a) a FM receiver uses a (microscopic) fraction of power compared to Pandora over 3G which is almost a full-throttle thing. Oh, and it's $free$.
You're all forgetting RDS. That means you can pull down traffic information from FM sideband for GPS nav (or song information from whatever station you're listening to).
Heck, stick the Rover on a car holder, listen to FM with the car stereo and get the song and station info from the tablet.
I remember the last time when the n810 was released everyone was pissed off because :
1. D pad on the keyboard
2. Loss of the 1 full size sd card replaced by 2 gb internal memory.
3. Lack of av out
4. Lack of a better camera.
5. Lack of fm receiver.
SO what are the peeves of the rover?
1. The biggest ... reduction in screen size
2. Complete lack of the d pad.
3. 3 row keyboard.
4. Smaller battery
These have been discussed and i have gotten over them....
Now the good points of the rover which are new:
1. 32 gb memory
2. Stylus
3. Stand still present.... do not know about the usability of it
4. Phone with tmobile 3g....
Compared to last time.... the reaction is positive.
a) a FM receiver uses a (microscopic) fraction of power compared to Pandora over 3G which is almost a full-throttle thing. Oh, and it's $free$.
b) It has an FM transmitter. This way you can listen to it in a car without additional adapters. My car has no fancy-shmancy ipod dock or bluetooth option, so I certainly appreciate this
c) if you have a transmitter, a receiver is a no-brainer.
d) it might be part of a bundle (like the FM radio came in a bundle with the bluetooth chip in the N800). So, if it's there anyway, why not use it.
Well IIRC, the FM radio applet on the n800 caused some battery draining issues. That's the only reason I brought it up.
As for the transmitter, I have tried that with a GPS unit and it just sounds terrible in every car I've tried it in. It actually osunds better to use the built in speakers, or ideally hook it up with Line In.
On the lower end of the device as seen on the diagram you see the following:
1. Speaker - the perforated one
2. Hardware screen lock
3. Audio jack
On the upper end;
1. Speaker
2. May be micro usb
3. I am not sure what the third one is
Then on the left side of the device:
1. power button in the center
2. zoom keys on the top
3. Power hole
Now compare with the image i posted in the thread. The lower end matches exactly.
Looks like it is the back flap opener in between the audio jack and speaker on the side of the device. They must have left the hardware screen lock in its original place.
The FM tuner is useful around the house if you have an mpd server broadcasting on a WFM transmitter. A2DP (the standard modern solution) would certainly work to get that audio to the tablet, but it's much simpler and higher quality to broadcast one signal than to set up separate A2DP links to each tablet, stereo, etc. tnroughout the house.
