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The 90s kid in me yearns for a phone with Fm radio, headphone jack, IR blaster, stylus, memory card slot, slide out keyboard and one of those click on projectors the Motorola phones used to have. I would call it the Donatello and it would be radical.
And a translucent purple case!
I’ve refused to buy these “flagship” phones that don’t have a headphone jack. The 90s kid in me will live on, damnit!
Same I use wired earbuds everyday at work and I refuse to buy a phone without one
I recently bought Bluetooth large headphones and I feel like they’re a massive improvement. However, when it comes to earbuds (which I still use a lot when big ones are inconvenient), I would never buy wireless ones. I am afraid that in a lot of them, battery is not easily replaceable (while in my big ones it can be accessed by unscrewing a cover), and the small things would get lost fairly easily.
Also you have to spend a lot more for good bluetooth ear buds compared to wired. Like, you can get a pair of KZ ZSN Pros for 20 bucks or so. They sound great, have nice material quality (they got metal bits on em!), good quality cable, great sounding mic… you get the idea. To get bluetooth ear buds that sound just as good you’d probably have to spend like 80 bucks? And they’d be made of plastic and not have the mic quality anywhere near the KZs. It’s just so much easier to get good audio quality with a wire.
I do have a pair of Bluetooth headphones and I use them from time to time. I tend to revert to my wired m50x pretty often just out of personal preference
I have some wired headphones for when I am gaming on the computer, but anything else I use Bluetooth earbuds, and I can’t imagine going back to wired ones, never getting the cable caught on things is so freeing. They also have active noise canceling and hear thru which both come in real handy on work sites.
Basically all the phones with headphone jacks now have abysmal long-term support. Even the fair phone got rid of the headphone jack so they could sell their bullshit wireless headphones
If there was a decent phone with FM radio and an IR blaster, I might pick it over a lot of other ones.
I miss having an IR blaster so much, I was always finding new uses for it. Now I’ve got little remotes everywhere again
Same, including an IR led is such a simple thing, why did this ever go away. Though I’m pretty sure most Chinese phones still have them, Xiaomi phones do for sure
This is why I love Sony phones.
There’s a lot more capability with USB-C audio though. Even entirely discounting Bluetooth, there are plenty of high quality USB-C headphones out there that blow the pants off of what you could do with a 3.5mm jack.
No lol. It all gets converted to an analog signal to drive the headphones. There’s no difference in fidelity between 1/8" and USB-C. It’s literally the exact same signal.
Except you’re not limited to the phones hardware and space constraints with USB. You can put the DAC, you know the thing that does that conversion, in the headphone end now, whereas you couldn’t with 3.5mm because you can push power over USB. Meaning you have the ability to get headphones with a much better DAC, which will provide better audio quality.
It also frees up space in the phone for more battery, different radios, and other things.
It’s a tradeoff of convenience. I want the jack because it’s a universal standard that doesn’t require external batteries or the right alignment of the stars for proper functionality. Quality has been fine since the dawn of the smartphone, IMO, at least for earbuds. You’re still free to use a USB DAC if there’s a jack!
DACs in phones these days are totally fine these days. There really isn’t any need for an external one unless you need to drive higher impedance cans. Quality-wise, they’re totally fine.
Where’s our different radios and other things? They just keep adding more camera lenses, and MORE MEGAPIXELS.
Nothing innovative or useful, and now we’re forced to buy more shit (adapters) to make other things we already have, work with our phones.
I’ll stick with my “mid grade” phone that does all of the same things, but also connects to 3.5mm
PS. This mid grade phone also has USB C if I really wanted a custom DAC, and alternatively I can also charge and listen to things at the same time, with no extra cost
Uh, since Apple removed it they’ve added the mmWave antenna, the ultrawideband chip, the satellite antenna, and a thread radio.
Fair point about Apple. They did also remove the home button and optimized their display further to accommodate that though.
If only it wasn’t so proprietary, I could get on the apple train. Still mad about my headphones jacks though.
Just use Bluetooth
Why? You can just hire a dude to sing to you as you walk around. Just use a bard, bro.
…Is that a serious offer?
