FM Radio in Froyo 2.2?

[carlz28]

I read awhile back that FM radio was going to be activated for 2.2
Weeks back, somebody posted the specs for the phone and said the antennae was indeed capable of FM radio.

Has anyone seen any options for this?
Will it have to be used via an app?
Any info on this?
I just remembered this feature being mentioned for 2.2
and wondered if anyone else knew anythign about it.
If true, this would be a sweeeet feature!

 

[sneaky_zekey]

im interested in this too,plus i thought we could stream music from pc to our droid or something in that nature

 

[metiCkOne]

I tried to get the radio.apk from the motoroi to work on froyo, no dice. I'm going to keep plugging away at it, it bugs the hell out of my that such a simple feature is ignored.

 

[Vulcan1600]

I also want this feature!

 

[jsh1120]

While I can understand the desire for local fm radio, I suspect folks may be disappointed in its quality and limitations. From what I've read, the implementation in 2.2 will have the same constraints as others; i.e. you'll have to use the feature with wired headphones because the headphone cable serves as an antenna for the radio. Add to that the vagaries of local reception and I suspect that local radio reception may be less satisfactory than internet radio.

 

[SL-1200]

^ I believe the FM receiver in our Droids also have the ability to transmit waves so potentially becoming an FM transmitter. Good for wireless audio in the car! Although quality may be questionable as well.

 

[garrett]

While I can understand the desire for local fm radio, I suspect folks may be disappointed in its quality and limitations. From what I've read, the implementation in 2.2 will have the same constraints as others; i.e. you'll have to use the feature with wired headphones because the headphone cable serves as an antenna for the radio. Add to that the vagaries of local reception and I suspect that local radio reception may be less satisfactory than internet radio.

not exactly because the Motorola Cliq has fm radio built into it and the reception was pretty good on that without having to use the headphone wire as an antenna.

 

[tktouch12]

it would still be cool even if you need headphones. and i've used the ipod nano's fm and its pretty good, so the quality wont be terrible.
i would expect poor battery life, but i think they should definitely make it usable, i would love that, and add one more thing the droid does

 

[montlyfool]

I get local radio stations on my phone through the Cherry Rplayer app.
Works good for me.
Maybe not all of them, but the ones I listen to are there.

 

[Shadez]

I dont think the FM receiver works with the motorola droid due to hardware issues.

 

[garrett]

if anyone wants to work on it here is some more info on the chip that is in the phone

apparently the chip also supports N networking but wasn't written in the code.

Mobile Wireless LAN - WiLink™ 6.0 Solutions

Wireless Connectivity Solutions - DRP™ Technology

 

[Jer]

not exactly because the Motorola Cliq has fm radio built into it

Exactly, it's built into it. This means that the manufacturer planned for it to have FM from the beginning so they designed it with an FM radio (think antenna... a physical item built into the phone) which means that it has an internal antenna tuned to the proper frequency for FM reception. Without an antenna it's going to be quite difficult to add after the fact. Just like your phone can't control your TV w/o an IR emitter. Just like you can't control your garage door w/o the proper radio for your garage door receivers. All of the above can be done with the internet and proper hardware but just to have the phone do it on it's own w/o the proper hardware to support it isn't just a software fix.

 

[garrett]

not exactly because the Motorola Cliq has fm radio built into it

Exactly, it's built into it. This means that the manufacturer planned for it to have FM from the beginning so they designed it with an FM radio (think antenna... a physical item built into the phone) which means that it has an internal antenna tuned to the proper frequency for FM reception. Without an antenna it's going to be quite difficult to add after the fact. Just like your phone can't control your TV w/o an IR emitter. Just like you can't control your garage door w/o the proper radio for your garage door receivers. All of the above can be done with the internet and proper hardware but just to have the phone do it on it's own w/o the proper hardware to support it isn't just a software fix.

its built into it the same way its built into the droid... the hardware is there and should work in theory but for some reason it was never enabled from the manufacturer. A developer managed to find a way and write the code to enable it in a custom kernel.

 

[td854]

if anyone wants to work on it here is some more info on the chip that is in the phone

apparently the chip also supports N networking but wasn't written in the code.

I doubt it matters to be completely honest with you. I have a a/b/g/n router, 15mbps down, 2mbps up ISP, when I'm on wifi, SMB transfers from PC to droid are slow as heck. I downloaded the speedtest.net app and used it over wifi, sitting roughly 10 feet from the router using G wireless I get 3.3mbps max download speed, and 2mbps max upload speed compared to 15.5 down/2 up on the pc. Either the droid's internal transfer rate is really really low, or the wifi is just designed to be really slow to save as much power as possible.

Edit: I have to correct myself because I just got 8.6mbps running it at this time. Regardless though it's nowhere near what wireless G performs at so N would be a moot point.

 

[garrett]

if anyone wants to work on it here is some more info on the chip that is in the phone

apparently the chip also supports N networking but wasn't written in the code.

Edit: I have to correct myself because I just got 8.6mbps running it at this time. Regardless though it's nowhere near what wireless G performs at so N would be a moot point.

yes but for some dumb reason at the office they have everything disabled except N so it would be nice to use wifi while at the office. But in most cases yeah its moot point.