FM radio for iPhone!, FM radio for iPhone!

Spoke with our Sprint rep (now higher up in the chain) while I was waiting for them to take a sample piece of me. He did explain how ESN is flashed, etc. Sprints policy remains that they will take clear ESN phones under certain very narrowly defined circumstances. They do confirm that the ESN is clear, etc. then Flash it. He said Straight Talk does the same but will usually not accept iPhones except for the 4s and 5. Don't know if that is correct or not.

He reiterated to me that there is no "lock" or "unlock" or anything else to Flash a CDMA phone. When Apple cam out with their CDMA iPhone 4 they just had to include the chipset and allow access upon connection to flash the ESN. It does not alter anything else. Verizon (and Sprint for the most part) choose not to accept walkin phones by policy but there is nothing technical that would prevent a Verizon employee from flashing a CDMA phone from outside other than their rules. You don't need to go to the UNLOCK ANY CELL PHONE shops because there is nothing to unlock. That is purely for GSM phones that use SIM cards. Although we might make a little bit of money if we opened a shop that said "We unlock CDMA phones", took the phone to the back and took their money. But there would be nothing we would do to it.

@Meg: Straight Talk is both a CDMA and GSM MVNO. For the iPhones they sell they are CDMA (Verizon) only. Apparently Verizon will accept a Straight Talk iPhone 5 on their system. You just have to sign up for an account and pay more money.

Thanks for the clarification, deggie! Excellent information.

Hello, im from Mexico. and i found this page when i googled if iphone 5 has fm. read all the coments. found that some users are really here just to feel themselfs they know better than the rest. those people here saying: "it never has and never will" like if they actually have all the designs of all future models. " i would hate seeing fm radio on iphone" why?.. " build your own phone with fm".. seriusly mature.. "asking for fm on iphone is no diferent from asking for a toaster on iphone..." the lvl of stpdty on this one is over 9000. instead why dont you do something good for a change and help us submiting the request for all of these features that will make the iphone a even a more functional phone.

we are not asking for a proyected keyboard on the desk (or are we?), we just ask for a small extra function that only requires probably a extra wire and a microchip.

a 16gb model can be filled easely by 20 heavy apps and games, leaving no room for endless music, i have a limited 1gb download just for email and stuff, its really not that bad to have the alternative to listen to fm radio even if its crappy. if you dont want it, dont use it like i dont use my passbook app.

i must clarify the ONLY reason i have a iPhone is because of the gaming quality and a friend selled it to me very cheap. when Android phones start having as much high quality games as iphone then hello HTC Evo 3d (wich does have fm btw).

The Evo 3D may have FM in Mexico but I do not believe it has it in the US. I know the Samsung G3 and G4, which are Android, have FM in Europe but not in the US. The iPhone offers it nowhere. I honestly think there just aren't enough people who want it to deal with the licensing issues, antenna, etc. and then pass on the cost.

Sorry, but the only level of stupidity is. Buying ANY smartphone that doesn't do what you NEED. If you expect unlimited music with 16gigs on ANY device, you need to look into iTunes Match, because storing unlimited music on 16 gigs is impossible. (Just ask my 1tb iTunes library).

The comments you hate so much were directed to those arguing that they know better than Apple's engineers. That the experience would be wonderful, regardless of local.

That you bought a friend's used iPhone (because there is no way to get a discount, at least in the US) from any provider, let alone a lowly employee, is your own issue and has no validity on what you think the phone SHOULD have. You got a generation old model (soon to be 2, at least) for next to nothing, and you should be thankful for that opportunity without having to deal with a contract.

Feel free, once again, to contact Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback to let them know what you feel should be changed.

I totally understand your feeling Robert. But you must understand that you are on a "Apple" forum which means you're bound to get flamed for any criticism of Apple product by fanatics. It's kind of the rule of the game.

That being said I did give a cheap Android phone with FM a go and I must say that it did confirm my need for FM reception. So Apple if you read this, yes we are in 2014 and yet FM is well and still alive. Now I must say that I've been on iPhone banwagon since the beginning so it's kind of hard to loose the habit and change the whole idevice ecosystem. So I'm still planning on buying an iPhone 6. I won't lie though the Android plateform is wicked and its openess (SD card expansion, replaceable battery, USB key mounting, FM reception....) is the reason why I'll forgo the iPad and instead get myself an Android pad!

Going back to the main subject of this thread, I've kept on looking around for a solution to our FM radio support crisis 😝 and found out a product from Sony that I believe fits the bill... I just got myself a SBH50 which is a Bluetooth adapter that allows you to use your iPhone freely (and yet include FM reception). It's a little bit expensive at 79$ CAN but I must say that I'm happy with this. Now I can spend my limited data plan bandwith to something else than internet radio. I can listen to GYM radio and yet still use my iPhone and it doesn't have to be wirely connected to the phone so that's a plus. Unfortunately It doesn't allow recording of FM shows broadcast for that you'll have to sadly cross to the dark side.

It's strange that iPhone with all its bells and whistles doesn't have an FM TUNER! The Nokia

Lumia 920 has one and uses the pluggable headphones as the antenna.

Maybe you should have bought that phone then. There are a lot of things that other phones can do that the iPhone can't.

How does that help those of us who listen on Bluetooth headsets?

Guess you'll need a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headset with FM Radio. And their phone. 👿

Windprince wrote:

It's strange that iPhone with all its bells and whistles doesn't have an FM TUNER! The Nokia

Lumia 920 has one and uses the pluggable headphones as the antenna.

My work phone is currently a Nokia 920. It's a nice piece of hardware, great camera. However, I would never personally buy it as many of the apps I rely on are unavailable for it. My point here is that you should buy the phone that meets as many of your needs as possible. No one device is likely to be perfect.

And, yeah, the FM tuner is pretty useless to those of us who use BT headsets.

Windprince wrote:

It's strange that iPhone with all its bells and whistles doesn't have an FM TUNER!

It's even stranger that anyone thinks there there is a point to having 1950's technology on a third millennium device that can get any radio station in the world over the Internet.

My point was that it seems pointless to use up minutes and bandwidth when radio is freely available. But I guess I forgot to consider the ppl who use Bluetooth. Also, not sure if battery life would be affected one way or another (radio vs. cell tower communication).

Anyway, given some of the responses I've received, there seems to be a lot of negativity. I was just making a suggestion.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

Windprince wrote:

My point was that it seems pointless to use up minutes and bandwidth when radio is freely available.

And generally pretty terrible. I want to listen to music, not ads. Everything from NPR that I want to listen to is availalbe through podcasts. Most of us are negative about terrestrial radio because most of it is pretty bad.

It's all about the commercials and how much profit they can show. Actual quality content is low on the scale.

I can't remember the last time I listened to an actual radio station. I got so tired of radio and commercials that I got Satelite radio back in 2003. That's now gotten old and I've moved on to iTunes Radio and my music that I bring with me on my iPad to play in the car.

There's a reason many big names in talk radio have moved on from terrestrial radio to even doing podcasts. They don't have rules to play by and they can make more money then radio was willing to pay them.

Radio is dead.