yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
The Price Of FM In Sprint Phones? $15 Million Worth Of Inventory (IE, ad time, plus a 30% cut of geo-targeted ad revenue)

For some background, see my Jan 11 post: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=36567961&postcount=5154

"Inventory" is an ad industry term for ad time. Note that Sprint is a US carrier and is unrelated to Spirit.

Sprint is being paid in radio advertising time, which they can use or re-sell. Short article and a few comments, including mine here:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...rice-of-fm-in-sprint-phones-15-million-worth-

See after the quote for a longer article I quoted. Highlights include Sprint activating FM in 30 million phones over 3 years and a clear indication that negotiation is occurring with other US carriers.

One of the longer articles I found on the subject: http://www.insideradio.com/Article.asp?id=2611810&spid=32060#.URGuj5GUx0w

A few sentences of note to me:

- "The system that’s being built among broadcasters and Sprint promises to put any station on handsets regardless of whether the company plays along or not."

- "Broadcasters could avoid that cost by developing their own app, he adds."

So,... the chips will be in the phones, and some broadcasters could avoid this ransom by developing their own app... OR IMO licensing from a 3rd party an app such as Spirit I guess. Hmmm... :) Anybody know UI design ? LOL.

This 3rd party app "loophole" makes it even more likely IMO that my guess about their using an undocumented proprietary API will be true. But even with a public API, such as the proposed Android FM API, Sprint could lock out other FM apps by requiring that such apps be signed by them. At least one OEM already does that.

And even with custom ROMs, I have the impression that one of these days (if not already w/ Qualcomm's WCN3660), FM access will be cryptographically locked in the same way that bootloaders are. This to serve carriers and OEMs avoiding patent fees.

And perhaps "pirate radio" will one day apply to reception (not unlike the UKs antenna fees) and pirates will be those who dare to find a free and interactive ad-free way to listen to over-the air signals. Cue the dystopian tales of a future with bans on music, as seen in Mali or the works of Zappa and Geddy Lee, LOL.
[Spirit FM] Arcano:
Re: [APP] Spirit FM: Broadcom,Texas Instruments,Samsung Silicon Labs & Qualcomm FM ch

Very sad indeed. I hope reason prevails and fm radio is not held for ransom.

--

Enviado desde mi móvil.
[Spirit FM] cajunflavoredbob:
We've been saying the same thing over and over since the days of the Sprint/Verizon versions of the older Windows Mobile devices. I remember having this same conversation with others over why the FM radio was grounded out on the CDMA versions of the Touch Pro 2. We always half-jokingly said it was because carriers couldn't make money off of FM radio. No one knew that for sure, but it made sense at the time. Now I guess we know for certain.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
In the US at least, IT HAS and IS being held for ransom. Only now we are finally seeing more open negotiation, and a deal, albeit with a smaller US carrier, I think #3 or #4 after the top-dogs ATT and Verizon.

I'll admit though that one persons' "ransom" is another persons "legitimate business deal in a capitalist economy".

The US carriers, and their suppliers the phone OEMs, excuse has been that there is little demand for OTA FM. There is some truth in that too IMO; most Americans (and many others) don't think about OTA FM capability when buying a phone.

And every day I speak with people disappointed their device has disabled FM capability; but many of those people "love" their Nexus or US GS3 or Note2 or whatever and wouldn't give it up for another phone.

But I also note that the major US (and now Canadian too) carriers hide FM capabilities on their web-sites. This helps people forget that FM might be possible, useful and a checklist item they should demand. Try going to any of their websites and see if you can figure out which of their phones, if any, support FM.

I've done this, trying to get answers myself and help people out. Often the only solution is to download a user manual and search for FM in it. And lately it seems that 10% or fewer of the phones have FM; and most of those are low budget phones.

----

I think the carriers are saying:

"We control the pipes, AND we control the phones. If you want us to carry your signal, you, or someone, will have to pay."

This is similar to the situation with cable TV, and some other forms of video broadcasting or distribution.

Streaming is dealt with by data plan fees, and is muted by the high royalty rates on music from a streaming station.

From a purely capitalist perspective, this all makes sense and seems "reasonable". I am not a proponent or fan of pure capitalism however.

