Nokia N8 as FM transmitter

Nokia N8 is touted as multimedia smartphone with multimedia capabilities that is not found even on other higher end smartphone like HDMI connectivity. And I am one of the proud owner of this phone with the sturdy built quality of aluminum casing.

One of the 'must have' features of smartphone is the ability to play audio files such as MP3 that enables its user to listen to the song. Imagine this situation: You are driving and wishing to listen your MP3 collections via your car audio system. But unfortunately, your car's crappy stock standard audio system does not have any auxiliary input nor USB port. So how you are going to channel the audio from your phone to your car's head unit? Fret not, it has built-in FM transmitter. Yes, you read me right, it can be an FM transmitter.
 

I doubt many of us will flip through the phone's manual to discover what this phone can do. Here's how to activate FM transmitter functionality (Nokia calls it 'Play via Radio) for this N8:

1) Access your music player as usual

 2) Play your favourite song found in your collections

3) Select 'Options'

4) From the menu, select 'Play Via Radio'

5) Set your desired transmitting frequency (in my case it would be 101.1 MHz)

6) Switch on the feature by tapping on 'Play Via Radio' and pop-up will appear

7) You will notice the Play Via Radio icon appears on the top-right corner of the phone's screen

8) Tune your radio to the selected frequency (in my case it would be 101.1 MHz)

 

9) Enjoy the song from the radio. Volume control is dependent to the radio, so you can use the steering audio control if your car have it.

 

If the radio is equipped with RDS, the word 'NOKIA' will appear when it is tuned to the phone's frequency

Tips:

1) Always choose the free frequency so it would not cause interference with the local radio station's frequency (eg. if Sinar FM is 96.7 MHz in the area, do not set the transmitting frequency to 96.7 MHz)

2) Do not choose transmitting frequency that is close to the local radio station's frequency, make sure to have around 3-5 MHz frequency spacing from the closest local radio station's frequency  (eg. if Sinar FM is 96.7 MHz in the area, do not set the transmitting frequency to 96.9 MHz, choose 100.0 MHz if the frequency is not occupied)

3) Using this feature will drain the phone's battery faster, make sure the phone is connected to the car's charger.

p/s: My phone has been updated with official Symbian Anna from Nokia, however the procedure is just the same with N8 that is running on stock Symbian ^6.