Easily notification light.
People always say "oh, it's totally obsolete with always on displays".
But with a notification light I could focus on other stuff and the blinking light got my attention better. With the AOD, I always catch myself glancing at my phone.
Also, the light's color clearly indicated which app caused the notification. I had White for calls, Green for Whatsapp, Yellow for the ebay app, Red for GMail and so on.
"You can do all that with an OLED screen! It only lights up the pixels that-"
Can you, though? All apps that I tried were utter garbage. Buggy performance, very battery hungry and very cumbersome to configure. I don't know if custom firmwares actually have that feature in a usable state nowadays, as I cannot root my phone anymore without losing core functionalities like online banking.
Yeah, everything tends to go to shit with time. I miss my Galaxy S2.
Can't believe I forgot all about this. It was the one thing I was sad to lose when I upgraded from my Nexus 5 to the Google Pixel. So simple but so useful.
Can you, though
You can. The technology is good but like many things the implementations are often kinda shyte
Not so much a gimmick, as much as something that seemingly went extinct that I miss: rear fingerprint sensors. I loved them on my Nexus/Pixels, and the in-screen one on my 6a is way less consistent and convenient.
Also it flashbangs me when I try to unlock my phone at night.
I had a side/power button fingerprint sensor on my S10e. The S22's in-screen one is cool and all, but I really miss how my phone would be unlocked before it even came out of my pocket.
I'm still on a pixel 4a, and I am terribly disappointed to hear that those have gone away.
Pixel 2 XL here, the rear fingerprint scanner on this is the only fingerprint scanner on any of my devices that works flawlessly, every time. Why on earth would they remove this???
[waves arms in the air] INNOVATION!
😭
My Samsung Galaxy S9 had that, at least until something happened to the sensor. It was in my phone holder in the car, and the holder fell while I was driving. It's possible my dog hit it with his claws, I don't know what actually killed it, but it definitely happened during that drive.
I got a new sensor but never installed it, because I never got around to getting the double sided tape I would need. Then I cracked the screen...
Does IR sensor count? I loved that on older phones so much.
Not a gimmick. It was great to control TVs, air conditioners, audio receivers, and even electronics projects using something like an arduino and an IR sensor. Such a shame that our smartphones have been stripped of so many features as companies have run out of good ideas to increase demand.
I feel like the implementation was a bit gimmicky. I first used an IR transceiver as a remote on a late-model palm and the interface was much better than most apps I found on Android.
I wonder if it would be possible to pack that functionality into a smart-watch
Apparently nearly everything I look for in a phone. Others have said IR blaster, side squeeze, notification light, and pop-up front camera, all of which were amazing.
I'd add an unlocked bootloader (I bought it, it's my phone to do what I want with), removable battery (hello instant charging), and a small form factor (so sick of needing two hands to do anything).
Even if it requires some screws to swap that's still good for breathing extra life into old phones.
Idk if this is a gimmick but I love swiping on the rear fingerprint scanner to pull up/down the notifications and quick settings. I also got an app that lets me swipe left/right on the sensor to adjust the brightness.
Adjusting the brightness with the fingerprint scanner sounds super practical, how's that app called?
Removable battery, micro SD, sim slot etc
Were those ever considered gimmicks?
They don't seem to exist much anymore, so must be a gimmick, right?
Useful and popular features surely wouldn't get removed
I get your sarcasm. But I'd like to point out that the claim would be that it's outdated tech, not gimmicky.
It's still a lie, though.
In reality the manufacturers don't have any new good ideas so they have to resort to cost cutting in order to increase profit. They'll just slap a 13th camera lens on the back and tailor their marketing material to make people think they need more lenses over anything else.
Power button fingerprint sensors. I had one on my S10e, and I loved it - with the way I held the phone, my thumb naturally rested on the power button, so it was pretty much auto-unlocked.
Now they seem to have fallen by the wayside in favor of in-screen sensors - which are cool, but ever-so-slightly more cumbersome. Ah well, still better than facial recognition.
This is why I loved the fingerprint sensor on the back of my pixel. I would be able to unlock it while taking it out of my pocket.
