My current Xiaomi phone has an IR blaster, but what I miss is having an IR receiver as well, trying 100 random remotes to find which one works with your obscure TV/AC is such a pain when you used to be able to just clone one instead.
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.
Oh yes the notification light was incredible. I had one on my Pixel 2 XL. I just switched phones like a week ago to a Nord N200 and it doesn’t have one. Not too big of a deal though.
I wish phones still had IR blasters but those are long gone. It would be awesome to control my Edifier speakers with my phone as a remote control.
Edit: Also how about a good camera? All mid range and low end phones today have like 3 or 4 mediocre cameras because it looks fancier then having 1 nice camera.
still using my four year old redmi note 8 and yeah, the ir thing works well. I like xiaomi phones because they are so customizable, you can install custom OS and root it quite easily.
All midrange and low end phones today have like 3 or 4 mediocre cameras because it looks fancier than having 1
The pixel a series does that right, also i would prefer two, 1inch sensors with 26mm and 50mm focal lengths, i rarely use telephoto or ultrawides (purely because Of the bad quality)but it seems like I am in a minority
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!
Sony seems to be the only company making high-end phones with the 3.5 headphone jack. Unfortunately, their firmware is kind of weird with them not activating 5G on certain regions.
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.
I switched to the 2022 iPhone SE for this last year only for the EU to pull the usb-c thing toward apple (who of course requires the Apple certified cables now anyways so it solved nothing). and after that happened I know the writing is on the wall for this phone one day because of its design. I’m going to be using it until the very bitter end when not a single app is supported anymore. I will be a physical button warrior to the end.
I agree with all but hand crank drills. If you own a battery drill it’s probably stored with it’s battery and with keyless chucks (that don’t work on a hand crank drill) getting a battery drill ready for work is faster than a hand crank, and it will do the job faster too.
Agreed and that was also my one exception to that comment.
If someone’s really worried about having a super compact kit for smaller, light duty jobs, the 12v (and under) options from any major tool manufacturer will fit the bill nicely.
I have a framework 13 and absolutely love it. Not used a Fairphone yet, and I believe the latest model might have sadly scrapped the 3.5 headphone jack, but will still be a strong contender when I next need an upgrade.
My induction hob, my extractor fan, a light above the countertop… All of these things just in my kitchen don’t have physical buttons and I hate it. Physical buttons are so easy to use and in so many ways superior to these “touch” buttons.
You can still readily get crank hand drills, I have a (vaguely) modern one that I use for situations where I want the control/tactile feedback and/or have restricted access or the like. It covers a different set of problems than the standard cordless.
Mine is Fiskars branded and a little plasticky (and not the version they sell currently). I like it enough that I’ll get a nicer one if I kill it.
Lots of phones still have those. Notably all Redmi phones have a SD card slot, and Redmi still sells new phones with IR blaster, and most have a headphone jack too.
I’ve looked into those phones, the specs look nice but they don’t work in my region, unfortunately rural areas of the US don’t have Tower support for those style models(yay refusal to upgrade any sort of infrastructure). many of my friends that are overseas have stated that they love the phones though.
Yeah but they’re all the lower end phones, all the major flagships removed the features three or four versions ago, I don’t want to have to sacrifice camera or screen quality in order to have features that should be built into phones by default
That’s really that is why I went with the phone I have, out of the phones that I looked at all of them were a downgrade for the screen, and generally camera. Or lacked the tower support in my area since we barely have LTE
I’m going to say that today, even on lower-end phones, the screen, processor and camera are all pretty decent.
I have a Motorola G31, which cost about 200€ one year ago, when I got it. It has a Micro SD Card Slot and a headphone jack. The screen is plenty good (1440p,60hz) (why would you need 120hz or 4k on a phone) And the camera is also quite nice. It has no fancy features, but it takes pictures and that’s all I need.
From my perspective, flagship phones are impractical and overpriced to say the least.
