I was looking for some information on the TI processor in the Droid when I came across the information for the WiFi/Bluetooth chip in the Droid, the TI WL1271. Check out it's info here:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunner
That would be nice to be able to broadcast the phone audio straight into my car receiver w/ no wires.
Ugh! No thanks! Until I get a BT receiver for my car's aux port, I'll put up with the cable. But FM transmission? That truly IS the worse case scenario. I'll take a cable over that ANY DAY.
Frankly, I can think of no use for the "FM transmit and receive functions", unless someone can actually think of something that's really cool. But radio? That's what Pandora replaces.
Ugh! No thanks! Until I get a BT receiver for my car's aux port, I'll put up with the cable. But FM transmission? That truly IS the worse case scenario. I'll take a cable over that ANY DAY.
Frankly, I can think of no use for the "FM transmit and receive functions", unless someone can actually think of something that's really cool. But radio? That's what Pandora replaces.
Some of us still like Radio. There are a few I like to listen too in the morning, sure some have internet broadcasts.
Also the FM would be nice, one less thing I need to buy - :P
Ugh! No thanks! Until I get a BT receiver for my car's aux port, I'll put up with the cable. But FM transmission? That truly IS the worse case scenario. I'll take a cable over that ANY DAY.
Frankly, I can think of no use for the "FM transmit and receive functions", unless someone can actually think of something that's really cool. But radio? That's what Pandora replaces.
Using the FM transmission to send the music to my receiver in my car is what I want. Would love to not to have to buy a bluetooth receiver just to do this if the phone's hardware supports it.
FM transmission works fine, as long as you find a good station. There is a great station in South Carolina that I use for most of my travel around the state.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by messenger13
Ugh! No thanks! Until I get a BT receiver for my car's aux port, I'll put up with the cable. But FM transmission? That truly IS the worse case scenario. I'll take a cable over that ANY DAY.
Frankly, I can think of no use for the "FM transmit and receive functions", unless someone can actually think of something that's really cool. But radio? That's what Pandora replaces.
Guess I don't follow. I would love to be able to send audio from phonecalls, navigation, music, etc from the Droid to the stereo of any car that I get into. No wires, no BT equipment, no BT setup required. Just get in and go.
Ugh! No thanks! Until I get a BT receiver for my car's aux port, I'll put up with the cable. But FM transmission? That truly IS the worse case scenario. I'll take a cable over that ANY DAY.
Frankly, I can think of no use for the "FM transmit and receive functions", unless someone can actually think of something that's really cool. But radio? That's what Pandora replaces.
Not all of us are lucky enough to have a car with an AUX input, aren't quite passionate enough to shell out for a brand new stereo, but still enjoy having their music in the car...so FM transmission is the best choice. And like Gunner said, if you travel and rent cars, find yourself borrowing a car...it's very convenient.
But, on the subject at hand...I'm no hardware expert, maybe things like this are discovered often..but what reason could there be for having hardware mysteriously included like this with no attention brought to it by Motorola or Verizon?
But, on the subject at hand...I'm no hardware expert, maybe things like this are discovered often..but what reason could there be for having hardware mysteriously included like this with no attention brought to it by Motorola or Verizon?
I've wondering that myself. Maybe they didn't want to connect the FM antenna, or couldn't get decent reception/transmission within the case. FM signals, operating at much lower frequencies than the cell signal, require a much longer antenna.
If you check out this PDF diagram, our processor also can support composite and HDMI output:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JRSly
But, on the subject at hand...I'm no hardware expert, maybe things like this are discovered often..but what reason could there be for having hardware mysteriously included like this with no attention brought to it by Motorola or Verizon?
I'm guessing the code isn't worked out in Android to take advantage of it, but I really don't know.
That and Moto/VZW would rather sell us BT car kits.
I'm guessing the code isn't worked out in Android to take advantage of it, but I really don't know.
That and Moto/VZW would rather sell us BT car kits.
They would also rather sell us memory cards for higher prices than other stores sell the same thing, or charge us for navigation services. But, surprisingly they gave both of those with this device. I wonder if that is just a limitation of the kernel (for now), like you said.
We can hope that one day it will actually come
Last edited by Howie; December 14th, 2009 at 01:28 PM.
Ugh! No thanks! Until I get a BT receiver for my car's aux port, I'll put up with the cable. But FM transmission? That truly IS the worse case scenario. I'll take a cable over that ANY DAY.
Frankly, I can think of no use for the "FM transmit and receive functions", unless someone can actually think of something that's really cool. But radio? That's what Pandora replaces.
guys, he is absolutely right. fm transmission is the best way to ruin your sound. works fine for phone calls is you don't mind it sounding like a cell from 1995, but music ????? no way. there's just no way the signal would be strong enough to sound decent. the very best fm transmitters i've heard for ipod/zune sounded like i turned the bass half way down and yanked the balls off the guitars. bluetooth doesn't even sound as good as running cables. i am a studio engineer, among other things, and i can tell a pretty significant sonic difference. if you like AM radio ... then feel free to get your hopes up.
guys, he is absolutely right. fm transmission is the best way to ruin your sound. works fine for phone calls is you don't mind it sounding like a cell from 1995, but music ????? no way. there's just no way the signal would be strong enough to sound decent. the very best fm transmitters i've heard for ipod/zune sounded like i turned the bass half way down and yanked the balls off the guitars. bluetooth doesn't even sound as good as running cables. i am a studio engineer, among other things, and i can tell a pretty significant sonic difference. if you like AM radio ... then feel free to get your hopes up.
