Next-gen iPhone to gain FM transmitter tech

Will the next iPhone have built-in Griffin iTrip-style FM transmission tech? It certainly appears so - and 802.11n Wi-Fi into the bargain. AppleInsider claims that the latest pre-release version of iPhone OS 3.0 references a Broadcom 802.11n-capable wireless chip, the BCM4329. The iPhone 3G can currently connect by 802.11b/g …

[Anonymous Coward]

Software radio

One day...

[Tony Barnes]

Apple hasn't shown much interest in equipping iPods and iPhones with FM tuners

...silly really, it would fit in nicely with their "buy this crap song now" philosophy.

[Anonymous Coward]

FM tuners

This is one feature whose absence has baffled me for a long time now. I personally just don't get Apples reluctance to do solid built in FM functionality. It plays directly into what they've always done with the iPod and now with the iPhone to an extent. Now has the lack of that feature prevented me from buying a couple iPods? Nope not in the least because third party developers have provided several solid add on products for the times I want or need FM functionality.

[John Pollard]

Bluetooth SatNav

My iphone links up nicely with my Garmin satnav via bluetooth for making in-car calls, so not just headsets.

How useful would it be to transmit FM to a nearby radio? When driving around in a car, FM transmitters suffer from bad interference depending on the combination of where you are and what radio frequencies are being broadcast in that area; so it might be working at home, but 50 miles away it can be drowned out by a local radio station on the same frequency.

[Stu]

Adding an FM Transmitter...

...sounds about as great a move as when they built the Nike+iPod thing into the Touch 2G.

On that note some people reckoned its heavily based on Bluetooth and uses a normal Bluetooth chip with adapted protocols. So why couldn't they have just...yadda yadda. I have a Touch 2G - would have actually made use of the adapter if they'd done that!

Still, an FM xmitter is all supposition as of yet. Theres still no proof Apple will be releasing a range of iPhones or even a new iPhone at all!

[DUNCAN E.]

802.11a ?

Enterprise friendlie 802.11a ?

Wiki describves this as ratified in 1999 ?

I susect that is would be more accurately decribed as "IEEE 802.11-2007"

or can some one correct me too?

COCO

[David Harris]

FM radio

How quaint. An FM radio. They should put a DAB in.

[Anonymous Coward]

Great!

Apple ups the game on its iPhone and all that brings out all of the usual suspects, the critical tards. We get it okay? In your eyes Apple can do no right. Now pop along and get a life, there's a good chap.

[D@v3]

@David Harris

DAB is a nice idea, but i think they have enough problems with battery life as it is, throwing DAB into the mix would kill it after a few mins of radio use.

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen to the FM before getting too excited

Combining an FM radio with other radios (Wifi, Bluetooth) on the same piece of silicon is hard. Very hard. Suggest y'all listen to the radio very carefully on this thing, while doing BT and Wifi activity, before getting excessively excited.

And about the Nike thing - yes, it is just a Bluetooth chip running not-Bluetooth.

[Alex]

All well and good...

But I hear the camera on the new iPhone will only be 3.2M pixels.... When you have such a feature rich, and content rich device that can utilise a decent camera, I'm quite surprised...

Come on guys.. all we (ok, I am) asking for is a camera that's 8m or more..