FM radio for iPhone!, FM radio for iPhone!

That seems odd, wonder why FM is included in Asian and European models and not in USA Galaxy S4?

You would have to ask Samsung that question.

"Flashing" a CDMA phone to allow it to be used on a specific carrier would constitute an unauthorized modification to the phone. This would be a violation of the EULA for the phone, and if the carrier is an authorized carrier, would undoubtedly violate their contract with Apple. It could also qualify as "unlocking" the phone. Though it may be legal for the purchaser of a phone to unlock them on their own under certain circumstances, doing so with a CDMA phone would require that the carrier or their agent perform this. The law does not allow for that at all. Only an individual can do so legally and then, only with phones sold in certain time frames.

No one is going to go to jail for it, but whether it's a contract violation, a violation of the EULA, or a DMCA violation, it's technically illegal.

Why would it be an unauthorized modification to the iPhone? It has to be flashed when it is originally set up.

I do know that the MVNOs do accept walk in phones with clear ESNs (including Straight Talk) and do flash the ESN. As I said above there is no such thing as a "locked" CDMA phone but the two major CDMA carriers do not normally (not always) accept carry in phones. Flashing the ESN would not constitute "unlocking" it and I can find absolutely no law that says it cannot be done. So please show me the statute where it says this.

I have carried over a work phone (back when I did that sort of thing) from Verizon to Sprint (it was not and iPhone, predates) that and all Sprint did is checked that the ESN was clear with Verizon (it wasn't stolen, we had fully paid for it, etc.) and they flashed it.

CoolHand_Luke wrote:

That seems odd, wonder why FM is included in Asian and European models and not in USA Galaxy S4?

Two reasons occur to me, which would also apply to why Apple chose not to include FM:

1. US FM is a different standard than FM in the rest of the world. Modulation is different, the bands are slightly different, subcarrier coding is different, and channel spacing and bandwidth are different. I don't know if the chip is compatible with both standards, but even if it is there would have to be a way to switch between them. In general when you buy an FM radio you must specify where you will be using it. A few actually have a switch that toggles between the standards. But most do not.
2. All FM receivers require testing and certification by the FCC before they can be sold. This is a time-consuming process, and could actually delay release of a product that included FM.

What you're describing would be the equivalent of you walking into a T-Mobile store with an AT&T locked phone. After all, all they have to do is make a change to the firmware to get it to work on T-Mo, right?

Apple does not provide the software necessary for carriers to flash the phone, therefore any changes to the phone to flash it would constitute an unauthorized modification. I'm just assuming that this would be the equivalent of "unlocking" the phone, which is (again) illegal under the DMCA. (It was either legalized or decriminalized for a time, depending on how you look at it, but the rules got changed... again... recently).

Things have changed quite a bit since the advent of smart-phones.

It was a smartphone.

You can go to Walmart and watch them flash the ESN on a carry in smartphone.

You are confusing CDMA with GSM. There is no hardware or software "lock" for CDMA. You don't have to hack it, jailbreak it or in any way modify Apple's software to flash the ESN. CDMA carriers here do check the ESN to see if it is clear. But if Sprint flashed a Verizon phone that the subscriber had not finished paying for that would be between Verizon and the subscriber. But as a matter of policy Sprint chooses not to do that.

Then maybe my understanding of "flashing" a CDMA phone in order to be able to activate it on a particular carrier network is flawed. If any change to the firmware has to be made at all, it would be a violation of the EULA.

If a CDMA phone is registered to a particular carriers network, I would think that either the carrier the phone is tied to would have to voluntarily release the phone from their network before the phone could be used on the new network or there would be a conflict there, assuming no change to the firmware was required. If a change to the firmware is required, then the carrier doing so is 'hacking' the phone since Apple does not provide carriers with the tools to do that.

KiltedTim said, "Then maybe my understanding of "flashing" a CDMA phone in order to be able to activate it on a particular carrier network is flawed."

Correct, it is.

Then please explain exactly how the process works.

I don't know exactly how it's done but I do know that Verizon, at least at the store level, doesn't do it. There was some talk, years back, about allowing customers to send their phones to some central location where it would be verified to work on Verizon's network, properly flashed, added to the database. The process was supposed to take about 10 days door to door, if I recall correctly. I don't know that it actually happened. From all practical purposes, it doesn't.

I suspected as much. The only places I've ever seen that will do it is the corner shops with the big signs that say "UNLOCK ANY CELL PHONE HERE" flashing in the windows. Usually attached to the payday loan shops around these parts. I consider them just about as above board...

Mind you, I have know idea what a company like StraightTalk does. I'm still trying to figure out if they are GSM or CDMA or what. I know that their version of the iPhone 5 is somehow altered so that it doesn't use a SIM but uses the 3G CDMA network. For all I know, it involves flashing things. Or voodoo.

StraightTalk is something of an enigma. I believe, in their case, phones may be interchangable with Verizon. I know that Verizon has at least a partial ownership stake in them. I believe they share the Verizon activation database (for lack of a better term) and simply flag a particular phone for StraightTalk. Since StraightTalk does not offer LTE service at all, no SIM should be required. All voice traffic is over the CDMA network, anyway. All they would do would be provision the account for 3G data only (no LTE). I don't know that it would require actually altering the phone in any way.

as i researched some more, if i am not mistaken, actually s4 doesnt have fm. not in usa nor in europe. only s3 outside of usa has fm. i had no idea samsung will no longer include it in his devices. i guess fm is geting not popular or something. i'll be buying europian s3 then. there is not much difference between them at this moment.