Most traffic preemption devices intended for emergency traffic redirection use optical technology to beam infrared light from vehicles to static receivers mounted on traffic light poles.
Essentially, the tech works by detecting a specific pattern of infrared light emitted by the Mobile Infrared Transmitter (MIRT) installed in a police car, fire truck, or ambulance when the MIRT is switched on. When the receiver detects the light, the traffic system then initiates a signal change as the emergency vehicle approaches an intersection, safely redirecting the traffic flow so that the emergency vehicle can pass through the intersection as if it were regular traffic and potentially avoid a collision.
Lemmy, or indeed the entire Fediverse, is middle aged nerds. Older non-nerds are on Facebook and Twitter. Older nerds are on IRC and Newsgroups, middle aged non-nerds are on Reddit, middle-aged nerds are on Lemmy/Kbin/Mastodon, younger non-nerds are on Tiktok and Instagram. There are no young nerds (see the growing epidemic of Gen-Z being baffled by Technology futurism.com/gen-z-baffled-basic-technology).
Social Media is like a school dance in the 90s. Islands of people will emerge with similar age and interests, and they just stay there, because that’s where their people are.
The first example in that article is an office photocopier. I’m a middle aged nerd and I am regularly baffled by those things. Paper orientation is the least of the problems with those psychotically uninitiative beasts and their cruel and unusual menu systems.
Not a feature but I do miss phones having side bezels. You could firmly hold your phone and not disturb the content on your phone. I can barely use youtube now because i keep touching my screen apparently
I don’t feel that way about side bezels but i do think that chunky top and bottom bezels like those of the Xperia are better than a notch and also has room for better speakers
I miss the home phisical button and back/menu touch ‘button’ on tablet and phones. Having to swipe down from the top, then press the right symbol at the bottom before they disappear again is a mess.
Definitely try the “swipe” navigation. I had no idea the other (old?) navigation scheme existed as it has probably been a decade now. I vaguely remember one of my old phones introducing it, and that was the end of the buttons on the bottom. Did the non-stock versions of Android not do that?
I still miss buttons, but with how tall/wide the screens are, the question is where do you put them. I really need to try and get a smaller phone once this one dies…
I think this is why AskReddit made their posts title only, with no pictures or texts. OP’s question was about gadgets, but then they included a picture of a smartphone and used the text to mention smartphones. It then brainwashed everyone else to misread the question.
Haha you’re right. I focused too much on the comments and had forgotten the title by the time I got this far. I had been convinced by them that phones were in fact the subject.
With OLED screens its kind of crazy that simulated notification lights aren’t a thing. You could have all the other pixels off except for a dot on the screen which would act as a notification light when the display was off.
I miss the instant channel switching on old analog tv sets. Everything now is digital so the switching is done with microprocessors, but on old sets you could flip through about 5 channels a second, as fast as you could press the button.
We had the knob but it broke off. So we had a pair of pliers sitting on top of the TV to turn the dial (from 2 through 13).
My friends weren’t as poor so they’d have a converter box. It had an actual remote and that sound it made as it flipped through all the channels. I can’t even describe the sound but if you know, you know it.
I had found one at home with only knobs, and at the time I dug that out of the attic, the only TV it could receive was state TV. An B&W. Still, It was amazing to me that i could even receive TV wireless. Turning those knobs felt… decisive!
Real keyboards where overrated, swiping is so much quicker. My s22ultra now lights up around the intire edge so again better than a single light. I have had this phone for over a year now and never even noticed it no longer has a headphone jack until lookingfor one at this moment. I will agree with the replacement battery as I would have continued using my note 5 and then my note 9 if the battery hadn’t worn out.
Yeah swiping is nice if it exists in your language. Seems like a basic feature, but Apple doesn’t mind being 10 years behind everyone else. Still waiting for that awesome swiping feature to roll out. Probably not going to happen any time soon.
Ya, after reading a bit about the notification light and thinking back to older phones, I’ll agree. The edge lighting is neet but not continuous. It also does not change color depending on the type of notification. A back version is also a good idea.
