Re: Touch Pro 2 FM Radio Questions/Answers
 

Ok, I'm in between here.

Yes, internet streaming radio is great. And now that football season is gearing up, guess what? Sometimes the radio station's internet feed DOES NOT CARRY the game you could hear with FM radio! I'm sure this has to do with the money paid to the league and/or the team owners for 'Multimedia' rights and whatnot. This is not true across the board, but it's true with the Texas Rangers and Dallas Cowboys (no haters, plz!).

The other thing is that using Spb Radio requires the URL of the station feed. Fine. If you can find it. Or if you can save it between flashes. I've used GSPlayer and a good search site ( http://www.thestreamcenter.com/pda ) to find stations across the planet, which allows me to click on the link, launching Windows Media Player automatically, or saving the .pls file locally so that GSPlayer can launch.

Now, back to FM radio... The circuitry allowing this to work exists in the bluetooth chip, at least for my Diamond. Figure out which chipset is in the TP2 and you're 50% of the way to answering the OP's question. The other aspect is the Hard-SPL unlocker being worked by cmonex, et. al. If they can unlock the CDMA TP2, they can probably unlock the FM radio, and much happiness will ensue, with custom ROMs and kitchens waiting in the wings.

One last thing: FM radio has problems with reception, even when your headphones are plugged in. It's annoying to get earfuls of static when you move around and are otherwise not optimally positioned for local FM radio. That's another good reason to stick with intenet streams.

Just my thoughts, and just my $.02 so flame away, or share your ideas guys.

EDIT: For those firmly in the FM radio camp, you must check out this app over at xda-devs. I've been running it for a few weeks now and it's very slick. Do yourself a favor and click over --> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=531600

Cheerio

Re: Touch Pro 2 FM Radio Questions/Answers
 

SPB Radio is pretty useless in Telus coverage area (Canada). I have yet to locate a Canadian station during my trial period, and thus won't be purchasing that application. Also, Canadian ISPs (like Telus) are rather unfriendly toward continuous streaming applications over their networks.

For some reason most of the Toronto stations are making you stream them via some web page applet garbage, and makes locating the URLs very painful.

Right now my solution to music is a 16GB MicroSD and syncing podcasts via WiFi. FM Radio would be a great add on to the device.

Kinda sad when I can go pick up a similar FM Radio device at the dollar store with a pack of batteries, but the powers that be feel this functionality should be removed from the phones (hardware, software, who knows?).

Re: Touch Pro 2 FM Radio Questions/Answers
 

Do these help?

http://web.archive.org/web/200710252...00_chipset.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/200710240...msm7600_cs.pdf

The second in particular should give away whether or not there is an FM radio. However, those diagrams are for the 7600, not the 7600A, but they should still be relevant because AFAIK the only difference is the A revision is 65nm and clocked at 528Mhz instead of 400Mhz.

Re: Touch Pro 2 FM Radio Questions/Answers
 

Yeah still no go on Telus and the FM Radio on the TP2. I tried all the versions out there and none work. I use SPB radio and have had to do some research to the station URLs... it was a big pain in the butt but I got some stations I like. Regardless - SPB Radio is an option not saying its the best way and I don't blame someone for pointing it out. Hopefully when the Sprint and Verizon communities start getting their TP2s the demand will increase and a fix will be made for the radio to work... if not... oh well! This phone is so kick *** a lil radio issue is not going to spoil my party.

Re: Touch Pro 2 FM Radio Questions/Answers
 

This is good stuff, but we're still looking for the Bluetooth chip installed on the CDMA TP2. Anybody care to teardown their brand new CDMA TP2 in the name of discovery? BidDiesel did it here with a CDMA Touch Diamond. Sadly, the pics do not get close enough to read the TI chip, which we believe does the FM radio work.

But!!! Another website lists a bill of materials for the GSM TP1 here. Note that they specifiy the Texas Instruments BRF6350BL bluetooth chip, which is said to support FM radio with RDS. The logical conclusion is that the CDMA Diamond has the same chip, but the CDMA TP1 does not.

Everyone with me?

Now, the Sony/Ericsson XPERIA X1(GSM only) is listed with the same bluetooth chip, the Texas Instruments BRF6350BL, and many reviewers are saying FM radio works great: here, and here.