----

BTW, I've been getting more emails lately, from various people with interests in this matter. And they are getting more interesting. :)
[Spirit FM] Arcano:
Things are a little bit better here in Spain then. Phone makers usually include whether their devices are fm capable, and many people do look for that when shopping for a new one. In my case the lack of fm in Nexus 4 was determinant in getting an Xperia T instead.

(And AOKP was determinant in me purchasing Spirit Unlocked... ;) ).
[Spirit FM] cajunflavoredbob:
It can only be ransom, since the hardware is physically disabled in most cases. Any intelligent human being knows that it's cheaper to leave it alone than to expend more time and resources to disable it.

The only reason I don't use the international model of my Note 2 is for the one simple fact that T-Mobile's 3G network uses that weird AWS band that no one else in the world uses. Until they refarm the network, I'm stuck with T-Mobile branded devices if I want 3G or higher speeds. Unfortunately, given that choice, I have to pick 3G data speeds over FM capabilities, since the data speeds are needed for work, whereas the FM radio is not.

I'm just glad we were able to get it working on the Deft XT a while back. That little phone runs Spirit like a champ now.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
:)

Xperia T ? We're we emailing about the antenna issue ?

The T may be capable of FM transmit, but unlike the ST-Ericsson CG2900 devices, a Debug-> FM Chip setting won't enable it and I'm not sure I'll ever have one or enable transmit.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Gee, I hate to take the "anti FM" side even a little bit, but...

It does take at least a few cheap components, coils, caps and whatever to connect the FM antenna pin to the headset ground. Literally, I think, maybe a penny or two in volume.

And at a minimum the QA folks have some additional testing to do, and a little bit of developer time may be needed, at minimum. In other cases, the costs could add up.

But my guess is that, depending on volume, this might add 10 cents to a dollar to the cost of a phone. More if sales of the device are low.

There may also be a few patents to pay to license. And I don't know if additional FCC required testing is needed for FM receive.

On the other side, having a single "SKU" and not having to deal with variants can save money. In some cases perhaps, that means it DOES cost more to disable/not enable FM. And on the other side again, if 100 or 1,000 more people buy the phone because it DOES support FM, that improves the profit.

We can only guess what the costs or gains might be in most cases. And yes, issues like carriers only supporting certain bands can complicate this, but again this is mostly a US phenomena.

And carrier-wise, I'm happy to live in the now mostly GSM (w/ LTE now too) country to the north of the US. I have a grand-fathered unlimited data plan for 25 cents a day, through a discount MVNO re-selling one of the main 3 carriers, Bell. GSM is fast enough here for me; LTE has little interest to me, especially with the cheap old plan I have.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Feb 7: http://d-h.st/EY1

Also on Play.

Main change from Feb 3 test release is GT-I9100g defaults to using Debug-> Silent Loop instead of Debug-> Play Audiotrack.

I changed this because it fixed problems for a few people.

This, and some other possible continuing 9100g issues, has to be dealt with by just putting the new release out on Play, and seeing if more people have problems than with Play Audiotrack. Sometimes it will depend on ROM.
[Spirit FM] cajunflavoredbob:
I didn't really think about it like that. I'm still on the anti-carrier bandwagon, though. (at least in the US) As seen in the rest of the civilized world, carriers becoming "dumb pipes" is great for the consumer. I don't know of anywhere else in the world where FM is disabled unless the stations kick in a few dollars.

EDIT: OK, weird issue. Before this was random, but after the new update on the unlimited version, the radio kicks back on by itself. If I have Spirit running, and I pause it to take a call or something, it will unpause itself whenever any system sound, like new email or SMS, plays. It was fine previously when it only happened occasionally, but now it's every single time. This is on the Defy XT. I've cleared cache, and uninstalled/reinstalled from the market. I haven't tried it on a different phone yet, but I can try on the Sensation/G2/HD2 tomorrow evening. (HTC was pretty good about leaving the FM radio alone.)
[Spirit FM] sh0ne:
RSSI numbers at top left about the same on the same stations: YESS but no lock on station and bad quality
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Try setting Regional Band to "World".

It's possible this might improve reception on anyone's 9100, 9100g or 9000 or 9300 or 7000 or 7100 etc. w/ the Silicon Labs FM chips.