Samsung is using them still on the Folds. I've got one on my Fold 4. Love it.
That pop up camera on the OnePlus 7 pro.
That thing was cool as fuck. My roommate got the phone and I was VERY jealous even though I had a OnePlus 8T at the time.
As a OnePlus 7 Pro owner, I absolutely love it. No front camera cutout was one of the reasons I bought it.
It's been gone for a while now, but I really liked the IR blaster to use as a secondary remote when you can't find the remote because your toddler was playing with it. Dammit Susie!
I use an old remote without batteries for that purpose.
Me sitting here wondering how you control your TV with a remote that doesn't have batteries...
Lol. I have two.
Front facing stereo speakers were nice.
This. I got a Xperia 1 III for the speakers and headphone jack.
Nokia N95 flipping both up and down. I really liked those music player buttons when flipping it down
I loved this phone, was my first 'smart' phone
Mine too. And it worked so smooth it didn't even feel like a "smart" phone. That was peak Nokia
Material You. I wondered why they wasted resources for ... colors. But it's so nice to have a consistently colored UI across apps and across dark/light modes, and I wished that more apps would support it. Also, those pastel colors are less stressful for the eyes than the previous grey/blue.
I know it's not everyone's taste but I really like it.
I have to respectfully disagree here. I would like to be able to choose what that color is. I HATE when I use a picture of my orange cat for a background and all my apps are brown.
If there's some way to override it and choose your own color, I haven't found it.
You can choose it, get a different colored cat
Look into the app Repainter. It isn't free and needs root or Shizuku access but does the trick.
Hey man, I know it's been 3 months and idk why I'm only just now seeing this, but you're a lifesaver. Thanks for the tip. It worked!
You can choose from several colors, not just your background colors.
Go to Wallpaper & Style > Basic colors. (on a Pixel; it might be slightly different on other phones)
Didn't know some see it as a gimmick. It's very good
Over on /r/Android there was a very vocal crowd that saw it not only as a gimmick but actively detested it. In their opinion an UI is only good when it has an AMOLED black background (and 0 px padding between UI elements, but that's a different topic).
I love it, glad Jerboa uses it
IR blaster, removable battery, MicroSD slot, analog headphone jack, unlocked bootloader, stylus. The Note 3 was the peak of android phone design. I'm using an S22 Ultra nowadays because of all those features I'm a huge slut for the S-Pen, even to the point of sacrificing all of the others... But I'd love for the rest of those to make a comeback.
I'm suprised how much i like my s-pen, but would totally sacrifice it fora headphone jack.
Insane to have a phone this big, and not have something so simple as a 3.5mm barrel jack
Aw man, such a phone existed? Sounds like a dream at this point, honestly...
IR blasters. They were nice as a little pocket universal remote.
The air gestures that Samsung put in the S5. It was a gimmick, but a useful one, since you could use it to control things without having to fiddle with the screen.
Also the screen-off gestures on the Oneplus 5. It was great for turning the torch on or opening apps without having to faff about as much with the screen.
I used to work in a call center that had some TVs placed sporadically throughout the call floor. It was up to the manager what they wanted to have play on the TV of their row. Some would play the generic company slideshow that showed random stats and quotes and corporate rah rah BS, but others were fine with normal TV like EPSN or whatever. My manager was the head of the department and said he was fine with us putting whatever we wanted on the TVs. Unfortunately, me and the people around me couldn't see our row's TV from our desk, but we could see the TV of the row next to us; however, that manager was a complete power-tripping asshole and only wanted the company slide-show.
I would always use the IR blaster on my phone to change the TV to ESPN when his back was turned and see how long it took him to notice. Whenever he did notice, he'd walk around super mad trying to figure out who did it but he never suspected me. Eventually he just gave up and just let the TVs stay on ESPN.
And that's the story of how I used the IR blaster on my phone to slowly bully the asshole manager into being slightly less of an asshole.
Workspaces in Linux window managers. I thought it was a dumb idea at first but I tried it and found workspaces are great.
I know what you mean, but once you start to using them you can't be without them.
