Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the Radio?

Re:Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the... by dsfyu404ed on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @11:09AM (#12079653)

Even if you only have to buy a plug-n-play harness and insert a coat hanger into a hole to get the old radio out DIYing something like that scares most people and a $50 radio install will probably cost $50 or more before the200% markup on the adapter harness the shop bought on Amazon for $5-$15. Just figuring out how to use typical automotive connectors is a major task for someone who's never done it.

It's a low priority for most people, costs more than you'd think if you don't DIY. OEM radios tend to have pretty good ergonomics anyway.

Most early 2000s and older stuff has a cassette deck anyway so a $3 adapter lets you plug in your phone.

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Re:Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the... by macintux on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @11:54AM (#12080085)

> OEM radios tend to have pretty good ergonomics anyway.

I'm appalled at the UI for radios these days. Obviously feature overload has a lot to do with it; I wish someone would make opinionated car stereos like Apple does for other consumer tech. "You don't want this feature because the tradeoff is more complexity."

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Re:Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the... by nitrogen on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @12:02PM (#12080169)

I'd rather have, "We know some of you want this feature so we spent considerable time giving it to you without the complexity."

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Re:Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the... by macintux on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @01:08PM (#12080694)

That's obviously better but often not possible when taking into account the constraints of a single DIN.

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Re:Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the... by hx87 on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @01:32PM (#12080881)

If a single DIN radio has a pop-out screen, it isn't constrained any more than a double DIN, and if it doesn't have one, the amount of possible complexity is rather limited.

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Re:Your Phone Has an FM Chip. So Why Can’t You Listen to the... by macintux on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @03:07PM (#12081542)

> ...the amount of possible complexity is rather limited

Relative to what a person can handle while driving, there's far more potential complexity, and as with nearly all things electronic, spec sheets/feature lists often trump common sense limitations.

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