I have a Samsung A50 smart phone. I used to listen to the radio while in the garden with some wired headphones and the Nextradio app. One day, my phone announced an update which I dutifully downloaded and surprise, surprise the radio no longer works on my phone.
Well, that sucks. Permission has been elevated for FM steaming in Android 11 so Nextradio doesn't even attempt to work. Nextradio is bankrupt so what are the chances of a fix for the FM tuner app? And a search through the app store finds hundreds of "tuner" apps that are really just internet streaming apps. Which use data or wifi. And suck. Why is this so hard? Why does everything just get pushed to a pay model, or subscription. How can my phone lose features through an update? Have you ever taken your car to the mechanic for an oil change and then found that your radio or headlights don't work? Of course you haven't. How can tech suck so much? And suck even more as time passes.
I subscribe to Spotify. I watch YouTube and Netflix. But sometimes I just want some plain radio. Which is now gone from my phone. So screw you Android/Samsung. I'm going old fashioned FM tuner in the garden from now on and wearing a pair of analog headphones.
