM antenna from the cellular antennas.

[jpaik]

+1 on TuneIn Radio. An excellent app, and I can listen to all the local (GTA) FM stations. If I want AM, like 680news, I can get it via their site. AFAIK, I can run the Tune In app just with wifi, so no need for Bell's data network (my carrier).

So for me, a built in tuner is not needed. YMMV.

[CrazyCDN]

My Galaxy S has a radio app and it works really well. Picks up all the FM stations in my town with no trouble at all.

[Nuje]

If an FM tuner and antenna can be squeezed into that new "slightly larger than a postage stamp" iPod Nano, then surely size can't be all that much of a constraint, can it?

[BGY11]

The only disappointing thing about the Galaxy S is that the radio tuner only outputs in mono (not stereo). Granted, the reception is overall fairly good, so perhaps it's a decent tradeoff for some people.

[Hilman]

The FM Radio that comes with the HTC Desire is pretty good, you do need the headphones as your antenna but sounds great when you put it on speakerphone.

[mr weather]

Is this really new? Several years ago before "smartphone" was even a word there were a few cell phone handset models that had FM tuners in them. I distinctly recall that advertisements back then actually pointed out that feature.

[JamesK]

If an FM tuner and antenna can be squeezed into that new

Is the antenna within the unit? Or does it use the headphone cable like the Nokia N800? Antenna sizes are very much determined by the laws of physics. An antenna for FM would be about 10x or 20x the size of one used for cell phones. You can use loading, but that reduces efficiency and also takes space. You could use high gain, high impedance amplifiers, but that leaves you wide open for interference problems.