I’m sure that you can find one on craigslist or whatever hell site people use for that these days.
I used to swear by wired headphones.
The audio quality, not needing batteries, the simplicity.
But then I got a decent pair of Bluetooth headphones and I discovered how much wires got in my way. I discovered that the audio quality coming out of phones were garbage regardless of connection type, and the headphones I got would last weeks of daily use on one charge.
Plus I would get a more water proof phone, and I would never have to worry about the headphone jack breaking inside of the port, or my headphones going flying off because I walked past a knob of whatever at just the right height to ruin my day.
I still want phones to have the ports, but on mobile devices I’ll never use them. I just want others to be happy too.
My old Moto G3 was the only real waterproof phone, whatever you have I bet you take it out of your pocket to swim, and guess what, it had a headphone jack.
Cables doesn’t consume battery not get affected by radio interference.
Cables doesn’t consume battery
When you plug earbuds into your phone, your phone is literally powering the earbuds. The cables transmit an electrical signal; they consume battery. The consumption is fairly negligible, of course, but so is modern Bluetooth.
The consumption is fairly negligible, of course, but so is modern Bluetooth.
Sure, that should be why using BT my phone headphones, battery lasts 30-40% less 🤦🏻
Either your phone is straight up broken or your anecdotal measurements are way off. There is effectively no difference in battery life on a phone between using wired headphones and Bluetooth.
I’ve an Armor 21, it has the radio, headphone jack, IR blaster and the memory card slot, plus a loud and clear speaker, actual night vision and is rugged as fuck. Base price sub-$250, upcharge for an attachable endoscope.
Just checked it out, this thing looks sick. But it also looks ugly as shit. Is it as ugly as it looks in person? Specifically not a fan of the RGB LED ring thing on the back?
Honest criticisms: It’s a bit of a brick for sure. I turned the RGB ring off. The multi-function button isn’t as usable as I’d hoped, mostly just a flashlight/screenshot button. The headphone jack and USB port are behind a protected rubber flap, so I keep opening/closing it frequently, but that’s to help with being waterproof. While the optional case functions as a good stand for horizontal viewing and for holding, it is inadequate for vertical, and it just would’ve needed a small internal brace to fix that. The case also blocks their wireless charging connectors, if you were planning to use a dock for that. Attaching the endoscope requires removing a tiny screw. The lack of a bottom button bar has taken some getting used to but I’m fine with it now, the side fingerprint scanner is similar.
Overall I am happy with it. The battery lasts a whole day with high use, it has decent internals for games, the screen and included protector are appropriately unobtrusive, it isn’t running a very outdated version of Android. Perhaps most importantly, it should survive my child who likes to throw my phone and my dumbass who left it in my pocket getting in a pool.
You’ll be happy to know that I bribed my kids into watching the 1990 TMNT live action movie this weekend. The younger one loved it, but the preteen was full of critical commentary the whole time. Go figure. But hey, I won one of them over to the TMNT side.
how do you know someone was born in the 80s? they’ll fucking tell you. you can just like stuff without referencing your stupid metal lunchbox all the time.
I’ve been saying this for a while now. FM radios and such are invaluable in emergency situations.
There have been times in the past where I’ve lost power to my house. No internet, no electricity etc in the middle of an emergency weather situation. I had to rely on battery powered radios to learn about what the situation was elsewhere and how long we’d be stuck etc. There is basically no reason why this can’t be incorporated into phones, aside from the fact that phone makers would rather you use Apple Music etc. It should be legislated for I believe.
One reason is that every implementation I’ve ever tried relies on using the wired earphones as an aerial and Apple magically convinced everyone that having a 3.5mm port is somehow a bad thing.
Exactly. The real plea here is “bring back 3.5mm ports.” I’m afraid of the day my old phone dies because I have this fear that even cheap-ass phones are going to abandon 3.5mm headphones for cheap, unreliable, garbage bluetooth trash.
Just double-checked. My current smartphone that I partially picked for it’s 3.5mm socket does have built in FM radio that works great and only functions with earphones plugged in.
