iPod Why no AM radio love?

[michael31986]

they are racist lol jk. who knows.

 

[Aussie Trav]

Being in Australia, I would much rather that they put a DAB+ tuner in so that we could listen to digital radio, although with the US going with a different standard than the rest of the world I could imagine a few headaches for Apple in trying to implement digital radio in the iPod's.

I know this would cost more than an FM tuner, but it would be so worth the extra cost.

 

[bloodycape]

I dunno if a small Korean company like Cowon, or iRiver can put DMB in models for Korea, and then give the rest of world the same model sans DMB, I would think a large company like Apple could do.

 

[macsarethebest]

I'd assume its a combination of iPods being geared towards music (FM is the music one, everyone knows that), and Apples obsession with thin as a razorblade gadgets. Its amazing they crammed a FM receiver in there. Adding an AM too would just be impossible

the headphones are the receiver

 

[dXTC]

the headphones are the receiver

Close, but no banana. The headphones act as the antenna only.

How do I know this, you ask? If Apple had put the actual "receiver" in the headphones, we would be stuck with using Apple's headphones in order to use the FM radio. I have one of the new nanos (see my sig), and the radio works perfectly fine with my V-moda Vibes.

The nano's FM radio software is programmed to detect whether a headphone is connected. If not, then the software refuses to launch. Apple's dev guys probably realized that without some sort of antenna, FM radio reception was going to be really crappy, but there just wasn't enough room in the case. Hence, the headphones-as-external-antenna solution.

 

[bloodycape]

My last Cowon A2, which had FM, acted the same way you need headphones to be plug in to get FM reception, I was told it was due to fm antennas on an mp3 can easily get busted/bent.

 

[SkyBell]

AM antennas are usually large wire loops, the ones that come with all our AM-capable radios are about 6 to 7 inches in diameter. Not gonna fit in a nano...

I understand that they probably can't fit an AM antennae in an iPod, but most pocket radio's seem to fit one into a pretty small space...