What discontinued feature do you miss from phones or other technologies?
For me its the 'Knock Code' that LG had on their phones (I really wish LG still made at least the V series phones)
Basically there was a four-square area and you set up a sequence of where you would tap to unlock the phone. That set of squares was only shown when you set up the code
Then, to unlock your phone, you would tap those areas in the sequence you set up (even with the screen off).
Fingerprint readers are nice, but I really do miss the knock code
Edit: did find this article with a way to do the knock code, but if done wrong, could brick your phone I guess.
Plus, article is from 2014. When I looked at XDA's info on it (they also being the developers) it looks like development on it is over, but individual modules may or may not still be supported by their devs
Unlockable bootloader, removable battery, headphone jack, being assembled with SCREWS rather than GLUE.
Love the first answer as, I have to get on my Linux soapbox here.
I remember first using Linux (Ubuntu 9.10 for those curious). One of the big ideas behind it was 'its your computer, do what you want'. That's why you can have access to Root or the Super User. Since its open source, root can do what it wants.
Android was initially built on Linux, but they have taken Root and turned it into a way to restrict users not just from sensitive things (like necessary system apps), but also from bloatware (looking at you Samsung). Years ago I had a phone that came with the NFL Network which I didn't want. Could I remove it? Of course not, I would have to be Root to do that!.
Sorry for the rant, but really, I should have access to anything on my phone if I want it. Give me a warning, make it so people can't get to it 'accidentally', but then let it be on me.
You want to⦠own the phone you bought???
You can still buy Android phones that have manufacturer support for unlocking the bootloader. Once that's done obtaining root is trivial. Pixel phones notably support this. Personally, I only buy phones I can unlock the bootloader on to show the demand for this feature. It doesn't matter to me how great a phone is otherwise. Can't unlock the bootloader? Not buying it.
That said, I completely agree with you. We all pay for and own the hardware, but let the manufacturer dictate what software it can run. That's like buying a car and letting the car company tell you what roads you're allowed to drive your car on. I don't really blame the average use for not giving a crap because end users will never care about this stuff as long as their basic needs are met. It's a failure of the people in the software industry to stand up for the open systems that built everything we have today. Without that constant fight for openness companies are going to be more than happy to take advantage of a locked down system to create a competitive advantage. Hell, look at what Google is currently doing with WEI in Chrome. If they have their way, the web will become just as locked down as smartphones are now.
For the record, it still is.
Only problem is all the apps that won't run in a rooted environment. I'm not sure why they should even know that information....
Shits me off that rooting the phone immediately blocks most banking apps.
After a few years of playing cat and mouse with the workarounds for safety net I finally said fuck it.
If theyβre going to force me to live with an unrooted phone, I might as well have shit that works with the rest of my families eco-system and go iPhone.
Spot on, my daily driver is a PinePhone Pro with keyboard case. It ticks all the boxes. It also covers the "physical keyboard" feature which is a few comments down.
It has its downsides, but it's a full fledged Linux computer in my pocket. What's not to love?
Fair phone seems to be doing it... except their last phone removed headphone jacks and introduced "fair ear buds" or some such... even the open company wants to increase sales.
Yeah that's why I have the fairphone 3, also the 4 is REALLY expensive. And fairphone isn't really an open company but more open than others
Sony phones still do the bootloader and headphone jacks at least. I'm pretty happy with mine.
Many midrange phones still have headphone jacks, and removable battery has to come back if they want to continue selling in the EU.
Slowly going away though. Samsung took them off in the A53, and Xiaomi did the same with the T series phones.
Screws. Hell ya.
Removable battery is the big one. I had a phone where they only cost like $15, so I could take 2 of them on a trip and last a week w/o charging.
I did see that, of all phones and manufacturers, the Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3 on Verizon actually has removable batteries (and an sd card slot).
There's definitely a business opportunity for hot swapable batteries. I really don't understand why no one is exploiting this market. Construction, factory and all scale workers need phones and if they can hotswap battery they'll gonna love that.
They make rugged phones and tablets for industrial setting with replaceable batteries. But they are way more expensive that consumer devices of the same spec.
EU got you fam.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/24/23771064/european-union-battery-regulation-ecodesign-user-replacable-batteries
I don't understand that argument, power banks are widely accessible nowadays, you can charge your phone without downtime, also can't imagine charging this additional battery, like shutting the phone down jest to charge the second one? I'm all for user replaceable batteries tho in case of battery degradation and prolonging device's life
While true, my personal gripe is when the main battery goes to shit. It's nice to be able to swap it out and get another 3-4 years out of it
Yeah that's what I meant, it's carrying extra batteries to swap in case one in the phone dies, that I don't understand
User-replaceable batteries.
They're coming back!
Maybe a better term is field-replaceable batteries. It's great for the longevity of a device to be able to install a new battery in a few minutes with just a screwdriver, but I miss the earlier days of cell phones where you could keep a spare battery in your bag while out and about and swap it out with the dead battery in your phone in just a couple seconds.