I started using workspaces in the last year or two because I game and do video editing on the same machine. It is nice to have things separated a bid.
the IR Blaster, absolutely loved it and still do
I cannot recall which phone it was, but going to sports bars in college and changing the channel on the TV to the games I wanted to watch was so cool. Probably pissed a whole lotta people off, but I was a young college shithead and didn't really register that at the time.
Same. I keep a USB IR blaster on my keychain for the same purpose. Isn't quite as nice since I have to carry it around, but it gets the job done in a pinch
Tell me more about this USB IR blaster. What do you have? How do you control it? I a. Very interested in getting one of these.
If you look around enough, you might be able to find it cheaper too. They're basically all the same thing. I bought one, and it used the app "Zaza remote" and I really liked that app. You could read a remote and save the IR codes from remotes not in the database to make custom remotes. That one also basically seemed to be "unlocked" in a sense it seemed I could use it with a lot of apps. However, it got lost at some point from my keychain holder, so I bought a few more. Unfortunately, they used a different app called "Ocrustar" and I couldn't use it with any other app. The packaging and the blaster are identical, and there's probably no good way to tell from the listing. But the new one still works, the app just isn't as good. I can still turn down the really loud TV in the waiting rooms pretty discretely.
The link I sent above seems to be one of the "Ocrustar" ones based on the images in the description. And the original one I bought was no longer being sold, so I couldn't just buy from that listing again otherwise I would have. The same ones are also available from Amazon for 3x the price
Thank you! This makes my day.
Probably the Quick View Window case on the LG G-series phones. The overview on notifications was great and allowed answering calls without opening the flap while protecting most of the screen. Also the reduced visible screen space did not blast you with light when checking time in the middle of the night.
I have a samsung flip. I cannot tell you how much I love this phone.
Fingerprint sensors
My phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor and I am never going back.
Mine has one too but I still miss when they were putting them on the back of phones
Was just an easier spot to me
Back of the phone was the best. I could pull my phone out of my pocket and unlock my phone in single motion and decent grip. Plus the swipe gestures for accessing the notifications bar...
Despite enjoying multiple models of the phone I currently have I won't get a new model because the sensor is on the power button. Back of the phone supremacy under screen is OK if it works, power button sensor can burn in a hole.
Same. The back sensor on my pixel 4a was positioned perfectly for me and didn't leave one big thumbprint smudge like the in-screen on my 6.
It was also much more responsive
Rear power and volume buttons.
To this day my favorite phone remains the LG v10. It has nice metal rails on the side, a rubber removable back, sd card slot, aux port with a high end dac, wide(er) screen, and buttons on the back of the phones right where your indexed finger would rest when holding it.
Figure print sensor on the button didn't work all that well, but worked better than this shit on screen reader. The buttons being on the back meant your could just grab the phone in anyway with out worrying if you're gonna Power the phone off, turn the vol down, take a screenshot, etc. This also meant getting it knot phone holders was almost never an issue.
That was the closest an android phone got to perfection. After that they started trying to follow tends and phase out the good parts to the point of leaving the Android market entirely.
Still to this day my favorite phone was the LG Leon. Cheap, durable, small, and the button were on the back!
Can't say I love the feature but the front facing camera getting "integrated" into the screen isn't nearly as annoying as I thought it would be.
On pixel phones, the squeeze for Google assistant feature. I used it all the time on my old pixel 2xl.
I miss that feature a lot :l
I use the side squeeze everyday. My pixel 2 is still going strong. I will be heartbroken when it finally gives up.
Tablet computers. My thoughts on the first iPad were that it does everything a laptop, an iPod, and a Kindle all do, but worse. Next thing I knew, they were everywhere. I think traditional laptops are making something of a comeback, though.
My wife has an iPad and after using it for a bit, yeah I get it.
I used my Surface Pro all through college, and that thing is amazing. I took all my notes with the pen in OneNote, but it also has has a full desktop OS, so you're not missing any functionality. Mine is even powerful enough to run some basic CAD modelling, which was a treat for when I didn't want to have to deal with finding an open computer lab
I had multiple models of Surface Pro. The first several generations ran great on Linux, but the later models got hella expensive without offering much new for the price. I ended up with a Lenovo X12 which is similar in turn factor but had more storage/RAM/power for less price
if you haven't tried it, the new pens are like three tines as good!