Seperate fingerprint sensors, which were fast, reliable, and accurate, in contrast to the shitty in screen sensors, which are slow, inaccurate, and sometimes just dont work. I would like to kill all people who were part of this shit
Varies wildly from phone to phone. I prefer the in screen detectors, since they work great when your phone is on your desk or in a phone dock/charger. They need to be implemented well though.
The one on my Huawei P30 was fantastic. The one on my Pixel 6 was ass, the one on my Pixel 8 is good.
The one on the 6 was ass even without a screen protector, the one on the 8 is good even with one.
Eh. First fingerprint sensors were useless, inconvenient, unreliable garbage. I hated the one on my galaxy s5 where you had to SLIDE your thumb over it just so for it to work. Then the tech was improved and we got nice sensors that work well. In-screen sensors are going through the same process. Once they’ve matured, they’ll be better than the separate fingerprint sensors.
They wont be, moreover in screen sensors are totally useless, and inconvenient things. I need to directly put my finger on it, while on my old phone the sensor was on the back side, where i naturally hold my phone! So i didn even need to think about unlocking my phone when i took it in my hand, to use it, ive unlocked it. This cant happen with screen sensors, as those arent there where you touch your phone, and the screen above it will always limit its capabilities.
Counter: I absolutely hate fingerprint sensors on the back and think that’s easily the worst place to put the sensor. They get thrown off by phone cases leaving them in a deep pit where finger contact can become unreliable, and they’re completely unusable when the phone’s lying on its back on a surface. I strongly disagree that the back of the phone is a more natural spot than where your thumb most naturally touches the screen.
My last phone was in a very hard plastic sturdy case, to stand dropping when riding motorbike, but the fingerprint sensor on the back was in a 3 mm deep pit, it was no problem to touch it without thinking about touching the sensor. How can you use the phone on a surface? Even with face unlock, i barely can do anything with it if its not in my hand. You can hold and use the phone reliably, only by touching its back, so the fingerprint sensor if there is. I touch different parts of the screen, not that single point where the sensor is, also i need to hold itt differently, to make that crappy in screen sensor work. If it works at all, as since a month it barely does, sometimes it even disappears from the menus too. One of my friends just replaced his samsung s20 too as the fingerprint sensor was barely working, just as my huawei’s sensor. I also see many fingerprint sensor problem topics across the net, all phones mentioned have in screen sensors.
I sometimes think that mine is working alright, and then I try and use it in the dark and it fails 3 times in a row because it turns out it usually gives up and uses face recognition.
And this is a proper Google phone. What must the shit brands be like?
And the only advantage is that you have more screen space which is now covered with indicators for back, home, etc, because you can fuck off if you think I’m using gestures for that shit.
Aren’t notification LEDs somewhat obsolete now that we have always on displays? One advantage could be that they are less power hungry than keeping the screen / touch panel alive all the time. But in theory one could just create a permanent “notification LED” with an always on display, then it’s the same thing from a user’s perspective.
Smartphones are already insanely energy efficient. But instead of tuning them for longer battery life, companies kept pushing for faster processing, higher resolutions and refresh rates in the last few years. Now there’s diminishing returns (imo 4k on a 6" device is just absurd) so I expect future devices to double down on energy efficiency. But then maybe companies just end up decreasing the battery’s capacity for lower weight…
I forget which Samsung galaxy model it was, maybe S6, but it had a universal IR blaster built into the phone which was super convenient for controlling all of my devices. I did however often abuse the shit out of it by flipping the channels on bar tvs or turning off the stereo receiver and nobody was ever suspecting it was me on my phone. I guess that’s probably why they removed it lol, but it was fun while it lasted.
Unsure about the S6, but my S5 (which I still have and currently use as a dashcam in a pinch if I’m not in my usual car) definitely has an IR blaster and yeah, it was so good to just flick on the TV in the living room, or notice that my parents TV was still on while they were sleeping and I’d just turn it off from my phone.
Got an IR watch in high school before universal remotes were a known enough technology. That teacher must have really hated that day. Sorry Mrs Desgagné if you’re out there.
I wonder if there might not be an add on that might have an IR blaster they connects via USB-C and has an app to run it… If it was good I might consider getting one.
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
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