If you have a Fairphone that's still the case
Fairphone being locked to /e/ to keep warranty in the US is a big detractor for a lot of the types of people that would want one.
Samsung Galaxy XCover 6 Pro gang!
IR Blasters!
I feel like I'm the only one who used them or cares that they were quietly phased out of phones.
You used to be able to use your phone as a universal remote. Being able to control my TV, sound system, ceiling fan, and lights all from my phone was so convenient! Plus if you were stuck in like a waiting room and they had ads or garbage like Fox News on, you could change the channel or turn it off completely. It was an incredibly useful feature to me, but I guess barely anyone else used since it was removed from phones without any complaints.
Except me. I'm complaining!
Back in the day, I discovered I could i) print over IR to our office's HP laser printer from my Psion organiser, ii) print control codes from the built-in OPL language to change the display message on the printer. I would occassionaly send messages like "insert coin", "too much paper", "grammatical error", etc. when colleagues were printing.
I love it! Those messages are hilarious!
Still had one on my previous phone - LG V20. Loved when people starter looking around confused when I started browsing the channels on the public TV on gas stations, waiting rooms, gym etc.
Put me down for another complainer about the lack of IR blaster. I used my Huawei P30 as a remote for 3 different TVs, two different office ACs, and a workshop radio regularly. I also used it a lot when doing tech support for family for basic stuff like ruling out the remote not working on an AC for example, or accessing TV setup menus you can't access with physical buttons on the TV and of course mums lost the remote again.
Wing night at the pub took on a whole new danger. The IR blaster was a total selling point for me on a few devices.
Redmi Note phones still have (or at least had) them.
I really miss it too. My wife loses the remote every 5 minutes.
Headphone jack
And its buddy SD card slot.
Why phone manufacturers? Why?
You condemn us to dongle life.
It's all about selling the solution to a problem they created.
No SD card slot? You are forced to upgrade since you cannot store anything more than what they allow.
No headphone jack? Hope you like buying our inferior first party wireless earbuds or the shitty dongle thing.
Next up on the chopping block will be the charging port in favor of wireless charging, I swear.
By that point, I think I would rather just buy a phone that has all of those features and replace the components as needed instead of upgrading while also having a burner phone I can transfer whatever "e-sim card" they force upon me.
I stopped buying Samsung phones because of this bullshit
Look, we have made a 1TB SD card!
Too bad you can't use it.
My first smart pocket device had two SD slots, a full-sized one and a mini- one, accessible at all time with no bullshit attached. I remember using it to share photos between people's cards right at the end of parties. I thought it can only get better from there.
Now I'm typing it from the phone that's twice the size and if I were to attempt ejecting my microSD card / SIM tray, it'll shutdown.
I got the Xperia 1IV specifically because it still had a headphone jack and an SD card slot :)
I wont buy a phone without one out of principle
I miss the notification lights. One of my first true smart phones was the original oneplus. It was fun setting up custom colors for different types of notifications and came in handy every now and then
If you have an OLED phone, this is still a thing you can do.
God yes. I had a phone with a bright LED right next to the front camera and it was so convenient to know exactly what app was notifying me at any time
We got my legally-blind grandma a flip-phone with a notification LED on the outside. That little light has been a huge pain, because anytime she misses a call from a telemarketer/scammer or gets a marketing text, it turns on and she just. canβt. ignore. it. If that light is on, Iβve gotta drive all the way over there and clear the notifications.
Galaxy XCover 6Pro still has one. Also headphone jack, SD slot and user removable battery
IR blaster. You could have a universal remote app and control any tv from my palm PDA
100% this. I used to be able to control my ceiling fan, my portable a/c, and my TV from my phone.
Now I have to use the fan remote, the a/c remote, and install and create an account with some stupid TV app.
...it was also fun for changing the channel of TVs at bars & restaurants.
This brings memories back for when IR data exchange was a thing and you had to carefully place two phones head-to-head and not move them for minutes just to transfer a song lol.
One of the reasons I had Xiaomy phones in the past 5 years. Many models still have IR blaster.
Funny thing is I work for a company who manufactures products with infrared sensors and we have an app specifically for IR capable snartphones to fine tune these products. In the past 5 years I did not see a single client who would have IR on their phones, so basically the app is not used by a single person anymore. Either this or they can buy our official remote... for 200 euros a piece.
Pubs were fun with these.
There is a USB-C IR blaster that exists, but the Tiqiaa/ZaZaRemote app is awful.
Fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. So you'd pick it up and your finger would naturally fall on the sensor, so that by the time you look at the screen, it's unlocked.
I also found these to work way more consistently than on screen fingerprint scanners.
Eh, I was worried about this when I got my current phone but I'm the end I like it much better. It's just as reactive for me, and has the added bonus that I can unlock the phone while it's resting on a table without having to pick it up, I guess I do that a fair bit because it was a pain point I felt with my previous phone.
