FM Radio on Galaxy Note II?

GotNoRice

GotNoRice

[H]F Junkie
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I just got a Galaxy Note II, specifically the Verizon model SCH-i605

I was under the impression that the phone had an FM tuner in it. Various specs pages around the internet do appear to list that as one of the components of this model phone.

There doesn't seem to be any pre-installed app for listening to FM Radio, and trying to search the play store is very frustrating because 99.9% of apps that mention "Radio" or "FM Radio" are actually internet radio streaming apps from various radio stations across the country. I've only found one app actually meant to make use of an FM Radio chip but it appears to only work with Motorola phones, and only some of them at that.

I was actually pretty excited about this feature and I can't believe I'm the only one who finds it useful. I don't understand why it's so difficult to find almost any info on this, never-mind a working app.
 
I believe the SOC has it but is disabled in all the USA models (because of the carriers I'd presume).
 
As far as I know, none of the North American models at least have this feature, I dunno if disabled hardware or software wise.

I also have the VZW version.

Actually, I am noticing the trend of current Android phones losing the FM radio altogether. :( :mad:
 
Yeah I didn't like the fact it does not have an FM tuner.

I DL'd iheartradio to listen to a talk radio show on broadcast. I don't have unlimited bandwidth and come very close to going over 4gb every month as it is.
 
You are not missing much. Reception is poor, and you have to have the headphones plugged in for it to work at all.
 
rkatapt said:
Yeah I didn't like the fact it does not have an FM tuner.

I DL'd iheartradio to listen to a talk radio show on broadcast. I don't have unlimited bandwidth and come very close to going over 4gb every month as it is.
Click to expand...

TuneIn Radio app. Its an actual live stream of the radio station, iHeatRadio is a special stream the radio station has to do and isn't the actual live stream. On my drive in the morning while listening to Holmgren's Morning Sickness on 98 KUPD, when I get out of the car I can finish listening to them in the office.

I was dissapointed to see that iHeatRadio didn't do the actual live streaming. I'd rather have Pandora playing then have that.
 
GORANKAR said:
You are not missing much. Reception is poor, and you have to have the headphones plugged in for it to work at all.
Click to expand...

Interesting note, the headphone wires act as the antenna.

Which also is why the reception is poor.

It's a catch 22. Longer wires with no shielding = better reception, but more noise when outputting to your ears. Shorter wires/better shielding = poor reception but less noise going to your ears.

But really, the reception is going to be poor in either case, and the sound quality will likely not be affected that much but your wires.
 
Trimlock said:
TuneIn Radio app. Its an actual live stream of the radio station, iHeatRadio is a special stream the radio station has to do and isn't the actual live stream. On my drive in the morning while listening to Holmgren's Morning Sickness on 98 KUPD, when I get out of the car I can finish listening to them in the office.

I was dissapointed to see that iHeatRadio didn't do the actual live streaming. I'd rather have Pandora playing then have that.
Click to expand...

I tried it at work with the radio on my desk playing the same station as iheart. They were both playing the same song, although the phone had about a 2 second delayed. The only thing I noticed that was different were the advertisements. The show I listen to comes on at 3pm and I haven't had any problem with it either.
 
rkatapt said:
I tried it at work with the radio on my desk playing the same station as iheart. They were both playing the same song, although the phone had about a 2 second delayed. The only thing I noticed that was different were the advertisements. The show I listen to comes on at 3pm and I haven't had any problem with it either.
Click to expand...

I tried it with 3 different stations here in Phoenix and all 3 were different programs. Out of all of the "streaming radio" apps I've tried TuneIn was the only one that was a full stream of the actual feed. It was 2 seconds off too but thats because of the stream overhead.
 
remind me of Zune. That had a receiver on it. I would like to see FM receivers make a comeback in the US market. This seems to be a ploy to get us to use more data and use up our contracts. But they would benefit more if we had and alternative source to stream from other than using their band with.
 
The Zune had HD radio. I wonder why it hasn't been placed in more handheld devices.
 
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