Yes. I know it will sound like crap, but if you're in a friend's car and you want to play a cool song/run Pandora/run Last.fm/Put the navigation through the speakers/use Google Listen, how are you going to do it?
Also, the FM receive function would be great for listening to general radio, or in the gym where they have TV's broadcasting audio on FM...
guys, he is absolutely right. fm transmission is the best way to ruin your sound. works fine for phone calls is you don't mind it sounding like a cell from 1995, but music ????? no way. there's just no way the signal would be strong enough to sound decent. the very best fm transmitters i've heard for ipod/zune sounded like i turned the bass half way down and yanked the balls off the guitars. bluetooth doesn't even sound as good as running cables. i am a studio engineer, among other things, and i can tell a pretty significant sonic difference. if you like AM radio ... then feel free to get your hopes up.
Again, it's not always a choice. Of course, no one would choose the lowest quality method if they had all the options in the world, no one is trying to say FM transmission is better than wired, that would be idiotic. I think most people here are familiar with FM transmitters and what they sound like and find it acceptable, and are commenting in this thread because they think it would be nice to have one less piece of equipment in your car to fuss with.
Yes. I know it will sound like crap, but if you're in a friend's car and you want to play a cool song/run Pandora/run Last.fm/Put the navigation through the speakers/use Google Listen, how are you going to do it?
Also, the FM receive function would be great for listening to general radio, or in the gym where they have TV's broadcasting audio on FM...
--Bill
this is all true. i just don't want to sift through 2580 threads about "why does the fm tranmission sound so bad" when/ if this finally comes to fruition. people tend to get irrate when the droid doesn't perform like skynet.
this is just my opinion, but i think it's a shame to buy a rocket ship of a phone and settle for lack luster sound quality because of fm transmitters. i tried this with my old omnia, which sounded horrible anyway, and was absolutely never happy. you can buy a kenwood deck from walmart for $68 that has a front aux input and not have to worry about it anymore .... you'll spend about $100 to buy the deck, harness, and mount (if needed). keep in mind, you sold your soul for 2 years AND paid 200 for the phone .... use the rebate wisely.
this is just my opinion, but i think it's a shame to buy a rocket ship of a phone and settle for lack luster sound quality because of fm transmitters. i tried this with my old omnia, which sounded horrible anyway, and was absolutely never happy. you can buy a kenwood deck from walmart for $68 that has a front aux input and not have to worry about it anymore .... you'll spend about $100 to buy the deck, harness, and mount (if needed). keep in mind, you sold your soul for 2 years AND paid 200 for the phone .... use the rebate wisely.
I have a head unit that came from my old car that will allow me to connect to an aux input. I have to see if my wife will let me put the head unit into our new car - :P
this is just my opinion, but i think it's a shame to buy a rocket ship of a phone and settle for lack luster sound quality because of fm transmitters. i tried this with my old omnia, which sounded horrible anyway, and was absolutely never happy. you can buy a kenwood deck from walmart for $68 that has a front aux input and not have to worry about it anymore .... you'll spend about $100 to buy the deck, harness, and mount (if needed). keep in mind, you sold your soul for 2 years AND paid 200 for the phone .... use the rebate wisely.
Not a bad idea. But my office is my work van. Newish, but no aux port, & I try to put as little personally owned eqquipment in it as possible.
So, FM would be great, but it ain't here. Any one have ideas?
Not a bad idea. But my office is my work van. Newish, but no aux port, & I try to put as little personally owned eqquipment in it as possible.
So, FM would be great, but it ain't here. Any one have ideas?
They sell tiny fm transmitters in stores for like 20 bucks...plugs into headphone jack, I have one and it works great, sound quality is fine...Ill look it up.
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First of all, let me apologize if my first post sounded as though I was dismissing anyone's disire for listening to FM radio. If you like it, have at it. It's just not my cup of tea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbill25
Yes. I know it will sound like crap, but if you're in a friend's car and you want to play a cool song/run Pandora/run Last.fm/Put the navigation through the speakers/use Google Listen, how are you going to do it?
Might I suggest a $6 Belkin FM Transmitter off eBay?
guys, he is absolutely right. fm transmission is the best way to ruin your sound. works fine for phone calls is you don't mind it sounding like a cell from 1995, but music ????? no way. there's just no way the signal would be strong enough to sound decent. the very best fm transmitters i've heard for ipod/zune sounded like i turned the bass half way down and yanked the balls off the guitars. bluetooth doesn't even sound as good as running cables. i am a studio engineer, among other things, and i can tell a pretty significant sonic difference. if you like AM radio ... then feel free to get your hopes up.