On my Samsung fold 3, fingerprint sensor on power button is awesome.
Works really fast and it's very reliable. Much better than fingerprint sensor under screen in my old oneplus 7 pro.
I'm still on the original google pixel, and I am dreading the day I'm forced to upgrade. It has the backside fingerprint sensor, and is in general pretty much the platonic ideal of a smartphone.
Is this discontinued? My phone does this.
Headphone jack, dedicated fingerprint reader, removable battery, physical sim card trays
Edit: expandable storage
Definitely miss the dedicated fingerprint reader. Had a metal case once that came with a fairly thick (tempered glass I think) screen protector. Everything worked great except the fingerprint reader.
Removable batteries may come back since the European Union has mandated all smartphones have them by 2027
Samsung xcover pro
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_xcover6_pro-11600.php
Physical keyboards.
Or even just the navigation buttons being separate from the screen.
I really miss how the blackberry volume rocker buttons would seek media on a long press
Preach it, brother!
What sucks is it would be easily doable.
Before smartphones were big I had a Samsung Messager (I think) with a slide out keyboard). Why not? A slide out keyboard would be sweet, and then you could choose to enable the digital keyboard if you wanted.
Wonder if they make a phone case with a keyboard (they certainly make the bluetooth keyboards for phones)
Edit: did some looking. It looks like they used to make these in a way I was thinking, such as this one
They don't seem to make them that way now (at least not for phones). I did run into a phone that has a new-ish phone that has a physical keyboard
I still have my G1 and G2, both in their original boxes. I adored the G1 so much.
I'm loving my Xperia, has 3,5mm jack, SD card slot (which I don't use atm, 256GB internal is plenty), stereo speakers in the front.
Don't forget the slot is tool less!
Ah, yes. I don't know what to think of that one, there is a microphone hole right next to the slot, and ofc I poked it trying to get the slot open. Luckily I didn't use that much force and didn't break anything... π
I just the Xperia phones weren't ridiculous expensive. Why is it impossible to get all these features on a modern smartphone <$600 USD that's not from a Chinese manufacturer?
This may sound dumb... An old Samsung phone I had years ago, came with alarms that gradually faded in. The most memorable, started with the ocean, and the seagulls... Then there was a fog horn in the distance. Slowly the horn got closer, and closer... Until it was all you could hear, and your alarm was going off.
I've looked everywhere for the sound file... It must be Locked away in a basement at Samsung somewhere.
One day I'll find it
idk why, but I dug around YouTube for an hour or so to try and find that alarm for you. I stumbled across one that's so close to your description, though it's from a BlackBerry, not a Samsung:
https://youtu.be/bOBaJHw36Dc
Is this the one?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/bOBaJHw36Dc
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
ARE YOU READY KIDS?
That's a good find. I would love a much longer version of this, like 10 or 20 minutes.
Do you want the exact same tone, or are you willing to try something new? My OnePlus has some tones similar to what you're looking for I think. They start off gradually and gently and I've been using the same tone for years now and haven't started hating it, which says a lot!
Didn't even know i needed that, nevermind it used to be a feature on a phone.
A battery which lasts up to a week.
This sounds like such an impossibility nowadays, but a whole week would be amazing!
I miss my smart watch waking me up outside of detected REM sleep.
On the Microsoft Band you could set a time window where the alarm would go off - say between 0700-0800. If you're in REM sleep at 0700, the alarm stays off until you naturally rouse, or 0800.
I've worked as a sleep scientist for 7 years, and the idea of not being woken out of REM is such a neat idea, and yet no other watch seems to do it.
Probably because that detection isn't done on the watch. It's a machine learning model running on the phone (if not worse) I guess.
Sleep as Android seems to offer such alarm.
+1 for sleep as android. Been using it for years by now.
Sleep as Android can detect your REM Phases and provides this feature. It even supports smart watchesπ
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid.sleep
The Huawei Talkband series does it. It's a smartwatch which turns into a bluetooth headset. For some reason, most reviewers struggle to see why anyone would want that but I struggle to see why anyone wouldn't...
I really miss the Band 2. It was so far ahead in terms of features, sensors, and the display was gorgeous.
3.5mm headphone jack.
Being able reach the entire screen with one hand... Even with larger hands, reaching across a 6 inch screen with my thumb is bullshit and uncomfortable as fuck. I miss my iPhone 4S
Yeah I'm glad that some series (Pixel AFAIK) are now releasing slightly smaller phones, because the growth was getting ridiculous and highly impractical.
I switched to iPhone partly because the mini is that size where you can comfortably use it with one hand.
I hate how phones have slowly started to turn into tablets. No thank you.
On android I recently learned about quick cursor. Changed my life π
What is that? I have tiny hands, you may be about to change my life lol
What is that? I have tiny hands, you may be about to change my life lol
It's an app apparently
I feel the same way, but with one little problem: small phone, small battery.
I basically flip back and forth between small phone and big phone because I can't stand one aspect of each.