I'm not sure I can justify a new surface pen since I graduated and got a job that doesn't allow PEDs onsite, but given how good my pen is, the new ones must be great.
Also, when browsing the Microsoft store just now to look at the pen specs, I was shocked to see a bunch of components listed for the Surface Pro 9. Did Microsoft embrace right to repair for that model.
On my motorola: quick shake side to side to enable flashlight. So easy to use, it's become second nature. I'll have to find a way to replicate that on the next phone I get.
Holy crap, I forgot about that feature from my dark-ages G4. That thing was a piece of crap, but I do miss that (and the twist to open camera.)
Gosh remember how that phone didn't have a compass
MacroDroid! I love my Pixel6a but losing the flashlight motion was rough. Pretty easy to set up with MacroDroid.
The pixel pinch phone body for the Google assistant. Boy how I want that feature badly when I was using OnePlus 3T. It felt like one of those double tap at the back of iphone little niche thing.
I really like since it give the user different kind of input to interact with the phone quickly. We have the double tap and holding for power button, double tap the top of the screen, the screenshot combo button and etc. Same like the interface for controlling your wireless earbud.
The pain for installation/maintenance/replacement for that input must be a nightmare though.
The ringlight on the bottom of Xperia U.
Stadia, I had great internet and it worked great.
My old Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 had magnetic sensors in it that would shut off the screen. How it worked is you would put a case on it with a cover that would fold over the screen, and the cover had magnets in it that would activate the sensors and turn off the screen when you closed it.
Anyway, it got old and unreliable and I had to replace it. The new ones don't have that feature.
All my Samsung tablets, and my samsung phone S21 Ultra have this.
Keyboards, optical scroll, and IR blasters.
My old LG phones had power and volume controls on the back, rather than the side. Great for picking up the phone with either hand, and it was easier to mount in a phone holder (no buttons to accidentally mash).
Soli. My phone sensing I was reaching for it made it feel like it was alive. Didn't know what I had until it was gone. I want you back Soli!
Folding phones.
I was so skeptical at first, and even now it seems most people still are. It's a complete game changer though. There's almost nothing I can't do on my phone anymore, due to the multitasking and the larger screen. I can comfortably use desktop websites when necessary for banking etc. I have watched many dozens of movies and tv shows on it. It's just nicer for reading and browsing the web, and makes your phone feel so much more powerful to have the tablet form factor. I've actually been travelling for over a month with no laptop, just my Fold and a Steam deck.
I'm also appreciating having what is essentially a 5G-connected tablet where in the past I've always dismissed the LTE-connected ipads as a gimmick. It's hard to justify paying extra for the device and then a monthly fee, but now that I have it I can definitely see the appeal of a tablet that just works anywhere you go. Except since it folds you can put it in your pocket too.
I've been considering getting one but I've read too many horror stories about them breaking
You need an extended full coverage warranty, otherwise it's too stressful. That said, it's not nearly as fragile as you'd think.
I'm on iOS. In 6-7 years I will have the chance to buy the iPhone 20 Pro Mega Butterfly - one of the first folding screens in a phone [with: insert apple technicality] at barely a 40% markup over the Android versions and with some fatal flaw that will be my fault for noticing. I'm just giddy with anticipation.
Doggy style and x-files
You n me, baby!
Allo was the best messenger. So many useful features
My friends and I still talk about how much we miss the big/tiny text feature of Allo.
It was a simple messenger but it made it fun
Apple’s 3D Touch on iPhone. Force Touch or whatever they called it. The ability to hard press to get something like a right-click. Wish they’d kept it. Used it every day for placing my cursor.
Democracy in the US.
To show how old I am, a phone without a physical keyboard.
Which is, like, every smartphone?
now
Not in 2007
PIE navigation control
Still using it myself, in fact! LMT is still going strong, though I imagine it would work better if I were able to root the phone I'm using at the moment.