Just buy a $15 FM radio. Especially since you can’t charge your phone when you have no power, but a small radio takes AA batteries which can sit in a drawer for 10 years until you need them.
You’d think so but every device around my house that I “put batteries in it and forget it” when I need it I find the batteries have exploded and the device is ruined (regardless of the decade on the expiry-date label of the battery). So my plan now is to keep the device separate from the batteries like it’s a freaking handgun and make sure my phone is charged so I can use its light to make my way to the drawer where we keep the batteries.
Alkaline batteries are the crappy ones that leak. Get the more expensive lithium batteries, or go full on rechargeable ones, and you can leave them in without worrying about your device getting ruined.
Lkline leaks, lithium explodes
Yeah but at least you’ll know exactly when the lithium ones go bad…
Rechargeable batteries self-discharge and get damaged if left unplugged for too long, and explode if left plugged in. They are not ideal for something you want to pack away in an emergency kit.
Almost everything in an emergency kit expires. But many name brand alkaline and non rechargeable lithiums are now rated for ten years shelf life. In addition there are rechargeable eneloop branded batteries rated for slower discharge rate.
Yes, but there’s a difference between “expires” and “leaks all over the inside of my emergency radio”. And they don’t make it to half their stated lifespans once put into a flashlight and the flashlight goes into storage.
In addition to being able to take AAs, my FM radio has a solar panel and a hand crank to recharge the included rechargeable battery, which can charge a phone in a pinch. Win all around!
It probably also picks up the NOAA frequencies for weather forecasts and will have a standby feature for severe weather alerts. Emergency weather radios are pretty cool, and good to have on hand.
It absolutely does!
A weather radio is even more useful. It usually has FM as well, but getting National Weather Service alerts can be vital.
one of those windy radios you crank for a bit would be better for emergencies
You can make your battery phone last a lot when you are not using the display and disconnect from any networks. You can also have some powerbank around. Emergencies won’t necessarily find you in home or wherever your radio is stored in. You keep your phone with you most of the time, chances are, if an earthquake happens, for example, you’ll have your phone with you. Been there.
Yes… but… this becomes one of those things that everyone should buy to be prepared but few actually do or they forget.
I keep a little crank-chargeable radio in our emergency kit but most people don’t. If the cell networks go down (and they usually do in severe weather and most other big emergency situations) most people will lose all of their access to information.
I wholeheartedly agree, but I don’t think there’s any saving it at this point. Car manufacturers are dropping it from new models and that’s the only actual AM/FM radio most people actually buy these days.
Same thing happened to the phone network. It used to actually be possible to call 911 when the power was out. The central stations all had battery banks and diesel generators. Unless the lines were cut, you had service.
I wanted to tag on to your post. I’ve been without power for weather stuff too a few times and one thing i learned was that my cheapie 40" TV would only pull 10-15watts with backlight all the way down. With a small battery bank you can go a good while on that and tune into your local station via OTA. It was very watchable especially given the only light around was my candle.
For a couple more watts you watch shows off your memory stick as well once the event is over and you are just waiting for the power lines to get fixed… my phone drained nearly as much but to be fair i left the radio enabled so it was hunting for a tower.
Just something to consider for your gear if you live near the coast or in Texas. Battery banks are pretty cheap.
I’m glad battery backup can keep the internet going for a long time but I also have data to use and never get close to making a dent in it. If service providers went down though I do have several radios around the house. I don’t go anywhere but I’d I did i would carry a little radio lol. That being said, I miss my smart phone and flip phone that had radio on it. I don’t care about headphone jacks but I definitely would love radio.
The components to make the phone able to decode FM radio take place. Which, in such small device, is valuable. If you really need FM radio for emergency situations, why not take a dedicated miniaturized FM radio receiver?
Not sure if this is still the case, but in the past the FM radio functionality essentially came “free” as part of either the SoC or modem. Since it used headphone wires as the antenna, the death of the headphone jack pretty much killed any purpose for including it.
There is no such thing as “free” functionality in hardware. Old SoC may have had this functionality, but it was at the cost of some die space, that has since been reclaimed by other function more useful to most users.