One of the features I miss dearly from when I used the iPhone, was the ability to double touch the home button, and it would bring the whole screen down by half so that you could reach stuff. There's probably a way to do it on Android, but idk
Hardware keyboards on mobile phones
Yes! God I miss my old Droid2.
3.5 jack
Replaceable batteries.
Well at least this one is going to make a comeback...
Physical buttons. Sometimes an app or the OS itself will fuck up and not show you the home or back button for example.
I would miss headphone jacks but any phone worth buying still comes with those... for now
Charging once a week.
That one is one of the ones that I reckon the will slowly make a return as phone battery lives get more effective. Maybe not quite once a week but not having to charge my phone every day would be nice
The absence of notches
I like where phones are now for the most part, but the thing I miss the most is that magic moment of what leaps and bounds new technology/form factor/whatever was being incorporated into a new phone. Like when the iPhone was first announced or when Motorola announced (and marketed the hell out of) the original Droid - I can still hear the boot up sound.
I remember the debates and arguments had when the first 4+β phone was released and how it was βway too bigβ compared to the ideal sized 3.5β iPhone. The idea of swiping to type!? What a breakthrough! A fingerprint scanner to unlock your phone, that took like three or four tries some times and was met with skepticism by others.
Now I feel like, despite how monstrously capable are phones are now compared to even five years ago, thereβs just not as much of a spark anymore. New phones are iterative and have been for a while. Bendable displays are sort of neat, but just doesnβt quite tap the same bit of magic for me.
FM radio. Sometimes it was nice to listen to the radio on my phone.
Definitely cool to have the option when in remote places.
As much as I miss FM on phones (and if I recall it's just adding a short trace on a circuit board) part of what it relied on was the cord of the headphones as an antenna.
Small sizes
Multicolour notification LEDS - customisable for each app
Smaller camera bumps and less cameras in general - not everyone wants or needs to be a professional photographer.
Plastic bodies, with removable batteries via covers.
I don't know how many current phones support it but mine doesn't... Extendable storage via micro sd
Customisable vibration patterns for different contacts and apps - I remember how super old early Android Xperia phones being able to do this (alongside the LED mentioned above). I used to think this was stock android, I guess not. But if it was, why did they remove it, same guess for LED
Sony still uses multicolor notification LED in their phones.
High quality plastic bodies are so good. Hard to break and easy to repair. I hate glass bodies.
Headphone jacks and the ability to expand available memory using SD cards.
Notification LED.
Headphone jack for sure. Like 90% of my phone usage is either listening to music or watching videos, so decent audio is like the only thing I care about lol.
I loved how older versions of Android (and afaik iOS as well) could set the album cover of the currently played song as the lockscreen background.
It's a tiny and maybe completely unnecessary feature, but i loved it.
I think Spotify and YouTube music still do this, you may need to turn notifications on for the app (so that the lock screen player can appear)
The lockscreen player is visible but the background isn't changing anymore
It's weird because podcast addict still does this on my android phone but apple music doesn't..
Custom roms still offer this. Additionally you can even enable Pulse (audio visualiser) if you like.
Tactile buttons
Once I get my next phone, I'll miss the headphones jack.
Battery life, even with massive batteries, modern phones only last a day while older phones could last up to a week between charges.
Privacy
I got a Zenfone it's got a headphone jack a pretty good fingerprint reader, and because the screen is pretty small the battery lasts an ok amount of time (1.5days maybe)
I too came to tell this lady to get a Zenphone when they upgrade. Really underrated handsets imo.
I missed how I could set an alarm and then shut my blackberry off overnight and the phone would turn itself back on in the morning to alarm
My Zenfone does this still!
Headphone jack and IR blaster
Tactile keyboards
I was looking for this. every single time I type something on my phone I wish I had a blackberry still
IR transmitter, removable batteries (but they will come back), the notification LED.
I missed the iR blaster so bad in my phone that i ended up buying a USB-C IR Dongle in Aliexpress, and i carry it over in my keychain. The need to turn on projectors, AC's or simply turn off TVs in Shopping malls or Stations was so much to justify the purchase.
I had the HTC One, which not only had an IR blaster, but an IR Recorder. So if you had a remote with a nonstandard IR signal, you could record it and the replay it. It was truly wonderful. And being able to control TVs in the office gym with my phone... chef's kiss
I like the concept of IR blaster but the one I had was in Samsung Galaxy s6 (or 5 donβt remember) and it came paired with a HORRIBLE app that tried to do its darnest to datamine your viewing habits and itβd do push notifications 5 times per day with just crappy ads. I really hate all the ad spam on Samsung phones back then. Idk if thatβs still the case
Removable batteries
Batteries that lasted a week.
Multi-colored LED notification light - better yet the Nexus One trackball + multi-colored LED light in one.
Headphone jack is always nice. I don't use it anymore, if anything USB-C dongle is fine.
An indestructible phone. Nokia and Sony Ericsson had some phones that were stronger than a brick. This weak glass sucks.