I have had this phone for over a year now and never even noticed it no longer has a headphone jack until lookingfor one at this moment
Why do you believe your use case and your habits are a relevant argument against the necessity of the jack? People who want it actually use it, what difference does it make if you personally don’t need it?
I’m sad that popup front cameras didn’t catch on. I only remember 2 or 3 phones that had them. For me it’s the perfect compromise - this way you can make an end to end screen without the need for a notch, and since I very rarely use the front camera, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the durability of the popup mechanism. The only real downside I see is that it complicates waterproofing.
I mean the latest crop of phones aren’t that far off, we’ve got fingerprint sensors behind screens already and the front facing camera on my Pixel 7 is a pinhole at the top of the screen less than a centimetre across—which IMO just blends in.
I loved the notification light, I had mine programmed to have different colors correspond to different types of notifications and it would buzz at me in response to being picked up as well if I’d missed a call or text.
I got an app called Always On Edge where you can do literally just that and you can also choose for the entire edge to flash or glow or keep the old virtual dot, change the colors and interactions based on which app it was, and more.
I use AODnotify to effectively do the same thing. It animates a ring around either the display (when the screen is “off”), or the camera cutout when it’s on.
By far replaceable batteries. You used to be able to purchase physically larger and higher capacity batteries to get insane battery life, but because they would include a larger rear plastic for the phone it would still look normal. Now we have to waste space and lose efficiency with external power banks.
Pretty sure phone cases with external batteries exist that are literally identical to what you are describing (“purchase physically larger or higher capacity batteries”). Also current phones do a lot more than the old phones you’re describing as “having insane battery life.” Sure, a cell phone of 2005 could be left on for probably two days straight without needing a charge but you were only getting an occasional text message and maybe calling someone once or twice and maybe playing Snake during that timeframe.
External batteries are not the same as there is substantial loss in transmitting the power to the phone, particularly with the many “magsafe” compatible wireless ones. The wired ones add substantially more bulk for similar battery size and although the standard for battery life is much better now, for many otherwise great phones it’s still not amazing (aka every pixel prior to this year’s).
Being able to quickly swap a battery or simply replace it with a 10000mAh cell for only a few mm more thickness (my preferred method) simply isn’t an option now.
Headphone jack. Next to my bed is the one good Bluetooth headset, the two crappy backup sets for when it is charging, and the gigantic earmuff yardwork set for when the good one is still charging and the 2 shit ones have already died.
Does it actually belong in the phone? Putting the adc chip outside the phone gives the opportunity to upgrade your sound rather than depend on what the manufacturer bundled or even screwed up. (Nexus phones were notorious for bad headphone output.)
Get the Fiio BTR5. It costs about $100 and has Quad-DAC from ESS just like one used in flagship LG phones. It can switch between Bluetooth and USB inputs, so you can use standard headphones to do phone calls wirelessly for example.
I loved the old Windows CE phones. You got a dpad, buttons on the front, and side buttons. All frequently used apps were instant at the button press. No nonsense of turning on phone, unlock, look carefully before clicking app on touch screen because you can’t physically feel the button.
Full qwerty keyboard. I know I am a minority. I don’t need more screen estate, I need to be able to make notes in my diary whithout looking on the screen and not bumping into things while I am walking. I’ve tried the Uniherz offers, but the OS and the quality is really sub-par. I’ve jumped on the Astroslide train, but the manufacturing batches went south over the Covid and I don’t blame the Astro guys for not getting my device. Some US company did buy the BlackBerry licence and I was ready to pay any price for their phone - but they failed to manufacture anything. If only you could jailbreak BlackBerry Key 2 - I’d be carrying it proudly around till today. (written on Google Pixel 6 runnning Graphene with a collabsible pocket bluetooth keyboard - so I can type at least while I am not moving - best among terrible options).
Was really nice to be able to throw your phone on when you didn’t have access to a device with Bluetooth. At an Airbnb, in an older car, on the beach with a portable radio, etc.
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