The functionality is, in fact, still there, and basically every phone with a headphone jack turns it on.
Old SoC may have had this functionality
Modern SoCs still have it…
Further we’ve moved to Software Defined Radios in general… So it’s all programmable.
Hence the quotations around “free”. Qualcomm isn’tgoing to tape out a custom chip without it for you just because you don’t want that block.
that has since been reclaimed by other function more useful to most users.
This was my uncertainty, do you know for certain that they don’t include FM functionality on their chips anymore or are you just guessing? The public facing documentation is not exactly detailed enough to tell for sure.
No, but it’s so immaterial it hasn’t really been worth the effort to exclude it yet
FM radio was integrated in even smaller phones 20 years ago. And the tech to “decode the signal” is already present in today’s phones. FM are radio signals, just like NFC, Wifi, Bluetooth and cellular.
Not the same radio frequencies, not the sames technologies (analog vs digital). Those radio hardware are very specialized, and won’t work on frequencies or technologie they are not meant to.
Correct, not the same technologies. It’s a much simpler circuitry. Very specialized doesn’t mean very complex. A hammer is very specialized too.
I read somewhere that SoC boards on today’s phones still have FM tuning capabilities, but they just don’t use them.
I’ll try to verify that, though.
Edit: this link seems promising: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-unlock-fm-radio-hidden-smartphone/
I’ve come to the realization that the phone I want is a Nokia 3310 “brick”.
- Infinite battery life
- compact size
- headphone jack
- indestructible
- no spyware
- no social media
- T9 texting
- no software updates
- Snake
- Brick Breaker
You can buy one right now.
You mean like a 20 year old one? Would it even work?
Yeah. It’d probably still have charge too.
I found one in the back of a drawer a few weeks ago, it turned on straight away. I didn’t have the right size SIM card to try and use it fully sadly.
Come the apocalypse there will just be cockroaches and old Nokias.
You cold dredge one up from the bottom of the ocean and it would still pick up a signal.
If a signal exists. Those blazing fast 2g towers ain’t super common nowadays
Don’t forget the twinkies!
Wasn’t it like 2g cellular?
Many operators around the word are ditching 3g but still keeping 2g.
It is main/backup connection in so many iot and older automation devices that it won’t be going away anytime soon.
And yes, both my 2110 and 3310 I alternate in my cars glove compartment can still call emergency services number without sim card.Even when they shut down 2G access it will probably just be commercial use but they’ll keep it for emergency service. It still has excellent coverage and the infrastructure is more trouble to remove than it’s worth.
I mean how many g’s are strictly necessary
I mean as many gs as the network still strictly supports…
In the US we recently shut off the 3g network so, at least 4.
Well it is a Nokia so…
The device itself is not the concern as much as the network connectivity
Depending on where they are in the world 2G networks might still be active. In Europe they’re still on for a few more years in most countries.
No. I don’t know of anywhere that a 2G network is still available to use. Some still operate it for emergency calls but that’s it.
You can deploy your own 2g base station with openbts and some cheap software-defined radio hardware. Don’t crank up the signal though so you won’t run afoul with the government agencies that regulate radio spectrum in your country.
It’s anybody’s guess but if the battery hasn’t crapped out it probably would.
I have a bunch of old Nokia’s whose batteries puffed up and I can’t use them anymore but I also have some that are still ok.
Oh and they’d have to also find the charger for it.
Everyone talks about how great Nokia bricks are, but you actually do have to be careful not to drop them or you might damage the floor.
T9, back when you could text and drive without ever taking your eyes off the road.
Oh you still can with Swype 🙂
You still can, and nowadays we even have a word for it: distracted driving.
Some of these I get, but I don’t get the T9 thing. T9 was so bad! It took ages to type many words. Today’s predictive keyboards are miles better.
Also, no software updates? Sure, every now and then there’s a shitty update, but most updates are great. New features and especially bug fixes are amazing. Used to be that if something had a bug, you just had to deal with it. There’s no guarantees it’ll be fixed today, but many companies do fix their bugs at least eventually. The ability to iteratively develop is huge for software quality. These days, unless you’re developing something that absolutely cannot fail (like a mars prober or radiation therapy machine), it’s widely agreed upon that iterative design is superior to “waterfall” design of trying to plan it out all ahead of time. Part of why is so you can get feedback continuously instead of only after you’ve committed to months of tech debt.