I miss the IR blaster in the headphone Jack of my old s5 every day
Rear mounted fingerprint sensor 3.5mm Audio port
I refuse to use a phone without a headphone jack.
Never been a fan of rear fingerprint scanners, always make unlocking a phone one handed when it's on a desk at work or whatever so much more annoying.
I mostly used the Xperia Z line until the pixel 3. And at the time when I was looking for a replacement to my Z5 which had a power button scanner on the side. Nobody, not even Sony at the time were doing them since they buckled to then start mostly copying samsungs design language. And now that phone companies have finally realised how good a power button scanner can be I'm stuck with the pixel 3 haha. I bet by the time I need to replace this some other feature in phones I love will be mostly absent, knowing my luck.
Removable batteries :(
That one is coming back
Going to be nice not have baby the phone so much and do stuff like limiting it to 85%. And then having to go to a phone store to replace the battery because taking it apart can break the screen. And the cost making you rethink replacing the battery and just going for a newer phone.
I had an htc one that could transmit IR signals meaning you could mess with TVs and other simple wireless electronics. You could also use the headphone wire as an actual radio antenna.
I used the IR blaster all the time. I really miss that feature and the headphone jacks
The one with the radio antenna! I remember it but from my Galaxy S2 mini or something from that generation. I never used it, but it blew my mind back then.
I still have an IR blaster on my Xiaomi Redmi note 11, never used it though
Modern computers are slow.
Specifically, modern computers have inherently more delay time between the keyboard (or other input devices), the software, and the display than much-older (1980s) computers. This means that it is not possible to create games that are as responsive to player inputs as the arcade, console, or microcomputer games of the past.
USB is slow. HDMI is slow.
These guys seem to agree https://zed.dev/
Active Edge, which LG originally came up with and that Google adopted with the Pixel 2. Of course they dropped it after a few devices.
It was basically a button/key press that you could configure to trigger actions by firmly applying pressure with you hands around the lower third of your phone. It gave a very satisfying haptic vibration response based on the amount of pressure you applied and you could even set the amount of pressure until it was triggered. It had something magickal about it.
If you're interested in the tech: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/10/19/google-pixel-2-teardown-ifixit/
This and 3d touch were really nice phone input improvements
I miss the gboard of 5 years ago when typo correction was spooky good.
I miss uploading my own songs to Google music.
I miss easily flashable bootloadera and roms.
I miss the three virtual navigation buttons.
I miss setting different notification dot colors for different apps.
I miss setting different notification sounds for different people.
Half of those things still exist? On my galaxy I still use nav buttons, have different notifications sounds for different people and apps, and a ring around the camera lights up with different colors for notifications
Why HAS autocorrect gotten worse for almost every keyboard? Gboard, Swiftkey, etc. It drives me nuts! I used to type out a sentence like this in half the time.
Those are still a thing, at least on Pixels you can switch between gestures and the three buttons.
All of this, but I'd replace the 3 virtual navigation buttons with the 3 physical navigation buttons we used to have!
Removable battery and LED notification lights.
The RGB notification light is genius, I really hated that they removed that.
I really miss small phones. Used to be a time when manufacturers were competing to make them as small as possible and Dell's 5" phone was universally mocked as too big.
You can still get really small phones - small enough that countries want to ban them for being too easy to smuggle into prisons - L8star and Zanco are relevant brand names
Honestly, I miss my hardware keyboard and not giving up so much screen real estate while typing.
I miss the times when different phones had character. Even phones of the same company looked completely different:
Now itβs just the same rectangle stretched different ways and maybe different color sides.
I miss the notification LED on older Galaxy phones.
There is an app for that!
I have an S22 Ultra and googled and found an app that will do that (even with the cutout camera).
its called aodNotify.
This is the video that I found that showed it, 6:40 seconds in (or I think he has chapters listed)
Physical keyboard. I miss touch typing one handed.
The back fingerprint reader used to have gestures, so swiping down on it could for example open the notification shade. Was really good for not having greasy fingerprints on your screen
Yet another of Google's discontinued pet projects with tons of potential but that that they quickly lost interest in, my trusty (now officially unsupported) Pixel 4XL has a Soli Radar sensor that I'm going to miss when I finally break down and buy another phone.
It is so nice to be able to just wave generally in the direction of my phone to do stuff. I use it all the time when I'm driving to skip songs, or repeat the last song, or pause the music, etc. without taking my eyes off the road. It really is a shame to me that they threw a bunch of money at a legitimately cool project like that, and then seemingly just abandoned it entirely.
Add it to the list, I suppose.
I'm sticking with the 4a, buying second hand refurbished for like 180 quid on Amazon.
I don't need a new phone, that has a slightly faster screen and slightly more memory. I'm quite happy as I am.
I kinda miss flip phones? These days phones are too big for my hands and pockets. I find myself buying cheaper phones just so it's a little smaller.
