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only time i ever used phone FM was camping. not often lately. car has fm but radio commercials assault my nerves, use mp3s on a stick or streaming w/$10/mo
for police/fire scanners https://openmhz.com/
The last couple major power failures we’ve had in my area, information was by far the most difficult thing to come by.
The power goes out, and shortly thereafter so does cable internet. My UPS usually keeps my cable box up longer than the service itself lasts. That puts everyone on the cell network, which is immediately overloaded. So the internet is essentially worthless during most hours.
FM radio stations are similarly worthless. I remember a power outage last winter where there was going to be a press conference, I think the governor was going to talk about something…couldn’t get coverage. The local FM station was up and running, they were broadcasting just fine, but they were trying to patch into the press conference via Facebook, and the internet wasn’t up to it. They apparently don’t have their own radio uplinks anymore.
The local television station would have been more help…if I could get an antenna high enough to hear it.
And during normal business hours most broadcast FM stations are IHeartRadio transmitting the same 20 songs intercut with the same 90,000 advertisements. Or broadcasting The Two Retards Named Chris show three times a day.
No thanks. I listened to radio the other day (not in my car) and it was all ads and a shortened version of a song so they can do more ads.
I didn’t realize radio got so bad.
I’ve come to the realization that the phone I want is a Nokia 3310 “brick”.
- Infinite battery life
- compact size
- headphone jack
- indestructible
- no spyware
- no social media
- T9 texting
- no software updates
- Snake
- Brick Breaker
Some of these I get, but I don’t get the T9 thing. T9 was so bad! It took ages to type many words. Today’s predictive keyboards are miles better.
Also, no software updates? Sure, every now and then there’s a shitty update, but most updates are great. New features and especially bug fixes are amazing. Used to be that if something had a bug, you just had to deal with it. There’s no guarantees it’ll be fixed today, but many companies do fix their bugs at least eventually. The ability to iteratively develop is huge for software quality. These days, unless you’re developing something that absolutely cannot fail (like a mars prober or radiation therapy machine), it’s widely agreed upon that iterative design is superior to “waterfall” design of trying to plan it out all ahead of time. Part of why is so you can get feedback continuously instead of only after you’ve committed to months of tech debt.
When T9 was all we had, we got real good at it.
No software updates mean they have to get it right the first time, which they always seemed to manage.
T9, back when you could text and drive without ever taking your eyes off the road.
Oh you still can with Swype 🙂
You still can, and nowadays we even have a word for it: distracted driving.
Dr Who vs Daleks. I think it’s krobot on linux.
Everyone talks about how great Nokia bricks are, but you actually do have to be careful not to drop them or you might damage the floor.
Maybe if you live somewhere with good radio stations… the radio is pretty much dead here. Nothing but Christian talk and static.
Not long ago I decided to buy a radio just for emergencies. I guess having it in my smartphone would be better yes.
I got myself a proper camping radio. It lets you charge your phone on it too, and recharges with solar panels AND a manual dynamo hand crank where working it for ten minutes gives you an hour of radio.
What’s the price point for something like that?
This one is a Sangean MMR-88 (cost me 1000 SEK). I think the price range is wide and it’s cheaper outside Europe.
OTOH I bet the radio would last a lot longer.
For a while, a lot of the software designed radios already in phones could be hacked to play FM. I remember a friend doing it back in 2010-ish on his Nexus One.
FM was switched off in 2017 (Norway), but a DAB chip would’ve been nice.
Wait, you guys don’t have FM radio on your phones?
Most scrappy overpriced phones doesn’t have mini jack so no antenna to get radio
low end MediaTek ones often do
The 90s kid in me yearns for a phone with Fm radio, headphone jack, IR blaster, stylus, memory card slot, slide out keyboard and one of those click on projectors the Motorola phones used to have. I would call it the Donatello and it would be radical.
For emergency purposes, mandate cell tower batteries with solar supplement.
And generators for bigger hubs.
Cellular internet is critical infrastructure now.
Same for ISPs. My internet wifi has battery backup, so as long as the ISP stays up we are good.
Cell towers nearby all went down during the last big power failure. I could hit one distant tower that still had power, but the signal was weak, and the tower was swamped. It could barely push data.
Next big earthquake will be a total shitshow if that’s not fixed.
It’d be better if it had fm transmiter, so you van turn car radio or normal old radio into a useful wireless speaker
I’ve never bought a phone without FM radio. I regard it as an emergency tool.
I’m going to chime in here to plug the ulefone power armor 18t I just got. I was pretty nervous to get a chinese phone as I’ve only had samsung and lg phones before, but this thing legit blows me away. Not only does it fully support every band that my carrier uses (rare even for phones made for the US market), but it has:
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Replaceable battery that lasts 3+ days between recharges
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Extremely rugged, IP69 waterproof and designed for underwater photography (physical shutter button and diving camera app)
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3.5mm jack, sd card slot, FM radio (with built in antenna - no headphones need to be plugged in), and an RGB notification led
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Dimensity 900 chipset that beats a lot of the snapdragon chips on the market.
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12 fucking GB of RAM… yes, 12…
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Wifi 6(ax)
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Wireless charging and reverse charging
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A fucking 60x magnification microscope? (Why???)
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A FLIR thermal camera (Just because, why the fuck not)
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Runs mostly bloat free stock android
All that for under $600 (on aliexpress)
The only thing it’s missing is an IR blaster, otherwise this is the best phone I’ve ever had, bar none. It is a chonky beast though, be warned.
This has really changed my view on Chinese electronics, especially at a time when phones for the western world are losing features and functionality all the time (including stuff from South Korean). Turns out capitalism isn’t that great for innovation!
Ulephone is a beast that fits in your pocket. Its hardware is near perfection, too bad they cut costs at software resulting in many crashes, random reboots or apps that stop working. But it’s indeed a solid Chinese phone.
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In 2017, Mexico passed regulation that required all smartphones with FM chips to enable them
Now I’ve got in my head “I’m on a Mexican, radio…”
Now I’ve got in my head “I’m on a Mexican, radio…”
The real question is, are you a racist, if you enjoy that song?
…The song about listening to foreign radio stations by Wall of Voodoo?
Yes, I believe so.
I would think not, but these days, with hypersensitivity about racial prejudice I wasn’t sure, which is why I was asking.
That song, and “Illegal Alien” by Genesis, are the two that come to mind.
Am I?
Lol I don’t know, I was honestly asking.