When T9 was all we had, we got real good at it.
No software updates mean they have to get it right the first time, which they always seemed to manage.
Dr Who vs Daleks. I think it’s krobot on linux.
Why? Have you heard radio? Every station is just a glorified shitty playlist that they cycle through a dozen times a day
Because if the cell networks fail, right now there’s no backup method to get crucial information to everyone’s hands.
Radio are an easy secondary, really long range mechanism to get information INTO disaster stricken areas when normal means of communications have failed.
Back home we had a local station, felt like a way of tuning into “the city.” Very few breaks outside of their pledge drives once/twice a year. Listening to the Jazz station here on short drives these days. Very few ads, and some pretty gnarly shit. College radio stations are also pretty easy to find and escape that ad insanity.
Don’t let radio and broadcast TV die quite yet, it’s still very viable, especially as we sort out net neutrality and failsafe systems in cases of emergency.
That’s what happens when we “removed regulations” and allowed Clear Channel (aka iHeartRadio) to buy up most every major station in the country.
However you can still do short range FM transmissions yourself, as a lot of people do with elaborate Christmas light displays, plus it’s useful in emergency situations.
every major station in the country.
Which country?
Probably the US, since they just assume everyone would know they’re talking about the US.
plus it’s useful in emergency situations.
Yes, in case of emergency, tune to a Clear Channel station so they can tell you how the emergency is the fault if the Woke Left.
And crazy levels of advertising to boot.
Emergencies that would normally sever other means of communications. Think natural disasters that interrupt internet access. Usually radio stations are the first to come back up, and priceless at times where information is key.
Where I am we’ve got the BBC local radio network and they’ve got some amazing local music shows for each region granted all is available via their now locked down sounds app
In Atlanta we have a pretty nice jazz station (WCLK). The station that NPR took over (Album 88) was a university station and they still play stuff in the evening I think. There can be good content but it is heavily reliant on where you live. Come to think of it, WCLK is a university station as well. So I guess you have to have universities around.
Maybe if you live somewhere with good radio stations… the radio is pretty much dead here. Nothing but Christian talk and static.
And ads… You forgot ads… Never ending ads…
I switched to satellite years ago (when there was two competing services) because I once had an hour long drive and didn’t hear anything but ads the whole way. I was fed up with it.
I now pretty much use Spotify because XM and Sirius merged, so now there’s only the one service, and they immediately cut features, introduced ads, and jacked up prices. So I cancelled.
You mean as soon as two competeting companies merged to create a monopoly it caused massive problems? Who could have guessed!
FTC had no problem with that, but Microsoft buying Activision possibly making Call of fuckin’ Duty an Xbox exclusive was something they got all in a huff about.
God damn jackasses. 🤦♂️
I bet when you canceled you got harassed for years after with weekly letters in the mail begging you to sign up. Every time I’ve bought a car I’ve had to deal with this same bullshit.
I canceled my satellite radio subscription in, oh, 2017 I think?
Yep, 3 years of harassment.
This is tangential to the conversation but have you heard of Radio Garden? You can listen to radio stations around the world. As for “good radio stations,” I’m partial to college radio stations like 90.7 FM in NYC. They have a lot of freedom with their playlists.
Yeah, but you use the Internet for things like that; not an actual FM radio.
I listen to those stations in my car or on my alarm clock at home. But I suggested Radio Garden in case you wanted to listen to stations not in your area. Do you have public radio or college radio available?
Would be great for an apocalypse
Careful now, that same kind of wishing gave us a plague, lol.
Wait, you guys don’t have FM radio on your phones?
Most scrappy overpriced phones doesn’t have mini jack so no antenna to get radio
Why? ClearChannel has all but ruined it.
Remember, not everyone lives in the US.
Fair, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before it’s ruined elsewhere also.
There is a conspiracy with the iHeartRadio music festival.