And if you want a flip phone now it's actually much worse than flip phones were when they were commonplace. It's bizarre.
Because today phones are all jewelry instead of screwdrivers.
Man.. The Motorola Razr v3.
Fuck, That thing was so goddamn cool
I wanted it so goddamn bad that even now I feel the twangs of heartache over never having got one.
I loved my candy bar phone. My purse got stolen and I was most upset about losing that phone. I had programmed custom ringtones into it. I still feel fonder of that phone than I do about my iPhone, I think because the iPhones are pretty soulless and that little teal phone had plenty of character.
Well that's technically making a comeback with the bendable displays.
I miss the function when the phone would stay tethered to its cable at home where it wouldn't bother me all the time when I was out and about.
No one's forcing you to take it out and about...
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 had a feature in the camera app which would take several pictures in a row and you could then choose the one with best quality. Extremely useful feature especially in low light. I'm sure there's an app out there that can do this but I can't find one.
That's still a feature on Pixel
https://support.google.com/googlecamera/answer/9937175?hl=en
Well damn. I have the Google Camera mod installed but it doesn't have that feature
You can still take burst shots. Just hold the camera button down.
Yeah I do but it's difficult to compare two photos side by side in the gallery. I need the ability to switch between photos that are zoomed in to be able to spot the difference and see which one is crispier.
Nokia phones in 2000 could record your voice for any command you wanted. The voice command reliability of those phones is beyond superior to what is offered by today's voice assistants.
I'm not sure exactly what it was called but any time you took a photo with a Note8, it was always taking photos from right before to right after the photo. This resulted in much fewer garbage photos because a few frames before or after the shutter was pressed would be a better photo, one that is not blurry! Now instead of a useless photo, I would have at least something workable. I have not seen that on any other phone with this feature, including my current one.
I think live photos on iphones come sort of close. you can pick a specific frame after taking a picture and it records a bit before and after you pressed the shutter button
though for that to work you have to keep βliveβ on and it eats space much faster that way
It can't know when you're going to press the shutter button, so it has to actually just record video all the time. Taking snapshots from video is much lower resolution and quality than properly exposed photo.
Yeah, but the average consumer doesn't care. I'll share a photo from my camera to someone who's sharing a smeared shitty blown out phone picture back, and it's just depressing.
For folks with an iPhone, iOS Live Photos does this by recording 1.5 seconds before and after the picture as a short video, and allowing you to choose the key frame that shows as the still image.
Man that sounds killer fr
Pixel still does this
https://support.google.com/googlecamera/answer/9937175?hl=en
Welp - I'm thoroughly convinced to never upgrade from my BlackBerry Key1. I will hang on to my multi-day battery life, 3.5mm headphone jack, keyboard, notification LED, fingerprint reader, and cheap, replaceable parts till phones stop being a fucking thing.
I recognize this list of "Gone for everyone but me" may not be perfectly in the spirit of this question, but all the same: Thanks everyone! :D
Not really a feature. But I really I wish I could upgrade my phone. Like, get a new camera with better quality or a new battery with higher energy density in an older phone. Stuff like this.
fairphone allows this. it has its own issues though
Phones: ability to throw it on the ground without anything bad happening to it.
Other: software that you could just own.
The IR blaster on my galaxy s6. Not the most used feature, but when the Air BnB didnβt have all the remotes it was a life saver.
IR blasters were so useful! My HTC One M8 had one, and I actually made a lot of use out of it. I really wish this was still a standard feature on modern phones, especially these days now that I have even more devices connected to my TV.
I still use the IR blaster on my s5 when I go out. I never have to get stuck with fox news playing when I have it with me. It's from 2014 and still kicking.
It also works on a lot on window mounted air conditioners, weirdly.
Dunno if this counts, but screens that fit in my goddamn pocket.
For real. I'm so sick of every new phone having a slightly bigger screen than the one before it. At first it was nice but I literally cannot fit a phone bigger than my current one in my pocket. If this is the trend then my only hope is vertical flip phones get cheaper so I can at least have one that fits comfortably in my pockets again.
Physical keys that you had to type multiple times to get letters. I could write a whole text message with my hands in my pocket.
T9 .
It's funny how people didn't have to write 'lol' anymore and fight with the onboard dictionary ... but still did. Losers.
SensMe in Sony and Sony-Ericsson phones and players. It was the tool that analyzed your music collection and sorted it according to energy, mood and tempo.
The best variant was on the later products whey you had a list of channels representing either moods/styles (Energetic, Emotional, Lounge, Dance etc.) or time of the day (from 'Morning' to 'Midnight'). The results were very good, especially for the time channels (except the morning) which were perfectly fitting the mood and pace of times of the day, much like Indian ragas. It really felt like your personal radio stations, freeing you from having to make playlists by yourself ever again...
It was discontinued in 2010s because of declared low adoption by users according to some obscure internal studies :( I've been dreaming of replicating it using Python ever since, but never had time to do a proper research.