Bottom line, unless we can get a teardown, or a set of detailed chip-level specs, we won't know if the CDMA TP2 has built-in FM radio support. Furthermore until cmonex, et. al. can Hard-SPL unlock the CDMA TP2, we won't have it anyways.

Stay tuned, I think we'll see answers to all our FM radio questions soon.

Cheerio!

What HTC and Verizon say about the FM Radio
 

HTC Technical Support
www.htc.com
Customer Information
Name oneders65
Telephone
Email Address gumby1ders@yahoo.com
Country United States
Inquiry Information
Inquiry Type Technical Support

Inquiry Description Is the FM Radio Disabled on the Touch Pro 2 for Verizon? If it is why are you crippling the phone? I like to use the phone to its fullest potential and get aggrivated that there is a feature that is locked out! :protest:
Issue Date & Time
2009/09/16 06:32


New Response From [ Philip (North America Support (Tech)) ]
Hello oneders65,

I understand how important it is to be able to best utilize your device. The FM radio being disabled is not a choice that was made by HTC; each carrier makes their own specifications for their devices. In this case, Verizon requested that the FM radio not be available on their version of the Touch Pro2. It is possible that they have their own radio software; it is possible that it is something they will make available in a future update. However, there is unfortunately nothing that HTC Technical Support can do to unlock this feature, as we cannot go against the wishes of the carrier who purchased the device from us. For more information and possible ways around this, you may wish to visit our user forum at www.htcwiki.com.

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us again. You can find additional support at our user forum www.htcwiki.com. There is also a customer satisfaction survey for you to take if you are interested.

Philip ](*,)

-----Original Message-----

From: gumby1ders@yahoo.com

Sent: Tue Sep 15 09:25:32 EDT 2009

To: vzwprepay@verizonwireless.com

Cc:

Subject: Phones Currently Offered



Form Message

MAIL_ADDRESS: gumby1ders@yahoo.com

Market ID: Central Texas

Zip Code: 79072

Full Name: oneders65

Email Address: gumby1ders@yahoo.com

Primary Subject: Phones and Accessories

Secondary Subject: Phones Currently Offered

Message Body: Why is the FM Radio disabled on the Touch Pro 2? Locking out features gives us a reason to go to the other networks. I'm up for renewal but am going to hold off. If the other carriers offer the same phone without functions disabled why not go to the competition??????? :protest:


Dear oneders65,



My name is Harlan, I will be more than happy to assist you with your inquiry about FM Radio.



I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the fact that FM Radio can not be accessed on the Touch Pro 2. Decisions on what applications and functions will be available on our phones are made by our Marketing Department, and can not be overridden. There are no current plans to offer FM Radio on this device in the future.



Although the feature you would like is not available on the Touch Pro 2 at this time, I invite you to view our current phone selection as a possible alternative. To view available equipment, please click on the following link, which will direct you to the "Products" page of our website:



www.verizonwireless.com/products



You may also receive free e-mail updates as to when new products and services are available. To receive your free e-mail update, please click on the following link to view the "E-mail Updates" page of our website:



Be the First to Know



There are several wireless phones being tested for functionality and reliability with our network. Verizon Wireless will not offer a product or service unless it meets the high standards our customers have come to expect. Verizon Wireless is constantly improving the services, features, and wireless phones we offer to our customers for their communication needs.



We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless. It was a pleasure to assist you today. ](*,)



Sincerely,



Harlan

Verizon Wireless



If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately by replying to this e-mail and deleting it and all copies and backups thereof. If you are the intended recipient and are a Verizon Wireless customer, this response is subject to the terms of your Customer Agreement.](*,)

Re: What HTC and Verizon say about the FM Radio
 

Wow, the marketing people get to decide how we use our phones...

Re: What HTC and Verizon say about the FM Radio
 

Now all we need to understand why marketing people wanted a feature that won't cut into their profit to be removed from a device... Better not be something stupid like their music store

Re: What HTC and Verizon say about the FM Radio
 

VNZ can still access FM radio , right? It's really bad marketing if they still can...

Re: What HTC and Verizon say about the FM Radio
 

should be no surprised, i mean you guys never bought another crippled vzw phone?

not bashing, just stating this is nothing new to verizion.

wait until someone hacks it.. it works on the Sprint TP2 ;)