Trump's FCC Boss Blasts Apple For Refusing To 'Turn On' FM iPhone Chipsets That Don't Actually Exist
from the yeah,-whoops dept
If you’ve seen current FCC Ajit Pai’s name in print so far this year, it’s probably for any number of his extremely anti-consumer, telecom industry friendly positions. Like his attempts to kill net neutrality, his support of gutting consumer broadband privacy protections, his efforts to protect the cable industry’s cable box monopoly from competition, efforts to dramatically reduce media consolidation rules, his defense of prison phone monopoly price gouging, or the way he’s making it harder for Americans to get affordable broadband.
To obfuscate this arguably-lopsided agenda, Pai has been busy trying to portray himself as somebody notably other than the revolving door regulator he actually is.
For example, Pai has repeatedly insisted that he’s a heroic advocate for closing the digital divide, even while simultaneously weakening broadband deployment standards and eroding all oversight of historically-despised mono/duopolists like Comcast. Similarly, Pai spent many of his first months in office insisting he’d be breathlessly dedicated to transparency, yet the FCC boss has already been sued for refusing to document his communications with incumbent ISPs regarding net neutrality, or to provide hard data on why his agency appears to have hallucinated a DDoS attack.
Last week, Pai trotted out yet another effort to try and portray himself as an unwavering ally to consumers. In a missive posted to the FCC website (pdf), Pai lambasted Apple for refusing to turn on the FM radio chipsets embedded in iPhones, something he was quick to proclaim was a major affront to the safety and security of the nation’s wireless subscribers:
“Apple is the one major phone manufacturer that has resisted doing so. But I hope the company will reconsider its position, given the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. That?s why I am asking Apple to activate the FM chips that are in its iPhones. It is time for Apple to step up to the plate and put the safety of the American people first. As the Sun Sentinel of South Florida put it, ?Do the right thing, Mr. Cook. Flip the switch. Lives depend on it.??
And while that may look like Pai was busy trying to do a good thing, Apple was forced to issue a public statement pointing out that the chipsets Pai wants turned on — don’t actually exist:
“Apple cares deeply about the safety of our users, especially during times of crisis and that?s why we have engineered modern safety solutions into our products. Users can dial emergency services and access Medical ID card information directly from the Lock Screen, and we enable government emergency notifications, ranging from Weather Advisories to AMBER alerts. iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models do not have FM radio chips in them nor do they have antennas designed to support FM signals, so it is not possible to enable FM reception in these products.”
And while some older iPhone models do have such chipsets, they don’t have the embedded antennas necessary to effectively utilize them. In many instances, the FM functionality is just part of an overall “system on a chip” (SOC) that technically contains the functionality, but isn’t actually capable of being turned on. Pai appears to have drawn his information from this similarly incorrect Florida news report, something ten minutes of research could have clarified. From some additional commentary from Apple evangelist John Gruber:
“I?ve dug around, and what I?ve been told is that there is an FM radio chip in older iPhones, but it?s not connected, and there?s no antenna designed for FM radio. The chip is just part of a commodity component part, and Apple only connected the parts of the chip that the iPhones were designed to use. No iPhone was ever designed to be an FM radio, and there is no ?switch? that can be ?flipped? ? nor software update that could be issued ? that could turn them into one. It?s a complete technical misconception.
What?s absurd is that the FCC commissioner would take his understanding of the iPhone?s technical capabilities from a newspaper editorial rather than from Apple?s own FCC regulatory filings, which I?m pretty sure would show that they?re not capable of acting as FM radios.
If that’s the level of Pai’s fact-checking before accusing Apple of harming the safety of the “American people,” it leaves you wondering just how much homework Pai has done before deciding to “take a weedwhacker” (his words) to essential consumer protections on the telecom front.
Filed Under: ajit pai, fcc, fm radios, iphones
Companies: apple
Comments on “Trump's FCC Boss Blasts Apple For Refusing To 'Turn On' FM iPhone Chipsets That Don't Actually Exist”
Paper got it from Pai
“Pai appears to have drawn his information from this similarly incorrect Florida news report, something ten minutes of research could have clarified.”
However, the paper has it the other way around, from pai
“In February, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai urged mobile phone companies to activate the FM radio chip in smartphones, but said the FCC doesn’t have the authority to require it, the Washington Post reported.”
>there’s no antenna designed for FM radio
Earphones are commonly used for this purpose.
Re: Re:
Yup. My Nokia 635 used earphones as the FM antenna.
I still listen to FM radio on my new iPhone, but it streams from my Wi-Fi connected Uniden scanner.
Re: Re:
That would require a 3.5mm jack.
Courage.
Re: Re: Re:
Those damn pussies! “OMG, a hurricane!”
Grow a spine and stand there against the winds, FM radio in hand, like a real man!
Re: Re: Re:
A sufficiently long lightning cable could theoretically do the same thing.
Re: Re:
You’re talking about changing hardware on a shipped product.