This fixed a strange problem a 9100 user in South Africa was having. Two specific frequencies weren't coming in well. Once I realized he was set to the default of North America, I asked him to try Europe. And Europe didn't help, but World did.

The only difference it should make is for channel spacing, but who knows ?
[Spirit FM] Nitemare_real:
Same for me. In Spain (and Europe) FM capable smartphones are very common and for me, it is a "must have" feature for a smartphone. I haven't bought a Nexus 4 just because is not FM capable (my Galaxy S GT-I9000 died 3 months ago), my next smartphone will be Galaxy S3 or S3 mini, which are FM capable.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I can see an issue on my GS3 with audio notifications, but not with system clicks. It unpauses after the notification.

It appears this first started happening in the Jan 3 release, when I added ICS+ lockscreen support, which required at least one audio change. Digital audio was also added, and that could have a side effect.

I tried various settings to stop it, but nothing worked. I'll have to look more closely.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
So you know, I don't expect to support the S3 mini, nor any phone considered a "value phone".

My S3 has been great, and discounts on it should be good by the time the S4 comes out. I think used or end of line high end devices are better bets than new low end devices, in value for money and certainly ROM choices if the device is/was popular.

I plan to get an S4 as soon as possible, and it's the only new phone I'm sure I'll get this year, assuming it has FM capability.

I would never get such expensive phones personally, but these high end Samsung devices quickly pay for themselves when I can support them well.

I wish I could say the same for the two HTC OneX variants I have, but HTC popularity has plummeted. I swear at them every time I have to flash a kernel the hard way, due to no S-Off, despite being boot-loader unlocked.
[Spirit FM] sekino:
not working on LG Optimus 3D
[Spirit FM] nicesoni_ash:
Re: [APP] Spirit FM: Broadcom,Texas Instruments,Samsung Silicon Labs & Qualcomm FM ch

I have cm10.1 on my s3. App works great but I have one problem. This app doesnt show up in any headset control app like headset button controller or headset droid so I cant use my handset to change channels, in stock it works fine. Since app doeasnt show up in app list whenever I click any button on my headset Apollo gets started and this app gets closed. So any suggestions please. Thanks.
[Spirit FM] Nitemare_real:
I don't consider S3 Mini to be a "value phone"... My financial situation is not good and after 2 months looking for the best balanced (price/features) smartphone, this is my first option and not expensive on first hand market. A Galaxy S3 purchase will be just if I can buy it on second hand market.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Same for almost every LG for the last year+.

Would it help if I resurrected the LONG list of phones that don't work in the first few posts ? It was quicker and easier to list only the 60 or so active devices that DO work.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Media buttons are only supported on the Unlocked version. But CM on Samsungs enables prev and next for volume, so that works on Free or Light too. And Spirit can't catch them to use them for presets etc. So that just leaves pause/play. Pause/play works fine on Unlocked for me and I think most people.

Since Spirit doesn't grab the control, Apollo get's started, and Spirit turns off, as it should when another media app gets focus.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
The fix is as I suspected, set Debug-> Focus to "Enable + Pause Return". But it seems you also have to reboot the phone after this change.

The downside to this is why I changed the related code. If you pause, the lock-screen display is disabled. It's more useful, and like media apps, to keep the display enabled to allow un-pause. And for this, audio focus must be kept.

I can fix this and will do so when I can.
[Spirit FM] Arcano:
Re: [APP] Spirit FM: Broadcom,Texas Instruments,Samsung Silicon Labs & Qualcomm FM ch

Mmm... we did communicate some time ago, but not right now. And I haven't asked for fm transmission.

I was the first one to report with a T, back when rssi was low because the internal antenna was not being selected. ¿Remember me now?. :)

--

Enviado desde mi móvil.
[Spirit FM] cajunflavoredbob:
Thanks. It's fine with me. The Defy is my main FM player and runs on GB, so no lockscreen controls in the first place.
[Spirit FM] antonio89drop:
For

Mikereidis

Hi I wanted to ask if it would be possible to add an option to use the volume buttons as media button ie if you can use the volume keys to navigate looking for available stations (SEEK).

It would be easy to change stations using the volume buttons especially when studying or doing sports is inconvenient to use the touchscreeen.