Oh man, I forgot that even existed! I used an app for it for quite a while, I didn't realise how long it must have been since I used it
FM radio. Also my old Motorola had a "karate-chop to activate camera" which was very useful
I'm using "double chop" to activate flashlight and double twist turns the camera on.
That movement is so ingrained in my muscle memory, and I'm so absent minded, that I have to admit that I have used my phone's flashlight to try and find my phone in the dark... for several minutes.
I, out of pure self reflection, can't laugh at the TikTok trend of "you forgot your phone" message anymore.
I'm old... the internet.
The internet
Idk if this counts as i dont really involve myself in a lot of discussion, but MAN do i miss two button navigation. it may still be present in some other Android distros but on Graphene an update removed it for me a while ago.
Android 13 QPR 2 broke it so Google temporarily remove it. Honestly why do you prefer it? To me it's combined the worst of 3 button and gestures.
Easily notification light. People always say "oh, it's totally obsolete with always on displays". But with a notification light I could focus on other stuff and the blinking light got my attention better. With the AOD, I always catch myself glancing at my phone. Also, the light's color clearly indicated which app caused the notification. I had White for calls, Green for Whatsapp, Yellow for the ebay app, Red for GMail and so on. "You can do all that with an OLED screen! It only lights up the pixels that-" Can you, though? All apps that I tried were utter garbage. Buggy performance, very battery hungry and very cumbersome to configure. I don't know if custom firmwares actually have that feature in a usable state nowadays, as I cannot root my phone anymore without losing core functionalities like online banking.
Yeah, everything tends to go to shit with time. I miss my Galaxy S2.
Can't believe I forgot all about this. It was the one thing I was sad to lose when I upgraded from my Nexus 5 to the Google Pixel. So simple but so useful.
You can. The technology is good but like many things the implementations are often kinda shyte
Not so much a gimmick, as much as something that seemingly went extinct that I miss: rear fingerprint sensors. I loved them on my Nexus/Pixels, and the in-screen one on my 6a is way less consistent and convenient.
Also it flashbangs me when I try to unlock my phone at night.
I had a side/power button fingerprint sensor on my S10e. The S22's in-screen one is cool and all, but I really miss how my phone would be unlocked before it even came out of my pocket.
I'm still on a pixel 4a, and I am terribly disappointed to hear that those have gone away.
Pixel 2 XL here, the rear fingerprint scanner on this is the only fingerprint scanner on any of my devices that works flawlessly, every time. Why on earth would they remove this???
[waves arms in the air] INNOVATION!
😭
My Samsung Galaxy S9 had that, at least until something happened to the sensor. It was in my phone holder in the car, and the holder fell while I was driving. It's possible my dog hit it with his claws, I don't know what actually killed it, but it definitely happened during that drive.
I got a new sensor but never installed it, because I never got around to getting the double sided tape I would need. Then I cracked the screen...
Does IR sensor count? I loved that on older phones so much.
Not a gimmick. It was great to control TVs, air conditioners, audio receivers, and even electronics projects using something like an arduino and an IR sensor. Such a shame that our smartphones have been stripped of so many features as companies have run out of good ideas to increase demand.
I feel like the implementation was a bit gimmicky. I first used an IR transceiver as a remote on a late-model palm and the interface was much better than most apps I found on Android.
I wonder if it would be possible to pack that functionality into a smart-watch
Apparently nearly everything I look for in a phone. Others have said IR blaster, side squeeze, notification light, and pop-up front camera, all of which were amazing.
I'd add an unlocked bootloader (I bought it, it's my phone to do what I want with), removable battery (hello instant charging), and a small form factor (so sick of needing two hands to do anything).
Good news on the battery front: the EU is mandating that smartphones have user-replaceable batteries by 2027. It's not clear if "readily removable" will mean "hot-swappable," but... hope springs eternal, I guess?
Even if it requires some screws to swap that's still good for breathing extra life into old phones.
Idk if this is a gimmick but I love swiping on the rear fingerprint scanner to pull up/down the notifications and quick settings. I also got an app that lets me swipe left/right on the sensor to adjust the brightness.
