Your Phone Might Have FM Radio, But My iPhone 4 Has DAB
One might balk at the iPhone 4 for its lack of FM radio. But the fact is that the brilliant Roberts Robi, which I looked at donkeys years ago, adds not only FM radio to your iPhone 4, but DAB and an inline remote to boot.
And that’s the great thing about the iPhone. It may have shortcomings, but there’s no shortage of talented people out there trying to compensate for them. The Robi is a great example and, although it might be quite steeply priced at around £50+, it brings a myriad of audio enjoyment features to the iPhone that are not at all half-baked.
The control itself is compact, powered by the iPhone, and blessed with a small LCD display which will give you the name of the DAB station you’re currently listening to, the frequency of the FM station, or display the word “Remote.” The latter is a little disappointing, as track information would have been far more useful.
The buttons are quite large, bevelled and easy to press, but Roberts have had the presence of mind to include a lock switch to prevent accidental input. There’s also a favourites button for bookmarking stations, handy!
Anyway, I bring the Robi to your attention because it’s probably the best iPhone accessory I’ve used on the go, and it’s a fantastic compliment to round off the feature-set in the new iPhone 4. Sure you might be able to get phones with FM built in (I had the Nokia N900 for a duration) but I haven’t seen one with DAB!
Oh, and it doesn’t work with the iPad, in case you were wondering!