Originally Posted by bockersjv (Post 687533)

IThe app was FM RDS Notify. Can't think why Nokia removed such a useful feature.

Originally Posted by droitwichgas (Post 687535)

What's the logic in Nokia removing this when it seemed to work well?

Originally Posted by benny1967 (Post 687551)

they removed the search function in the application manager

Originally Posted by ZootHornRollo (Post 687552)

searching app manager can now be done by simply typing on the keyboard. no need to activate search function now.

Originally Posted by bockersjv (Post 687533)

IThe app was FM RDS Notify. Can't think why Nokia removed such a useful feature.

Originally Posted by pycage (Post 689208)

In PR 1.1 RDS song info was implemented in a way that was in strict violation of the RDS standard and some radios even could not properly follow the text the way it was implemented (abusing the static 8 character station name text field for dynamic text).
The proper way would be to use the 64 character radio text field instead, but then no RDS compliant car radio would display the text _while_ driving, because the RDS specification forbids displaying dynamically changing text while driving.

Originally Posted by qwerty12 (Post 693465)

In PR 1.1, Media Player would update the labels itself. Unless you wish to replace /usr/bin/mediaplayer.launch with PR 1.1's one...

Anyway, since I don't get how FM RDS Notify works, I made a quick hack for myself.
Run "fm" in a Terminal, and when (and only) the FM transmitter is on, it'll send the details of the currently playing track.

Designated thus:
artist == "rds_ps"
title == "rds_text"

"rds_ps" is limited to 8 characters, I believe and "rds_text" to 64 characters so the required cutting will be performed if necessary. If the file has no artist information, rds_ps will be set to "Nokia" and if there is no title information, rds_text will be set to "(unknown song)".

Originally Posted by mece (Post 693484)

Nice. How about putting rds_ps to nothing and rds_text to artist - title instead. about half of the artists I've got have more than 8 characters.

Originally Posted by pjr (Post 693518)

Mediaplayer sends song title/radio station name as "rds_text" in PR1.2.

You can check what it sends by command "fmtx_client"

Originally Posted by qwerty12 (Post 693465)

Run "fm" in a Terminal, and when (and only) the FM transmitter is on, it'll send the details of the currently playing track.

Originally Posted by Boru (Post 693556)

Sorry, I'm a N900/linux noob. How do I run fm in the terminal?

Originally Posted by robthebold (Post 992639)

I've got a rant and a "thank you'. Let's get the rant out of the way first.

The don't show track info "feature" should never have been forced on the user. And the justification is risible:



So what if it violates the spec? It's not like the N900 is transmitting enough power to even bother the car next to you. And "endangering the driver"? Seriously? I've yet to see a US radio station that sends RDS data that doesn't violate the spec by sending dynamic text. The fact that my N900 doesn't work doesn't keep me any "safer" when I'm listening to broadcast radio. And Bluetooth-equipped receivers show track info. As do those that can access USB devices as mass storage. I'm being "endangered" by them, too, I suppose.

In fact, I'd argue that the "fix" makes drivers less safe. I often find myself tapping the N900 display to turn on the backlight and squinting to read the track information. To me, that's much more dangerous that reading the radio display. I know I shouldn't do that, but I still do.

Let me close with a parable:

There was once a grocer would sold produce by the kilogram. As an adherent to the standards, he knew that the kilogram was a unit of mass, not weight. As such, he insisted on using a balance, not a spring-based scale.

One day, the balance broke and he sent it out for repair. Customers still wanted to buy produce, but he couldn't sell it because all he had was a scale. "Why can't you do like everyone else and just assume that we're on earth and a kilogram-weight is essentially constant for this purpose?" "Well, that would violate the standards of the SI," he told them. "What if we were on the moon? Or near a large geological formation that minutely distorted local gee?"

So all the other grocers conformed to common practice, and sold fruits and vegetables while our hero conformed to the standard and his produce rotted.

That's the rant.

Now the thank-you. Thanks to everyone in this thread for the info and helpful suggestions, particularly qwerty12, mad_soft, and Wichall.