Adjusting the brightness with the fingerprint scanner sounds super practical, how's that app called?
Removable battery, micro SD, sim slot etc
Were those ever considered gimmicks?
They don't seem to exist much anymore, so must be a gimmick, right? Useful and popular features surely wouldn't get removed
I get your sarcasm. But I'd like to point out that the claim would be that it's outdated tech, not gimmicky.
It's still a lie, though.
In reality the manufacturers don't have any new good ideas so they have to resort to cost cutting in order to increase profit. They'll just slap a 13th camera lens on the back and tailor their marketing material to make people think they need more lenses over anything else.
Power button fingerprint sensors. I had one on my S10e, and I loved it - with the way I held the phone, my thumb naturally rested on the power button, so it was pretty much auto-unlocked.
Now they seem to have fallen by the wayside in favor of in-screen sensors - which are cool, but ever-so-slightly more cumbersome. Ah well, still better than facial recognition.
This is why I loved the fingerprint sensor on the back of my pixel. I would be able to unlock it while taking it out of my pocket.
Samsung is using them still on the Folds. I've got one on my Fold 4. Love it.
That pop up camera on the OnePlus 7 pro.
That thing was cool as fuck. My roommate got the phone and I was VERY jealous even though I had a OnePlus 8T at the time.
As a OnePlus 7 Pro owner, I absolutely love it. No front camera cutout was one of the reasons I bought it.
It's been gone for a while now, but I really liked the IR blaster to use as a secondary remote when you can't find the remote because your toddler was playing with it. Dammit Susie!
I use an old remote without batteries for that purpose.
Me sitting here wondering how you control your TV with a remote that doesn't have batteries...
Lol. I have two.
Front facing stereo speakers were nice.
This. I got a Xperia 1 III for the speakers and headphone jack.
Nokia N95 flipping both up and down. I really liked those music player buttons when flipping it down
I loved this phone, was my first 'smart' phone
Mine too. And it worked so smooth it didn't even feel like a "smart" phone. That was peak Nokia
Material You. I wondered why they wasted resources for ... colors. But it's so nice to have a consistently colored UI across apps and across dark/light modes, and I wished that more apps would support it. Also, those pastel colors are less stressful for the eyes than the previous grey/blue.
I know it's not everyone's taste but I really like it.
I have to respectfully disagree here. I would like to be able to choose what that color is. I HATE when I use a picture of my orange cat for a background and all my apps are brown.
If there's some way to override it and choose your own color, I haven't found it.
You can choose it, get a different colored cat
Look into the app Repainter. It isn't free and needs root or Shizuku access but does the trick.
Hey man, I know it's been 3 months and idk why I'm only just now seeing this, but you're a lifesaver. Thanks for the tip. It worked!
You can choose from several colors, not just your background colors.
Go to Wallpaper & Style > Basic colors. (on a Pixel; it might be slightly different on other phones)
Didn't know some see it as a gimmick. It's very good
Over on /r/Android there was a very vocal crowd that saw it not only as a gimmick but actively detested it. In their opinion an UI is only good when it has an AMOLED black background (and 0 px padding between UI elements, but that's a different topic).
I love it, glad Jerboa uses it
IR blaster, removable battery, MicroSD slot, analog headphone jack, unlocked bootloader, stylus. The Note 3 was the peak of android phone design. I'm using an S22 Ultra nowadays because of all those features I'm a huge slut for the S-Pen, even to the point of sacrificing all of the others... But I'd love for the rest of those to make a comeback.
I'm suprised how much i like my s-pen, but would totally sacrifice it fora headphone jack.
Insane to have a phone this big, and not have something so simple as a 3.5mm barrel jack
Aw man, such a phone existed? Sounds like a dream at this point, honestly...
IR blasters. They were nice as a little pocket universal remote.
The air gestures that Samsung put in the S5. It was a gimmick, but a useful one, since you could use it to control things without having to fiddle with the screen.
Also the screen-off gestures on the Oneplus 5. It was great for turning the torch on or opening apps without having to faff about as much with the screen.