How many people do you know who get hyped up to go see an amalgamation of 6-15 year old bands with no new music?
ClearChannel (and therefore iHeart) sells advertising enmasse so that messages and products can be pushed the largest groups. They hype up the music festival like its a great big deal, and then they give away tickets.
I genuinely wonder how many people paid for tickets vs. “won” tickets from one of the 9 different radio stations that cover their area.
I’ve had family win and go to the event. I don’t recall what they thought about the event or which bands were there… But the event definitely happened.
Oh it happens. But very few people buy tickets. They win them because iHeart Media packs the event with giveaway tickets. They spend months hyping up the event, and then say that the tickets sell out in minutes. It’s false hype and false demand.
Ah, got it. I misunderstood your comment a little bit. Makes you wonder what they gain from it at all then no?
They included that in their reply:
ClearChannel (and therefore iHeart) sells advertising enmasse so that messages and products can be pushed the largest groups. They hype up the music festival like its a great big deal, and then they give away tickets.
Basically, the bands and holding the event are cheap (the bands selected are not in high demand and thus cheap booking) in comparison with the profits of hosting a subliminal ad show with a (happily) captured audience.
Note that this is my interpretation of the other poster’s message I thought I’d chime in with, I have no first or even second hand knowledge on this topic.
You should listen to Pitchshifter’s Infotainment album here’s a link Infotainment
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
For emergency purposes, mandate cell tower batteries with solar supplement.
And generators for bigger hubs.
Cellular internet is critical infrastructure now.
Same for ISPs. My internet wifi has battery backup, so as long as the ISP stays up we are good.
Cell towers nearby all went down during the last big power failure. I could hit one distant tower that still had power, but the signal was weak, and the tower was swamped. It could barely push data.
Next big earthquake will be a total shitshow if that’s not fixed.
I have battery backup for my modem and router as well. Also my doorbell has a battery (for installation without access to wiring). This means I can still get motion alerts while my power is out lol.
Then you’d need to include a headphone jack since the headphones acted as the antenna.
Good.
high end ones dont even have headphone jacks for starters
Google realized they aren’t good enough at software development to prevent their phones from randomly stopping audio playback when using headphones, so they removed the plug for them in hopes no one would notice.
That’s a weird claim. Do you have a source?
I think it’s a joke
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
My source is that I made it the fuck up
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
That’s not a big deal. There are many external DACs that work great. And there are many DACs built into phones with headphone jacks that are awful.
My old Motorola X4 used the headphone cable for its FM antenna. The radio didn’t work without it.
My current Moto G works the same way.
I can’t think of a phone I’ve owned that hasn’t done this, even as far back as my O2 Ice
I’m going to chime in here to plug the ulefone power armor 18t I just got. I was pretty nervous to get a chinese phone as I’ve only had samsung and lg phones before, but this thing legit blows me away. Not only does it fully support every band that my carrier uses (rare even for phones made for the US market), but it has:
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Replaceable battery that lasts 3+ days between recharges
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Extremely rugged, IP69 waterproof and designed for underwater photography (physical shutter button and diving camera app)
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3.5mm jack, sd card slot, FM radio (with built in antenna - no headphones need to be plugged in), and an RGB notification led
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Dimensity 900 chipset that beats a lot of the snapdragon chips on the market.
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12 fucking GB of RAM… yes, 12…
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Wifi 6(ax)
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Wireless charging and reverse charging
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A fucking 60x magnification microscope? (Why???)
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A FLIR thermal camera (Just because, why the fuck not)
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Runs mostly bloat free stock android
All that for under $600 (on aliexpress)
The only thing it’s missing is an IR blaster, otherwise this is the best phone I’ve ever had, bar none. It is a chonky beast though, be warned.
This has really changed my view on Chinese electronics, especially at a time when phones for the western world are losing features and functionality all the time (including stuff from South Korean). Turns out capitalism isn’t that great for innovation!
As a former fan of ulefones:
They’re great as long as they work, but I already had two ulefones where something broke internally physically and the IR-blaster blasted non-stop, even after the phone was off. Never had other significant problems, tho.