My FM transmitter sounded perfectly fine with my IPod Touch.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jleejordan
this is just my opinion, but i think it's a shame to buy a rocket ship of a phone and settle for lack luster sound quality because of fm transmitters. i tried this with my old omnia, which sounded horrible anyway, and was absolutely never happy. you can buy a kenwood deck from walmart for $68 that has a front aux input and not have to worry about it anymore .... you'll spend about $100 to buy the deck, harness, and mount (if needed). keep in mind, you sold your soul for 2 years AND paid 200 for the phone .... use the rebate wisely.
Personally, I would just like to be able to easily send the audio for Nav and phonecalls to the stereo, in any car. I could care less about the sound quality for those purposes - as long as I can understand the caller / voice prompts.
with the battery already stretched just using the current hardware features, BT, WiFi, GPS, etc. I can not see having additional features enabled without a higher capacity battery. It could be that during R&D, Motorola/Verizon feel that feels it would make more economic sense to cripple the hardware slightly to balance out the specs of the battery. Maybe they were going for size here? or maybe VZW has not found away to make money off those features....yet.
There have been other cases of verizon disabling the FM transmitter. I believe the Touch Pro 1/2 had this hardware but verizon didn't enable it. IIRC, the FM transmitter in those phones required a certain headset to be plugged in that contained the FM antenna.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tymanthius
That article appears to be pre-roll out, and has inaccuracies in it other than the radio stuff.
I wouldn't citeit as a trusted source.
I never said I trusted it. Just thought I would share it since it is on the same subject. Besides, there is usually truth in rumors, as small as it may be. The fact that rumors about it having the feature before the release, coupled with the fact that it has the transmitter, suggests that it is a feature that couldn't be finished before the release. I could go further into that and say that perhaps it is a feature we will see in later releases of Android, since it isn't a hardware limitation.
It is all speculation since it didn't come from motorola or Google...
I never said I trusted it. Just thought I would share it since it is on the same subject. Besides, there is usually truth in rumors, as small as it may be. The fact that rumors about it having the feature before the release, coupled with the fact that it has the transmitter, suggests that it is a feature that couldn't be finished before the release. I could go further into that and say that perhaps it is a feature we will see in later releases of Android, since it isn't a hardware limitation.
It is all speculation since it didn't come from motorola or Google...
i absolutely agree that if fm transmission is a possibility then we should be able to use it without entering the dang matrix to free it. i agree that in rental, work, and friend's vehicles it would be wonderful and impressive. i ALSO agree that for navigation, handsfree calling, and apps like those, fm transmission would be acceptable.
i just know that when it comes to music, fm tranmitters are sub-par. one guy said that his for his ipod sounded fine. with my old ipod i compared 4 different tranmitters and the very best one still didn't come close to pluggin into an aux. it might be fine for you, but to me the word "fine" is not acceptable for a $550 device that has such great sound. music wise, i have compared the droid to the samung omnia, the lg envy touch (with dolby sound), and a microsoft zune (with flat eq). i turned down the "media volume" 1 notch to compensate for the clicking/popping issue and the droid STILL smoked all those devices at full volume!!!!
i know i don't speak for everyone, but i spent good money and signed another 2 year deal for this thing. i want the absolute best this phone has to offer, and settling for fm transmitters in MY car would be a shame. keep in mind that i do sound for a living (live, studio, bands, voice overs, etc. etc.) so i might be a a lil too "elitist" about the sound thing, but to me, it's heartbreaking to hear my favorite music sounding like it's being run through a 1980's boom box. i believe an extra $100 on a new deck for my car is a worthy investment considering you can find one that also does bluetooth.
A built-in FM transmitter would be great for me. I have no audio input jack in either of my vehicles, and the tape deck does not work in the one car so my cassette cable will not help when I drive that one. They're older cars, but at least I own them with clear titles. So I either buy a new car stereo with audio jack and/or bluetooth, or somehow get an FM transmitter unit, which then I have to find a way to power as well...
A built-in FM transmitter would be awesome. Also, I saw another website where they dismantled the Droid and they also suspected this was the same TI chip, though it remained unmarked.
I know every is excited about the FM transmitter, but am I the only one wondering if the wifi N will be enabled? Wouldn't it give us faster speeds when tethering with wifi or would it stay the same? And at the least it would give us better range.
I know every is excited about the FM transmitter, but am I the only one wondering if the wifi N will be enabled? Wouldn't it give us faster speeds when tethering with wifi or would it stay the same? And at the least it would give us better range.
If you are using the phone for tethering, then the 3G modem is already the bottleneck, so you won't see any speed gain there. Even when just using WiFi on the phone, most people broadband connection is slower than 802.11g, so going to n doesn't add much. You are correct that it could add range, depending on how the WiFi radio is implemented.
Might I suggest a $6 Belkin FM Transmitter off eBay?
Perfect!
I am using one for my sirus stilletto 2 to play internet music over my sound system in house, with out have to shell out money for sirus's home kit
The Motorola Droid - the first ever Verizon Android Phone - exploded onto the mobile market with an incredibly successful ad campaign that brough Android to the masses. With a huge and vibrant touchscreen, solid metal body, full QWERTY keyboard, 5M... Read More
Droid Includes FM Receiver and Transmitter
so till then FM would be nice.