Would it be possible to add this in the options on "IU" (Auto Seek and Volume Buttons)???

Then I wanted to ask what parameters should I set to record from the Radio Galaxy S ?, and what with the Galaxy S2 ??

I await your reply hoping species is positive for the first point.

I renew my congratulations for your Spirit FM.

Thank you very much!
[Spirit FM] Superchill11:
Spirit FM on glacier running CM10.1

It seems spirit light is having problems running on my htc glacier running a port of CM10.1. It is strange that other users (glacier running cm10.1) are able to use the app. I didn't have a problem on other JB roms running it. Any advice other than change rom?

Thanks
[Spirit FM] nicesoni_ash:
Re: [APP] Spirit FM: Broadcom,Texas Instruments,Samsung Silicon Labs & Qualcomm FM ch

I bought the unlocked version but it doesnt even play/pause. Any key press just kills this app and start Apollo. About usong volume button to chnge presets, I use a mod to do that but that only work for stock rom and original fm player, nothing seems to work with this app.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
No, it's not generally possible to "steal" the hardware volume buttons on the side of phones away from Androids' use for volume control. On GSx w/ CM I can't even "steal" the wired headset media buttons previous and next.

Only option is the wired headset media buttons, on GSx w/ CM that means the single pause/play button. You can set to to seek or change preset.

On custom ROMs, only the first 3 Digital settings should be changed, all to specificy filename and directory.

On stock ROMs for GS2/GS3 you can change anything except Method and Source. Sample Rate may need to be kept at 44100, I don't recall.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
There's a million things that can be different, in your combination of system settings and apps installed.

You haven't described the problem. Volume booster, or other low level audio apps can conspire to create audio problems. And HTC devices with AIC3254 DSP have caused me much grief with audio.

Send me a debug log with Menu-> Test-> Email-> Logs and press Send after 20 seconds.

I actually have two Mytouch 4Gs, because they can transmit, but both of them are on stock Froyo 2.2, LOL.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I've actually never heard of headset control apps like headset button controller or headset droid. EDIT: Yes I did, just forgot long ago. :)

Spirit doesn't need an external app to handle wired headset media buttons, and any such app might be interfering. Spirit uses the standard Android APIs for this, same as Google's own media player sample app that is a reference for how it should work.

That said, Spirit is certainly different than media players in that it deals with FM audio issues, and the only media file it might play is a looping silent wav file.

Here's a copy of that Google app if you want to try: http://d-h.st/8px On my GS3 w/ CM10.1 Feb 6 nightly it works fine, but the wired headset media buttons for previous and next are mapped to volume by some CM code I guess.

The Spirit2 2nd alpha should be even closer to the Google sample code, so I'd be interested to know if it has the same issue: http://d-h.st/AvS

I'll look into these apps to see what they do.
[Spirit FM] Samga:
Have I missed a setting or is it still not possible to put the RDS station name as preset name instead of the frequency?

I've bought Unlocked and don't understand what the reasons may be for not enabling this feature.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Thanks for the log.

As I emailed set Debug-> FM Chip to "BCM 432x (Older)".

The problem is that port of CM includes a libanalogradiobroadcasting.so library in /system/lib . This is the standard name for the new FM API being activated in at least some CM ROMs.

So Spirit tries to use it and shows "SR OEM" as the API. I think I named it SR for "Sony Real", as opposed to my "fake" implentation of the API.

I will modify Spirit so that it ignores that API unless it's installed on a Sony device.

The CM API doesn't work, so this is all CM's fault, LOL. Then again, I don't even use isApiSupported() due to it lying...
[Spirit FM] 0kti:
Odp: [APP] Spirit FM: Broadcom,Texas Instruments,Samsung Silicon Labs & Qualcomm FM c

+1

It will be nice if this feature will be in next unlocked update

Sent from SGS+ CM10 with Tapatalk Blue
[Spirit FM] Midomad:
Re: [APP] Spirit FM: Broadcom,Texas Instruments,Samsung Silicon Labs & Qualcomm FM ch

+2

Envoyé depuis mon GT-I9000 avec Tapatalk
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Are you "ganging up" on me. :)

Where exactly am I supposed to get this "RDS station name" ? It doesn't exist in RDS itself although some RDS+ or RT+ stuff could theoretically be done that would work with a small handful of stations.

