Hidden Buttons in iOS 6.1 Lend Weight to Apple Radio Service Rumors

Instead of some internet radio they could just stick a normal radio in them like every other smartphone in the world.

Eiffel Tower?

Yes, only French radio stations will be available via this service. :D

Eiffel Tower?

Radio tower?

Ostrich foot?

Eiffel Tower?

That's clearly a giraffe.

D.

That's an ugly icon, IMO. Not very Apple-like.

Do you have evidence to suggest "chances are"? You may be right, but modern cellular networks are more sophisticated and multi-layered (LTE, 3G, 2G) than FM/AM radio. You're not wrong, it would be nice to have both, but I don't think anyone is betting that we'll get absolutely no service.

"Survival Radio: What Will Work


In any type of disaster (Hurricane, Earthquake, Economic Collapse, Nuclear War, EMP Blast/Solar Event, etc) your typical means of communications (Mobile Phones, Land Lines, Internet) will most likely be severed or severely impaired.

I know from reading about past disasters and being in the middle of 9/11 myself that when disaster strikes, using your mobile phone (which we are all so heavily dependent on) can be a frustrating experience to say the least. If you have ever tried to dial out and received the message “All Circuits Are Busy” then you know what I am talking about.

Aside from smoke signals, there are modern options to consider... The three most readily available are GMRS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMRS) or FRS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Radio_Service) radios, CB radios (http://www.blogger.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_radio), and Ham radio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_radio)."

My point is that the iPad/iPod/iPhone are already all in one devices. But not having an AM/FM/Shortwave receiver is a dreadful shortcoming. In an emergency the device would become a doorstop when it could be a lifeline. It was a purposeful decision by Apple to leave out REAL radio - not internet "radio", which should be changed.

Hope they're also going to redesign the iPad Music app as it's awful :(

Instead of some internet radio they could just stick a normal radio in them like every other smartphone in the world.

But with Internet radio you get way more selection. Personally I only like one station where I live, so I pretty much always use Internet radios like TuneIn. Much better. The battery drain from data usage is worth it lol

And it's sad there is no REAL Radio built into the iDevices, there is most likely one in there but just not activated by Apple.

(The new (stealth) AppleTv Broadcom chip has Radio on it)

Just to be clear, are you talking about FM radio? Because every iDevice out there has radios in them, otherwise you wouldn't get WiFi or cellular.

Anyway, even with "hidden" FM radios there isn't much reason for them to enable them without antennas to make them work. You can't have a radio work without an antenna, so the additional cost of that (not to mention the space it takes up) basically means it isn't really worth it. It always amazes me how people forget about this. I guess people are used to ignoring how things work because it's all hidden to the user.

Internet radio (Spotify, Rdio, Pandora) is the future anyway, it is where the real money is going, and Apple is not stupid to ignore that.