iPhone hidden function exposed: can save lives at critical moments

Yesterday, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai spoke at a symposium on "The Future of Broadcast and Audio" in Washington, advocating for activating the FM radio receiver that is built into nearly every smartphone.

Many smartphones sold today, including the iPhone, have built-in FM receivers in their LTE modems, which allow users to listen to FM radio over the radio. However, many carriers and phone manufacturers have not enabled this feature, leaving many users to use apps to stream FM radio over Wi-Fi or cellular data.

Pai cited a survey that found that only 44% of the best-selling smartphones in the U.S. last year had FM receivers activated. The survey also noted that the majority of those without the feature were iPhones, at 94%.

Activating the FM receiver in your iPhone has a number of benefits, such as saving battery life, saving data traffic, and more importantly, being able to receive emergency alert information via broadcasts.

Apple has not commented on activating the FM receiver in the iPhone, but it seems that an additional antenna is needed to receive FM signals, and the latest iPod nano needs headphones to listen to FM radio because the device uses the headphone wire as an antenna to receive signals.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.