I used to work in a call center that had some TVs placed sporadically throughout the call floor. It was up to the manager what they wanted to have play on the TV of their row. Some would play the generic company slideshow that showed random stats and quotes and corporate rah rah BS, but others were fine with normal TV like EPSN or whatever. My manager was the head of the department and said he was fine with us putting whatever we wanted on the TVs. Unfortunately, me and the people around me couldn't see our row's TV from our desk, but we could see the TV of the row next to us; however, that manager was a complete power-tripping asshole and only wanted the company slide-show.
I would always use the IR blaster on my phone to change the TV to ESPN when his back was turned and see how long it took him to notice. Whenever he did notice, he'd walk around super mad trying to figure out who did it but he never suspected me. Eventually he just gave up and just let the TVs stay on ESPN.
And that's the story of how I used the IR blaster on my phone to slowly bully the asshole manager into being slightly less of an asshole.
Workspaces in Linux window managers. I thought it was a dumb idea at first but I tried it and found workspaces are great.
I know what you mean, but once you start to using them you can't be without them.
I started using workspaces in the last year or two because I game and do video editing on the same machine. It is nice to have things separated a bid.
the IR Blaster, absolutely loved it and still do
I cannot recall which phone it was, but going to sports bars in college and changing the channel on the TV to the games I wanted to watch was so cool. Probably pissed a whole lotta people off, but I was a young college shithead and didn't really register that at the time.
Same. I keep a USB IR blaster on my keychain for the same purpose. Isn't quite as nice since I have to carry it around, but it gets the job done in a pinch
Tell me more about this USB IR blaster. What do you have? How do you control it? I a. Very interested in getting one of these.
It's a little keychain USB-C IR blaster. There's a few that work, but this one has a decent case: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804935230204.html
If you look around enough, you might be able to find it cheaper too. They're basically all the same thing. I bought one, and it used the app "Zaza remote" and I really liked that app. You could read a remote and save the IR codes from remotes not in the database to make custom remotes. That one also basically seemed to be "unlocked" in a sense it seemed I could use it with a lot of apps. However, it got lost at some point from my keychain holder, so I bought a few more. Unfortunately, they used a different app called "Ocrustar" and I couldn't use it with any other app. The packaging and the blaster are identical, and there's probably no good way to tell from the listing. But the new one still works, the app just isn't as good. I can still turn down the really loud TV in the waiting rooms pretty discretely.
The link I sent above seems to be one of the "Ocrustar" ones based on the images in the description. And the original one I bought was no longer being sold, so I couldn't just buy from that listing again otherwise I would have. The same ones are also available from Amazon for 3x the price
Thank you! This makes my day.
Probably the Quick View Window case on the LG G-series phones. The overview on notifications was great and allowed answering calls without opening the flap while protecting most of the screen. Also the reduced visible screen space did not blast you with light when checking time in the middle of the night.
I have a samsung flip. I cannot tell you how much I love this phone.
Fingerprint sensors
My phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor and I am never going back.
Mine has one too but I still miss when they were putting them on the back of phones
Was just an easier spot to me
Back of the phone was the best. I could pull my phone out of my pocket and unlock my phone in single motion and decent grip. Plus the swipe gestures for accessing the notifications bar...
Despite enjoying multiple models of the phone I currently have I won't get a new model because the sensor is on the power button. Back of the phone supremacy under screen is OK if it works, power button sensor can burn in a hole.
Same. The back sensor on my pixel 4a was positioned perfectly for me and didn't leave one big thumbprint smudge like the in-screen on my 6.
It was also much more responsive
Rear power and volume buttons.
To this day my favorite phone remains the LG v10. It has nice metal rails on the side, a rubber removable back, sd card slot, aux port with a high end dac, wide(er) screen, and buttons on the back of the phones right where your indexed finger would rest when holding it.
Figure print sensor on the button didn't work all that well, but worked better than this shit on screen reader. The buttons being on the back meant your could just grab the phone in anyway with out worrying if you're gonna Power the phone off, turn the vol down, take a screenshot, etc. This also meant getting it knot phone holders was almost never an issue.
