[mikep01]

The FM radio is good, but it would be much better if it was a DAB radio.

Then I can listen to any radio station.

Nokia, please consider

[tweets]

Great!! something else to drain the battery even faster

[mechanimal82]

And also make it bigger and heavier!

[mikep01]

heard somewhere recently that the technology inside the smartphone was a DAB radio anyway, if that is true, not sure why it would make it heavier and the impact on the battery should be negligible..maybe wishful thinking on my part

[petrib]

A regular analog FM radio receiver chip is what's in it.

[bigguy]

How long after analogue tv is turned off in the UK do you think radio will take to be turned off? My guess is not too long and then we'll all need DAB radios in our phones and cars.

[petrib]

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12-Aug-200710:19 PM
bigguy wrote:
How long after analogue tv is turned off in the UK do you think radio will take to be turned off?

---

My guess is that it will take many years, or even tens of years.

[mikep01]

switch off on analogue appears to be sometime away, but it does not detract from the fact the FM radio is limited compared to DAB.

[gordonshowers]

You can listen to some BBC DAB channels on the N95 using the following link:

http://www.bbcradio.mobi/

But make sure you're using a WiFi connection, or an unlimited data tariff.

[patc]

Last week or the week before someone in the UK govt floated the idea of beginning a phase-out of analogue radio (which would include FM) around 2013 or so (if I remember rightly).

Hopefully by then somebody will have mastered putting a DAB receiver into a phone .. I mean, mobile phones are already multi-protocol digital radio transmitter / receivers, surely it can't be that hard to add a DAB protocol (says he, knowing absolutely nothing about the subject .. but you'd think, wouldn't you?)

Message Edited by patc on 13-Aug-200704:31 PM

[clonmult]

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13-Aug-200701:03 PM
gordonshowers wrote:
You can listen to some BBC DAB channels on the N95 using the following link:

http://www.bbcradio.mobi/

But make sure you're using a WiFi connection, or an unlimited data tariff.

---

lol, and unlimited data tariff in the UK?

The closest is web'n'walk, but even the regular versions of that aren't truly unlimited.

We've got to wait for the iPhone before unlimited data can possibly happen.

[patc]

I think you're in for a nasty surprise there! The networks aren't going to change their charging policies just because some over-rated phone comes out

I'm on Voda who have just introduced their answer to T-Mob's Web'nWalk and it's a very bad joke: their tag line is that "the internet is now mobile" and the deal is £7.50 for a mere 120Mb a month. That's barely enough for e-mail. And as soon as you go over that pathetically small allowance, they charge you £2/MB!!

For that kinda money the internet shouldn't be mobile, it should be mine!

You have to wonder why they bothered installing a 3G network: they clearly don't want anyone using it ..

[clonmult]

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14-Aug-200709:25 AM
patc wrote:
I think you're in for a nasty surprise there! The networks aren't going to change their charging policies just because some over-rated phone comes out

I'm on Voda who have just introduced their answer to T-Mob's Web'nWalk and it's a very bad joke: their tag line is that "the internet is now mobile" and the deal is £7.50 for a mere 120Mb a month. That's barely enough for e-mail. And as soon as you go over that pathetically small allowance, they charge you £2/MB!!

For that kinda money the internet shouldn't be mobile, it should be mine!

You have to wonder why they bothered installing a 3G network: they clearly don't want anyone using it ..

---

I think you may be surprised how much the networks want the iPhone as well.

Look at how Apple managed to get AT&T to bend over backwards to get Visual Voicemail to work. Or the truly unlimited web access.

And Oranges attempt at unlimited is even worse - £8 per month gives you a stomping 30mb per month

[patc]

In what conceivable way is 30MB unlimited?!

That really is outrageous.

One of the guys I work with got T-Mob's "unlimited" 3G card. £30 a month for I think 1GB. The only thing unlimited there is the price.

Someone ought to complain to the regulator about these "unlimited" plans: calling a limit "Fair Usage" doesn't change the fact it's a limit.

Re the iPhone, I'm not sure that "truly unlimited" really means much there either: it doesn't have 3G so even downloading 24/7, you still wouldn't be transferring that much data

If you read the press, most people only really use the iPhone's data features when the have a WiFi connection.

[clonmult]

Not sure about the wifi vs. edge thing - plenty of people have been getting gigantic bills from AT&T. They are fully itemising every data transfer - I think the worst was 52 pages, each double sided ...

Sure, there will be a lot of wifi usage, but I still think people will be using the edge network a fair old bit.

And yes, Oranges unlimited is a joke. It says unlimited in their catalog, but upon digging you see the 30meg limit.

[patc]

If it's an unlimited plan, why itemise the bill?! How dumb is that?

It would be great if the iPhone could force the networks to start taking a sensible approach to data pricing, unfortunately I just don't see it happening.

I'd love to wrong, though

[i_nic]

Well - you never know - by the time they turn off analogue FM signals, there might be some better deals out there for 3G access for radio - but I agree with all of you... Vodafone's £7.50 per month offering is awful. TMobile's is better... and I thought was "capped" at £1 per day... I guess this is still limited? Not that it matters since I'm tied into a contract with Vodafone anyway!