Does Samsung Galaxy S3 have FM Radio?

[magnemoe]

No it's not, our criteria is "it can save your life in case of an catastrophe"

Interesting, after the tsunami in south east asia it has been plenty of interest in a call all phones in area at once feature to give rapid warning in that sort of situations.

The important message warning signal is already common but that would be faster.

[N_las]

Sorry but your whole argumentation is based on a false analogy.

I am not going to discuss further in such an case.

Such a post only works, if you actually point out what the false analogy is... You forgot that.

[rtxoff]

Such a post only works, if you actually point out what the false analogy is... You forgot that.

No i don't have to point that out. The intelligent forum readers can make their own mind about your false analogies. Even if not i don't care anymore about it.

[Nibb31]

FM radio as a safety measure on a cellphone is only useful:

- If you are in an area with FM radio coverage, which is less and less likely as FM is being slowly phased out for digital radio, and FM radio typically has poor coverage.

- If all FM radio stations are equipped to deal with public service announcements. Most of them are private, with no links to the government, and not all of them have secured power supplies for disaster situations.

- If the radio station actually has any important information to provide. If it's just "keep calm and stay at home", then there isn't much point.

- If you have earphones because cell phones need to have the earphones plugged in as an antenna.

- If you are actually listening to your FM radio when the public service announcement is made.

That is a lot of ifs. There are more efficient ways of providing disaster information. In fact, cell phone networks have a priority broadcast service built in just for this purpose. In disaster situations, they switch into a special mode where emergency service and broadcast information get a higher priority and public cell service is switched off.

[Vanamonde]

Since the scientific nature of Samsungs is pretty well established, moved to Space Lounge.

[longbyte1]

It's not the cellphone manufacturers' faults, it's just Apple's. If Apple doesn't include a tuner in their iPhones, nobody gets the feature. Almost everyone has iPhones where I live. What a shame that the iPhone is not a very robust nor power-user-friendly phone.

[lajoswinkler]

You have much to learn about the real world. Most emergency broadcast networks have SMS capability, plenty of TVs don't have RF ports, and many actual radio sets don't take analogue radio signals.

Well not everyone on the planet lives in a rich country where most stuff is peachy. Vast majority of the world continues to use (at least as the redundant base) analog radio, continues to include RF ports on television sets, etc.

Digital networks and the whole Internet thing is horribly prone to attacks and collapses. Shifting to it and abandoning well established technology tested for more than hundred years would be incredible stupidity. The same goes for commands in vehicles such as aircrafts and spacecrafts, also military equipment. Shifting to 100% digital input is never done for a damn good reason.

Agree on radio in phones, its makes a lot of sense, problem is that its more like a nice to have feature for most, not an required one.

RF ports on TV on the other side is becoming more and more obsolete. Sending TV signals is already an pretty complicated task, it become simpler by doing it digital.

Digital transmission requires an RF port. It's just the encoding of the radiowave information that is different. If you're talking about Internet Protocol Television, then you don't need anything other than a phone network connection, but that costs money. Each month you have to pay for it.

Digital television is free. You plug in the antenna in the RF port and you're good to go. There's always at least main national television broadcast, but in most cases you have lots of channels (private local ones, etc.).

FM radio as a safety measure on a cellphone is only useful:

- If you are in an area with FM radio coverage, which is less and less likely as FM is being slowly phased out for digital radio, and FM radio typically has poor coverage.

- If all FM radio stations are equipped to deal with public service announcements. Most of them are private, with no links to the government, and not all of them have secured power supplies for disaster situations.

- If the radio station actually has any important information to provide. If it's just "keep calm and stay at home", then there isn't much point.

- If you have earphones because cell phones need to have the earphones plugged in as an antenna.

- If you are actually listening to your FM radio when the public service announcement is made.

That is a lot of ifs. There are more efficient ways of providing disaster information. In fact, cell phone networks have a priority broadcast service built in just for this purpose. In disaster situations, they switch into a special mode where emergency service and broadcast information get a higher priority and public cell service is switched off.

1) I don't think it's being phased out. It's a basic, redundant system and it always exists. I've yet have to find an example of a country where good old analogue radiowave transmission has become abandoned. It is being upgraded; digital transmission is being added. Television is a bit different, but radio is still firmly into RF.

2) Why should all of them be equipped with it? One is enough and most of them are connected to that grid.

3) Really? That is not important? Wow, the things I won't read here... That's one of the most important things to avoid massive panic.

4) Literally any 3.5 mm cable can be used.

5) That's not how these things must work. A disaster can occur and then you tune in to the radio. Any reasonably intelligent person would do that in the case of total power failure. Networks are down, there's no electricity, but you have your radio and your batteries and you tune in to the national broadcast.

It's not the cellphone manufacturers' faults, it's just Apple's. If Apple doesn't include a tuner in their iPhones, nobody gets the feature. Almost everyone has iPhones where I live. What a shame that the iPhone is not a very robust nor power-user-friendly phone.

You must live in a wealthy community. Most of the world's phones are Androids.