The closest is a 16 bit "PI number" from 0 - 65535. It's supposed to identify a station relatively uniquely within a wider geographic area, such as a continent perhaps. There are a few Internet databases for this but last I looked coverage was sparse, particularly outside of North America.

In the US, PI's can be mapped to call letters, generally, and I could do something with that.

Some stations may put some forms of station ID, sometimes sporadically, in the 8 character PS or the 64 character RT. But there are no standard for this, AFAIK, and every station can transmit whatever they want there.

I'm not going to try and write some code to parse station IDs, because it would be a never ending task trying to do. A sane person would say it's not feasible.

---

I hope you all are legitimate customers and I always hate to imply otherwise. I'll just assume you are and we can all go on being happy. :) And I communicate with thousands of people, so forgive me if I don't recognize a screen name....
[Spirit FM] antonio89drop:
Thanks!!

---------- Post added at 01:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 AM ----------

Thanks!!
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
But what do I know ? :)

I've just noted that with the screen off, long pressing the volume controls will do the same as previous and next wired headset media buttons. And the media buttons do the same, which helps explain why they default to volume.

So in Spirit Unlocked, by default, that changes to the next or previous preset, if at least 2 presets are set, or seeks up and down to next frequency otherwise.

I don't actually USE my smart-phones too much. I guess I have some learning to do in regards to media button usage.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Is a station ID commonly in the 8 character "PS" Program service, between the frequency and volume sliders ?

The stations I listen to most tend to scroll song info and some weather info there, with a full un-scrolled line ending up in the 64 character RT Radiotext.

SOME-times they have a station ID there, and it might stick around for a while, particularly during commercials between songs.

OTOH, several stations around here DO put some form of constant station ID there, like "PREMIERE" or "Radio 1" or "ESPACE M". Those 3 are all I see scanning the local 20+ stations, but I've seen CBC with "Radio 2" or similar too.

I once noted the stock HTC app will use PS as station ID while doing a scan for station presets. I found it annoying because most were just random parts of song names etc.

Another problem is that 8 characters may be too many for preset names, especially on smaller screens, or when larger fonts are selected. And when the radio stations CAN use 8 characters, they tend to use all, or most. Eg. "Live 885".

If I tackle this problem it will likely be in Spirit2.
[Spirit FM] rucxy:
Re: [APP] Spirit FM: Broadcom,Texas Instruments,Samsung Silicon Labs & Qualcomm FM ch

It all sounds double-dutch to me.

I just want to say keep up the good work, mate.

SII GT-I9100T Supercomputer.

Dorimanx kernel 7.46

CM10.1 JB4.2.1 30-1-13nightly.

Modem I9100 DOLP4
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Feb 8: http://d-h.st/wgA

Unlocked and Light updated on Play.

- For the visually challenged by request: Content descriptions on all buttons and other UI elements.

- Fix for bogus Android FM API on some CM10.1 ROMs.

- Fix for notification while muted bug.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
:)

Translation: I'll think about it, and likely implement what I can and what makes sense eventually.
[Spirit FM] nicesoni_ash:
The first app does handle my headset buttons very well however Spirit2 2nd alpha didn't. I saw that you released a new version, will update to it and see if that changes anything.

Btw to explain things better, let me explain what I am trying to achieve exactly.

Basic google headset settings restrict you to change presets/channels using your headset volume button but only to change volume and center button is used to change presets or channels by double clicking it.

I use this mod to change this behavior and now on Stock ROM and stock FM player, I am able to change channels using volume buttons and if I keep pressing left or right button volume will increase or decrease accordingly..

However I thought that this mod might not be working with Spirit FM so I removed this mod and went to the default but that didn't help either and every time I press any button, Apollo get started and this app gets closed. Only thing that work is volume up and down.
[Spirit FM] xhejtman:
Hi,

is it known problem that on HTC DHD with CodefireX 4.2.1 ROM I run Spirit FM Light, it starts to play for few seconds, than it stops. I have to switch output to speakers and back to headphones. It continues to play since that moment. However, system sound is broken. No phone calls, no notifications and so on. It used to work nicely with 4.1.2 ROM.

EDIT: spirit version is feb 8.