[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Some devices use TI chips, and there are a few other minor players, but yeah, I'm pretty sure Broadcom has over 50% of the market for Bluetooth/WiFi combination chips on Android devices, and perhaps all iPhones etc,

I'm not trying to defend them, but they ARE a private business and can make whatever choices they wish about their products. Being closed doesn't seem to have hurt them and it may actually help them. I have a suspicion that companies like Apple are happy that Broadcom keeps their secrets from the public. And carriers would rather sell you a data plan and seem to be the true customers of manufacturers. Not nice or friendly to small devs, but legal AFAIK.

What I find strange is that Broadcom has open sourced Bluetooth and WiFi drivers, but not the "poor cousin" after-thought FM. (Or is that TI or both?) Why so secret about old fashioned OTA FM ?

For all we know, phones have secret FM transmit capabilities that can help Predator drones home in on "bad guys". Story is that some special circuits in HP products helped cruise missiles find their targets in Iraq...

I am continuing to consider open sourcing at least parts of my code. Will Broadcom sue me if I spill the beans on some of their secrets ? It's possible... Or maybe the drones will come after me, LOL.

I'm happy to see that TI seems to be becoming more open, but that may be in part because they are in 2nd place behind Broadcom. A lot of their FM code has been available for a while now, but there's lot of layers and without documents it's difficult to figure it out.

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I recently read a convincing explanation about one reason why tech companies keep secrets, in particular the PC graphics card companies like ATI/AMD and NVidia, The IMO silly ongoing patent wars are BIG. Releasing info on internal architecture gives ammunition to "the enemy" that may help them sue you. If true I highly suspect the NDAs to be signed expressly forbid passing any information to competitors or their legal representatives etc,

So if this confidential info was brought up in a lawsuit, the defendant could rightly claim the complainant was expressly forbidden from receiving any of the possibly incriminating info. Fun stuff... So many patents and companies holding them and nobody really knows which are valid or would be upheld in a lawsuit.

Yeah, I know WRT etc. :) Still using old Linksys devices and have no reason to upgrade. I was happy Linksys was forced to release their code.

It's standard practice in tech and many other companies that employees keep their mouths shut. Just about all employment agreements spell this out. Nothing new IMO.

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Are you aware that the Baseband/radio side of phones is closed source and pretty much secret ? That's a major reason why Richard Stallman refuses to own a smartphone. I hate it because a lot of FM audio routing is done by the baseband and I generally have no idea of what it's doing and how.

This is how the carriers and by extension governments / law enforcement / intelligence can inject code into most phones to do what ever is possible, including always on audio bugs and tracking. There's a case over 10 years old now where the authorities had to admit in court that's how they bugged a Mafia head. Does your battery run out faster than expected, LOL. :)

Just writing the above publicly probably disqualifies me from any particularly high security clearance,despite the info being out there, albeit rarely published. "Lawful access" mechanisms in PBXs are similarly talked about very little. Certain agencies can "tap" the phones of most people with a few simple keystrokes. Search warrants come later, if at all when it comes to intelligence agencies. Similar story with the legally documented taps the agencies have on the biggest Internet routing systems. Every darn bit can be seen by those who need to know.