Predictive text like my Nokia's T9. It knew how English worked and what the probability of a word in context was.
Now it's all: "the same time and consideration and I are going to be a good time to get the latest Flash player is required for video playback is unavailable right now because this video is not available for remote playback is unavailable right now because this...."
I couldnβt agree more with you on the other two I just want the money for my house and the car so that way you donβt feel that way because youβre gonna get paid off I donβt know what you mean but Iβm gonna go ahead I guess Iβm not sure π€
Even going back just a couple of years - the ability to default to entering what you actually typed rather than what the AI thinks you should have typed.
It used to be a benefit of android over ios - but now any unusual spelling you type just gets replaced by the nearest dictionary word or brand name, and backspace doesn't even get your word back.
Keyboard and the ability to physically close the phone to turn it off/sleep/hangup.
The knock code really was so convenient and safe. No way for other people to see it.
I was an avid fan of LG phones, especially the G series. I mean yeah, some features were kind of pointless (G5 Module??)
Not phones, but TVs. My first flatscreen tv(not a smart tv yet) had a picture in picture mode, so I could play games while my family watched TV. That was nice, but it seems to have just vanished as a feature in modern TVs.
My LG C2 does have that feature, so it's definitely still a thing in modern TVs. It feels unnecessarily hard to select what input source should go where, but maybe I've just not looked into it closely enough
I had a 2nd Gen moto x. It had proximity sensors around the screen that allowed you to make gestures over the phone to do things like check notifications, pause music, dismiss calls, etc. They also offered a lot more customization options than any other phone I know of. Mine had a leather back, which was available in a few colors. They also had several options for wood backs. It was a really nice phone and I was sad when it died.
Moto x rocked. Last phone I ever really liked owning. My galaxy phone is just a tool, comparatively.
The Snake game you could play on push button phones. Oh my goodness.
I miss the kick stand that HTC phones had. Yeah I know there are phone cases with kick stands, but in my experience they don't work as well.
The LG V10 had the smartest way I've seen to handle the notch: by keeping it on a corner, and using the top of what was left of the screen to display quick-access icons, notifications, and the clock. The rest of the screen kept the good old 16 by 9 aspect ratio with a square display. Kind of peeves me to see video players cropping part of the video where the notch is nowadays...
Samsung handles it well since it lets you hide the cut out on a per app basis, and doesn't push down the status bar either. Just blacks it out while keeping all the time and notifications still there.
So watching 21:9 with that option makes it so the notch doesn't become part of the video.
But, Oneplus 7 pro handled it the best with the pop up camera.
I never take selfies so just having this notch in my screen for nothing really infuriates me when I think about it. I rarely do video calls, I just put the thing to my ear with the camera off. People can hear me just fine without seeing my face.
So back in the day you could hold home to pull up Google assistant and tell it to translate whatever was on your screen. No matter what app, browser, etc it just worked. I have no idea why they ever got rid of it. Now with the modern version of tap to translate text has to be highlight-able in order to be translated, which is a bone headed decision. It's like they never use the stuff they make.
Notification LED's, a REAL proximity sensor (not just the Selfie Camera), the headphone jack, a dedicated Fingerprint Sensor (because under display sensors are still bad).
Sticking with LG the little AOD app icon that would pop up when you get a notification on the V60. Forgot how much I missed it.
Knock code, wow, I didn't even remember it, but yeah it was pretty neat. I would say it's the IR blaster for me. It was quite useful.
I read this as planes and was gonna say the little wings they give you as a kid. I'm still gonna say it cause I miss that
I had an old flip phone that came with a demo of Uno. I could play a single hand, then reset the demo and play again and again. There was only a nag screen when you were exiting/restarting the demo, and not a single other ad.
Passed hours with that little game.
I miss mobile gaming when it was like that.
Smaller, narrower phones generally. Blackberry keyboards (and slideout keyboards) in particular.
Loved the various hardware oddities of the moto Z line: a rear fingerprint scanner that was easy to use while holding the phone, and of course the magnetic attachments. Used to carry two batteries that could hot-swap, and a game controller in my bag.
Well, I suppose is old/discontinued, but my current phone has a motorized camera (Poco F2 Pro) I am not a selfie guy, so I could not care less about it, having no notches nor punch hole camera is nice AF.
You can even hide the navigation pill and mix it with some apps like Connect for Lemmy and you literally get 100% of content in your screen lol.
Fyi it's 'couldn't care less'
Thanks, already corrected it :)
π I don't like being "that guy" but with this one it makes the sentence not make sense.
the neatest thing about pixel phones for me was the squeeze to snooze... I'm hanging on to my pixel 3 because of that, since I constantly need alarms and to postpone them for medicines etc. they removed it on pixel 5 onwards and no other phone seems to have it
a big shame that it doesn't allow you to assign it to other things though ... google sucks
I used the squeeze thing for assistant but didn't really miss it when my new phone didn't have it.
never used it for that. not a fan of talking to machines
that's why I hate that I cant reassign it... outside of the alarm thing, it's just a disabled input
Sharing contact information directly phone to phone.
