According to close sources, Apple is developing an FM tuner app for iPhone and iPod touch users.

It is believed the app is mostly done at this point, and will likely take cues from the FM tuner interface of the recently introduced fifth-generation iPod nano.

The iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and second-gen iPod touch all use a Broadcom radio chip that combines low-power WiFi, Bluetooth, and FM capabilities.

The newest iPod touch uses the newer chip which also has FM receiving.

The original iPhone and iPod touch used chips from Marvell for WiFi, and the iPhone had a separate chip for Bluetooth, so those devices wouldn’t work with an FM tuner app.

While FM tuners have been features of a wide variety of other media players, they have never featured significantly in the Apple line-up. A separate FM tuner accessory Apple introduced in 2006 never sold in significant numbers and was quietly discontinued.

However, Broadcom’s Chris Bergey said late last year that FM tuning is particularly popular in other areas of the world, such as India; there phones with FM outnumber those with Bluetooth, for instance.

Since the hardware already has the capability, and the software design is most of the way there with work done on the iPod Nano, it would be relatively trivial for Apple to offer up an FM tuner app for the iPhone OS platform.

Integrating iTunes purchasing would also be the sort of compelling value add that should give Apple a good reason to make it happen.

From the moment your finger touches the iPhone button down the bottom right hand corner of the Home menu’s screen, you’re transported to a world of entertainment where your guide is your favourite movies and music.

The toolbar across the bottom of the iPod menu gives you access to your Playlists, Artists, Songs and Videos, while pressing “More” will bring up the Albums, Audiobooks, Compilations, Composers, Genres and Podcasts options.

Customising the Menu
If you love listening to Podcasts but don’t really care much for video, you aren’t going to want to have to navigate through the “More” option every single time you open up the iPhone’s iPod music player. So instead, make your first port of call to customise the iPod menu screen.

If you want to rearrange the order of the shortcuts, you can do that too, by pressing the icon, holding it down, then dragging it to the most convenient position. Then, when you’re happy with the layout, press the “Done” button at the top of the screen.

Controlling Volume
Parents who want to prevent their children turning music up too loud and causing damage to their hearing will love the iPhone’s volume-limiting feature in the Settings menu.

Not only can you set a maximum volume level for the iPhone, you can also password protect the limit to keep some control over the iPhone user’s listening habits.

Unlike music which has a set playback speed, audiobooks can be played back at different speeds for different people – just as different people read at different speeds.

To adjust the playback speeds for audiobooks, you need to go to the iPhone’s main menu system, which can be accessed from the Settings tab on the home screen. Select the iPod options and you can adjust audiobook speed.

Podcasts
Often called radio programs for the 21st century, Podcasts are made for regular downloading and for listening on an MP3 player like your iPod or iPhone. They are usually free, recorded in a format that can be played back on any player, and don’t have DRM restrictions.

Subscribing to Podcasts is extremely easy – simply find the one you like through the iTunes Store and hit Subscribe.

Podcasts can cover any topic you imagine, and there are generally many choices for each and the individual Podcast will vary in quality and polish. When you subscribe to a Podcast through iTunes, it will automatically download new episodes as they are released.

To access your Podcasts on your iPhone, there’s a dedicated button in the iPod menu. They are organised by title and to listen to a Podcast you simply press the title and choose the episode you want to listen to.