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FM Radio Aerial lets you listen radio without earphones

Categories: Accessories
By: , IntoMobile
Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 3:32 AM

FM Radio AerialI never quite understood handset makers that make us use headphones in order to listen to the local radio stations. Yeah, there are already multiple radios in each handset including the FM receiver, but apparently it’s the antenna that’s a problem. Still, one would think they could use a metal around the casing for that purpose, or least that sounds feasible.

Anyway, thanks to the neat accessory called FM Radio Aerial you will now be able to listen radio without earphones. Simply insert the Aerial into the 3.5mm audio jack, start the radio app (“Visual Radio” on Symbian S60 phones), turn on the speakers and you’re ready to rock.

There is a downside, however – the Aerial has to be removed to answer an incoming or make an outgoing call. Then again, it costs 3.99 GBP (about $8) so you can’t complain much. It’s available on eBay, just search for “FM Aerial for Nokia N95″ and you should be able to find it.

[Via: SymbianFreak]

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.

  • Vaibhav Sharma

    I don’t quite see the point of such a thing. For one, the N95-1 has poor loudspeaker volume as far as the radio is concerned. Don’t know why they won’t fix it even after multiple firmware upgrades.

    Second, why would I carry such a thing, when I can simple use the headphones as antenas for the radio and turn on the loudspeaker!

  • Kim

    Dule, they DO have built-in FM receivers, it’s the antenna that’s the problem. FM antennas are low-tech and need to be relatively long to function well, as is you can see from that accessory! Using the headphone cables to double-up as an antenna is actually a clever and elegant solution.

    Of course what we really need is DAB. . .

  • dusanb

    Yeah, you’re right. Still, one would think they could use a metal around the casing as an antenna. Thanks for the tip though, I’ll fix the post promptly.

  • gerrymoth

    Would this work on the N800 tablet?

  • matisamd

    If it could also attatch as the Phone aerial and the GPS aerial then it would be an excellent addition, maybe the aerial could be a bit smaller or telescopic or very bendy etc would be good to.

  • einar

    How about making a hand strap (replacement) antenna, with a 3.5mm plug in the middle, a kind of dipole ant. That way the ant is always at hand.