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Apple to enable iPhone 3GS FM radio soon?

By: , IntoMobile
Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 2:17 PM

iphone-fmThe iPhone can receive FM radio signals, but it has yet to support FM radio functionality. The iPod Nano can play radio through its integrated FM receiver, heck, it even allows you to pause live radio with the Live Pause feature. What about the iPhone? According to one of 9to5mac‘s tipsters, iPhone radio is coming soon!

Apple is supposedly working on an in-house iPhone radio app that will enable the iPhone 3GS to play live radio broadcasts (with Live Pause!) through its currently-crippled FM receiver. Apple’s iPhone radio application is said to run in the background and might even be integrated into the iPhone 3GS‘s iPod app. As it stands, the iPhone 3GS FM radio can be used with Nike+ hardware, but stops short of actually playing radio.

The source says that Apple is waiting to integrate the iPhone radio app with iTunes to allow users to find a radio song in the iTunes store and purchase that song on the spot, but only if the song is tagged properly by the radio station.

Radio in my area is a joke, to say the least. Because of that, I really don’t think I’ll get much use out of an iPhone radio app. But, I’m sure there are plenty of radio junkies out there that can’t wait for radio on the iPhone, especially with Live Pause functionality. That is, if this rumor pans out…

[Via: 9to5mac]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Matman

    Many people use their iphones at the gym to take calls and listen to music. Most gyms have TV’s to watch while on the bike, treadmill, ect… but the the audio is though FM. FM on the iphone would be a very welcome feature.

    Too bad XM/Sirius has never understood that most people listen to music while exercising. Instead of doing deals with larger health clubs to install repeaters, and market portable receivers, they have lost this large market to ipods and other devices.

  • boris

    i believe this is the best phone ever created on earth iphone 3gs

  • Ian

    FM Radio would be a welcome feature and certainally no ‘Joke’.
    The only jokes on the iphone 3GS are
    The internal ariel no service in areas were previous my nokia would have no issues
    The battery life is way too short and the unit is sealed so you cannot even have a 2nd battery that you could switch out, an easy task with a nokia.
    The camera 3meg I would of been impressed 4-5 years ago but not in 2010
    32Gb of memory needs to be at least 4x bigger if it wants to continue to lead the market.
    But at the moment I’ll still love my iphone and accept its faults until the designers meet the needs of the customers instead of their CEO.

  • Ian

    Yeah apple – unleash the fm – you could set up apple stations round world – me thinks he who hasn’t can’t

  • http://www.facebook.com/Dw00dskY Dylan Savvile Woodington

    as stated many times differnt smartphones have different antenae positions, try holding it differently
    turn off 3G network or wifi at night and battery life goes thru le roof
    true that is a bit naff but considering it can be adjusted to take 720p video its pretty alright
    and finally…
    NOBODY NEEDS THAT MUCH SPACE ON A PHONE!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Dw00dskY Dylan Savvile Woodington

    as stated many times differnt smartphones have different antenae positions, try holding it differently
    turn off 3G network or wifi at night and battery life goes thru le roof
    true that is a bit naff but considering it can be adjusted to take 720p video its pretty alright
    and finally…
    NOBODY NEEDS THAT MUCH SPACE ON A PHONE!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Dw00dskY Dylan Savvile Woodington

    as stated many times differnt smartphones have different antenae positions, try holding it differently
    turn off 3G network or wifi at night and battery life goes thru le roof
    true that is a bit naff but considering it can be adjusted to take 720p video its pretty alright
    and finally…
    NOBODY NEEDS THAT MUCH SPACE ON A PHONE!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Dw00dskY Dylan Savvile Woodington

    as stated many times differnt smartphones have different antenae positions, try holding it differently
    turn off 3G network or wifi at night and battery life goes thru le roof
    true that is a bit naff but considering it can be adjusted to take 720p video its pretty alright
    and finally…
    NOBODY NEEDS THAT MUCH SPACE ON A PHONE!

  • Jj

    I totally agree with Matman, I would love to have an FM receiver in the gym to listen to TV but not miss an important phone call. XM/Sirius should partner with a Droid vender and make an all in one phone/MP3 player/XM/Sirius radio/Smart phone etc.