Lock screen widgets, giving me information at an actual glance without the risk of getting sucked into other random bullshit.
Oh but getting sucked into random bullshit is what they want
The OnePlus 7 Pro and 7T Pro had a pop-up front-facing camera. No notch, no pinhole, no buttons at the bottom to mar the perfect full screen. It was gorgeous. My (tragically bricked due to my own water-based stupidity) OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren is probably my favorite phone I ever used.
A tactile keyboard. There was a time when I could text with my eyes closed (literally). Now it takes me 30 seconds to "type" out a text that should take < 10 seconds.
My wife once went over the 2000 word emails i'd text her from the train ride home when I lived abroad. T9 plus a decent text prediction was sooooo much easier and faster than this typo prone bullshit we put up with
There were a couple of phones HTC made (both under their name and rebadged as early Google Pixel phones) that could detect squeezing the phone as a programmable button press. It seems like it'd be clunky and triggering at the wrong time or not triggering reliably when you needed it but it was just really well implemented so it worked perfectly. Slightly increasing how tightly you're holding the phone is such a tiny thing to do so getting a full extra programmable button out of it was actually really useful for making your day to day phone usage slightly smoother and more efficient.
I'm guessing it just didn't get enough use because people aren't likely to try it intuitively.
Those missing physical buttons to type. Have you used swipe typing? It saves a massive amount of time, not tap tap tap, it's just swype across the screen to the letters and you're good. Very easy and fast.
Appleβs 3D Touch. It was predictable, reliable, and, apparently, under-utilized by the world around me.
I miss the rooting era before google safety net. I rely on a lot of banking apps and other stuffs that require safetynet. Even though they are tricks to hide root and bootloader status, it is pain in the ass. Fuck I can't do whatever I want on my phone right now. If there was no safetynet my phone will be running pixel experience or lineage os.
I have a somewhat similar issue, but not because of rooting.
I want to use F-Droid for some of their apps, and be able to just download apk's.
The problem is that my work uses 'Microsoft Intune' for email access and such. Turns out, if I try to install anything from F-Droid, I get a message like 'Your Admin has blocked access'.
As you can imagine, this made my blood boil, but I actually use my work email and Teams (even though its not mandated to have it on your phone). The work around is to delete my work profile, install the apps, and then recreate, but that doesn't account for updates.
Frustrating
So whatever you install on your personal profile is affecting your work profile? Does that Microsoft intune have admin access?
i really liked the Soli sensor that Google used on the singular phone. I loved waving across my phone to change the track but y'know google and how they be killing everything cool ever :(
my old phone, a samsung j7 i believe, had a live concert feature that would make the music sound much more like you were at a concert, it was a complete gamechanger in listening to live albums. my new one doesnt have that feature :(
Check out ViMusic open source app (available on fdroid) and it's equalizer feature, you can achieve pretty much same effect. Although it don't work on all phones.
I thought I missed actually having buttons for things, but recently I found out that no, touch screens are usually superior.
I'm still using a Samsung S7 (but only for a few months more now, it needs upgrading), and it surprised me that most flagships have removed good features!
I knew about no physical nav buttons and the headphone jack, but why the SD card slot? Come on!
:beep beep: Where you at? -nextel direct connect
I miss them being small and slim. I still use my iPhone SE everyday for a music player. Itβs the perfect size for a cell phone.
I would pay extra to have 3D Touch back
IR blaster in my phone.
There is no way to play CD audio in the background on an X Box anymore. It used to be in Groove Music, and then supposedly in Windows Media Player, but I can't find either of those in the store.
Hey at least Xbox can play CDs.
PS5 is incompatible. [insert Techmoan video here]
So basically a pin? But the screen can be off?
I liked the People Hub that Windows Phone 8 started with. But none of the social media platforms wanted you to be able to use their services without seeing their ads so ...
I have a friend that will only use a flip phone physical keyboard + smart phone features. I don't really care and miss nothing.
Squeeze to activate Google Assistant, from the Pixel 2 XL (and maybe others, I don't remember)
Some of the Samsungs that had a bixby button you could get an app that would let you customize it to go to Google Assistant. That was cool.
Aux ports are nice for versatility, even if I was already using wireless earphones. Along with being able to listen to FM right on your phone. It's features I don't use often, but occasionally. I wish the USB-C connector had the option with a clip. IR-blasters were useful and much fun. I never even used the actual remote to manage my LED strip.
I never realized notification lights just kind of stopped existing. But I don't miss them in light of always on displays. Under screen finger print readers is basically a dream come true. Having multiple cameras is nice. OLED screen is an absolute godsend. Overall I'm not unhappy.
3D Touch was one of my favorite features on iPhone. When they took it away, it just didn't feel the same. Now I'm primarily a Pixel user
Fingerprint readers are a bad idea for a variety of reasons. So this does seem like a loss! What a cool concept.