Re: Re:
Only when the earphone jack circuitry on the device has been so designed for that purpose.
Re: Re: Re:
How much of online streaming radio might not have been subscribed to, had cell phones had that capability built in?
And to play devil’s advocate, "FM bands for which countries?"
Re: Re: Re: Re:
88-108MHz covers most of the world. Japan uses 76-95MHz. The software could easily lock/unlock certain channels based on location (as happens now for WiFi).
He has the easiest job in the world
Pai has got to have such an easy job. He is handed his marching orders: obey the cable companies, ignore everyone else. And yet he keeps messing up. How incompetent a saboteur do you have to be to mess up something that easy? He’s like a cartoon bad guy – Gargamel without the cat to save him from himself.
Re: He has the easiest job in the world
No guaranteed smurfing speeds while he is at the helm.
Backwards compatibility. When do you keep it and when do you give it up. It doesn’t surprise me that Apple doesn’t support radio. Apple is always jumping on the latest and greatest technology for their devices. It is a constant battle of what to keep and what to toss to improved, shrink, and reduce power. Personally I am all for jumping to the latest tech standard but understand why you would want old reliable.
Re: Re:
Which is why you buy a cheap Emergency Radio!! Something with a hand crank so that it’ll always work even if you don’t have battery’s. You would drain the battery from your cell phone pretty fast if using it as a FM radio when the power could be out for days and you killed your iPhone after the first day and then what? No FM radio.
Wow. I guess this kind of thing is so blatant nowadays that Americans don’t really care to question how competent he is?
Re: Re:
The more incompetent he is the better the Trumptards like him. They hate science.
Re: Re: Re:
They hate competence.
You mean there’s something else an Android phone can do that a iPhone can’t???
What he is doing with the other hand
My question is whether Pai is doing this for ‘safety’ reasons, or is he just supporting another legacy FCC property (aka terrestrial radio)? Oh, likely that appropriate tithes have been processed.
Re: What he is doing with the other hand
Honestly it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if his motivation here was simply to score a cheap ‘win’ to get some easy PR.
It’s just a pity for him that his ‘Look at me, standing up to the big Apple and making myself out to be the good guy for imploring them to do something that would benefit the public’ was turned into ‘Look at me, lambasting a company for not doing something that’s not possible with current hardware, something I would have known if I’d done any research.’
Re: Re: What he is doing with the other hand
“Honestly it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if his motivation here was simply to score a cheap ‘win’ to get some easy PR.”
I think this is always a given with any politician.
“Honestly it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if his motivation here was simply to score a cheap ‘win’ to get some easy PR.”
Well… it works. Politicians blow smoke up everyone’s asses all the damn time.
the problem here is that Ajit was not able to fool you guys as well as Wheeler was able to. I know how to make a bunch of people support me by making empty promises and looking good while doing nothing.
Re: Re: Re: What he is doing with the other hand
@@
Re: Re: Re: What he is doing with the other hand
And you prove it every time you bitch about people magically liking or not liking regulation, claiming that all the solutions are super-duper obvious then refusing to cite any of them. Must be nice to be surrounded by a bunch of supportive yes-men who give you permission to classify insulting others as a career…
Dear Ajit Pai....
Nerd Harder
Sincerely,
Everyone NOT Amish.
Re: Dear Ajit Pai....
We been spending most our lives
Living in an Amish paradise
I’ve churned butter once or twice
Living in an Amish paradise
It’s hard work and sacrifice
Living in an Amish paradise
We sell quilts at discount price
Living in an Amish paradise
Re: Re: Dear Ajit Pai....
But we probably think Pai bites
Living in an Amish paradise
Ah, ah ah ah ahhhhh, ah.
Ah ah
Ah, ah ah ah ahhhhh… blech!
you know how children sometimes act out/misbehave because they are attention starved?
This sounds like preemptive scolding for one of Pai’s “sponsors”. Perhaps a Bill is on the table for said sponsor to have their IP locked FM chips mandatory in all handsets.
You need one more link in the first paragraph. Self-cites are an ego thing, right?
“it leaves you wondering just how much homework Pai has done before deciding to “take a weedwhacker” (his words) to essential consumer protections on the telecom front. “
I’ll describe the process:
*Pai looks at the pile of mone3y offered by ISPs*
Pai: Time to take a weedhacker at those ‘burdensome regulations’.
ISPs: *excited, orgasmic clapping*
(Mis)Using a natural disaster to further his own political agenda – this guy seriously can’t sink any lower! (but I bet he will)
Homework?
“…it leaves you wondering just how much homework Pai has done…”
No; no, it doesn’t.
FCC Regulatory Filing
If Apple’s filing information is anything like their term of service or privacy stripping information. It would require a team of lawyers 20 years to understand it. Both the reporter and Pai tried.
FCC Suits Have a Staff to Prevent Foot-In-Mouth
I bet happy hour was a hoot. I was hopping the pdf had AM written in.
Sometimes suits should sit back and ponder the spider outside the 13th floor window.