So according to varying sources, iPhones (at least 3G, 3GS, and presumably, 4) all have had the capability of receiving FM radio signals; there seems to be some debate but I'm fairly certain that they can. Since Apple never delivered on their rumors to implement a tuner, and if the hardware is there, can it be taken advantage of through hacks? If so, why hasn't this been done yet?

Note: I'm disregarding any comments about streaming radio over 3G/Wifi. I don't care that most stations broadcast live streams, I'm interested in true FM radio because a drive-in movie theater I sometimes visit broadcasts their movies' audio locally on a station, and I want to use my phone in place of my car radio.

Originally Posted by karate104

So according to varying sources, iPhones (at least 3G, 3GS, and presumably, 4) all have had the capability of receiving FM radio signals; there seems to be some debate but I'm fairly certain that they can. Since Apple never delivered on their rumors to implement a tuner, and if the hardware is there, can it be taken advantage of through hacks? If so, why hasn't this been done yet?

Note: I'm disregarding any comments about streaming radio over 3G/Wifi. I don't care that most stations broadcast live streams, I'm interested in true FM radio because a drive-in movie theater I sometimes visit broadcasts their movies' audio locally on a station, and I want to use my phone in place of my car radio.

Reports are that the functionality is part of the chip. Problem is we just don't know at this point if the chip is connected to the headphone socket so it can act as an antenna. We'll probably only find out if Apple ever enables this as an app.

It has been confirmed by iFixit that the pinouts for the FM transmitter (included in the wifi/bluetooth chip used on the iPod Touch 3rd gen and i think the iPad) were not wired up to an antenna - so don't expect that feature to ever be magically enabled.