Damn, this seems like exactly what I’ve been looking for… Shame I’m finding it a year late.
One last really important point you didn’t mention is how long do they serve security updates for?
Ulephone is a beast that fits in your pocket. Its hardware is near perfection, too bad they cut costs at software resulting in many crashes, random reboots or apps that stop working. But it’s indeed a solid Chinese phone.
Yeah I’m not looking for Chinese spyware on my phone’s from a company that will no longer exist in 3 months.
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i remember old ipods could listen to the radio using the headphones as an antenna and i thought it was the coolest thing in the world. listening to a live feed like that is so much more…viscerally satisfying than just streaming a song or even listening to internet radio, where it could easily be just a computer. it’s nice knowing someone is actually creating a show for you in real time
Sadly 95% of the shows are just computers with a pre-loaded playlist. Still fun to know though that you are listening with a lot of other people together.
The shows don’t really exist anymore. At least not in my area. Well over a decade ago they were all replaced by playlists and commercials.
Only a couple of the final pod nanos had built-in radio, the other iPods all required additional hardware to be plugged in. I found that the hard way with an iPod classic… Even my shitty flip phone had built-in radio with an earpiece connected lol.
Uh, no. It entirely depends on the station. My wife has radio stations in her car that sound almost 100% prerecorded and edited together - I can never tell if someone is actually talking now or if it’s just a snippet from a previous recording. However, if I listen to a very specific radio station from my home country, which I can only get via internet stream, it still feels like listening to the radio. The way of listening has nothing to do with it, it’s all in the station’s programming.
A lot of posts in here complaining about shitty commercial radio. Do you all not have local radio stations? I love my local stations.
We have a dozen local stations…all owned by clearchanel.
The high school the next town over has the best music in the whole city. Unfortunately I live right on the edge of the broadcast range so it cuts out at home.
Local radio sucks.
It’s nothing but ads. I’ve tried listening to a couple of them and the music selection is horrendous bracketed by lengthy ads. Bad to worse.
You have shitty local radio. I have an indie station that’s mostly listener supported that plays tons of obscure stuff.
Good for you.
I had read this in another thread, but radio was one of the first (if not first) media form to be entshittified. Decades before we even had a term for it.
My comment pertains to the USA, but regardless of where you live, there is a very strong likelihood that your local commercial stations are owned by a company like iHeartRadio and much, if not all, of the content is syndicated.
The only exception might be a local nonprofit radio station. You probably have at best one local station in this case, unless you live in a major city broadcast region. Keep in mind I mean one local station that plays music. A local NPR station is probably separate from this. Even most of NPR is syndicated, however.
If you’re lucky, a local college might still have a radio station broadcasting over FM, but so many have moved online since you then don’t need an [expensive and volatile] FCC license.
I’ve never bought a phone without FM radio. I regard it as an emergency tool.
That doesn’t help much if your country has shut down FM broadcasting though.
I didn’t even know that DAB exists.
It would be very, very hard to make old and rural people switch in my country. We still have analog tv for the same reason. 🇨🇱
Oye weon que andai haciendo acá jaja
Haciendo acto de presencia
So long Radio Free Europe
Shutting down FM broadcasting doesn’t mean shutting down radio; if you read the link, you’ll see that DAB is taking it’s place in those places.
Thanks for clarifying, I didn’t understand that in the article.
Well, that’s surely something to consider, but it’s still not a fact. I wouldn’t even expect that to happen in my country any time soon. I know radio is struggling right now, but I also know I can stream live FM radio stations from all over the world.
In any case, if DAB can replace FM even for emergency use, that’s what I’d want in my phone.
wtf
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my kids dont understand the concept of entertainment that isnt on demand. like at all. even if its one of the rare occasions we will put something on FTA tv they act like why cant i just watch it later, they simply dont comprehend the idea that you have to watch/listen to somethng at specified times otherwise you miss it
I have an SiliconLabs HDHR attached to my Plex server. I have OTA tv available for streaming to all my devices in my household (along with DVR capabilities of course). When the kids fight about what to watch (they’re not allowed Youtube) I just put on normal TV and let them stew on it.