That was the closest an android phone got to perfection. After that they started trying to follow tends and phase out the good parts to the point of leaving the Android market entirely.
Still to this day my favorite phone was the LG Leon. Cheap, durable, small, and the button were on the back!
Can't say I love the feature but the front facing camera getting "integrated" into the screen isn't nearly as annoying as I thought it would be.
On pixel phones, the squeeze for Google assistant feature. I used it all the time on my old pixel 2xl.
I miss that feature a lot :l
I use the side squeeze everyday. My pixel 2 is still going strong. I will be heartbroken when it finally gives up.
Tablet computers. My thoughts on the first iPad were that it does everything a laptop, an iPod, and a Kindle all do, but worse. Next thing I knew, they were everywhere. I think traditional laptops are making something of a comeback, though.
My wife has an iPad and after using it for a bit, yeah I get it.
I used my Surface Pro all through college, and that thing is amazing. I took all my notes with the pen in OneNote, but it also has has a full desktop OS, so you're not missing any functionality. Mine is even powerful enough to run some basic CAD modelling, which was a treat for when I didn't want to have to deal with finding an open computer lab
I had multiple models of Surface Pro. The first several generations ran great on Linux, but the later models got hella expensive without offering much new for the price. I ended up with a Lenovo X12 which is similar in turn factor but had more storage/RAM/power for less price
if you haven't tried it, the new pens are like three tines as good!
I'm not sure I can justify a new surface pen since I graduated and got a job that doesn't allow PEDs onsite, but given how good my pen is, the new ones must be great.
Also, when browsing the Microsoft store just now to look at the pen specs, I was shocked to see a bunch of components listed for the Surface Pro 9. Did Microsoft embrace right to repair for that model.
On my motorola: quick shake side to side to enable flashlight. So easy to use, it's become second nature. I'll have to find a way to replicate that on the next phone I get.
Holy crap, I forgot about that feature from my dark-ages G4. That thing was a piece of crap, but I do miss that (and the twist to open camera.)
Gosh remember how that phone didn't have a compass
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arlosoft.macrodroid
MacroDroid! I love my Pixel6a but losing the flashlight motion was rough. Pretty easy to set up with MacroDroid.
The pixel pinch phone body for the Google assistant. Boy how I want that feature badly when I was using OnePlus 3T. It felt like one of those double tap at the back of iphone little niche thing.
I really like since it give the user different kind of input to interact with the phone quickly. We have the double tap and holding for power button, double tap the top of the screen, the screenshot combo button and etc. Same like the interface for controlling your wireless earbud.
The pain for installation/maintenance/replacement for that input must be a nightmare though.
The ringlight on the bottom of Xperia U.
Stadia, I had great internet and it worked great.
My old Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 had magnetic sensors in it that would shut off the screen. How it worked is you would put a case on it with a cover that would fold over the screen, and the cover had magnets in it that would activate the sensors and turn off the screen when you closed it.
Anyway, it got old and unreliable and I had to replace it. The new ones don't have that feature.
All my Samsung tablets, and my samsung phone S21 Ultra have this.
Keyboards, optical scroll, and IR blasters.
My old LG phones had power and volume controls on the back, rather than the side. Great for picking up the phone with either hand, and it was easier to mount in a phone holder (no buttons to accidentally mash).
Soli. My phone sensing I was reaching for it made it feel like it was alive. Didn't know what I had until it was gone. I want you back Soli!
Folding phones.
I was so skeptical at first, and even now it seems most people still are. It's a complete game changer though. There's almost nothing I can't do on my phone anymore, due to the multitasking and the larger screen. I can comfortably use desktop websites when necessary for banking etc. I have watched many dozens of movies and tv shows on it. It's just nicer for reading and browsing the web, and makes your phone feel so much more powerful to have the tablet form factor. I've actually been travelling for over a month with no laptop, just my Fold and a Steam deck.
I'm also appreciating having what is essentially a 5G-connected tablet where in the past I've always dismissed the LTE-connected ipads as a gimmick. It's hard to justify paying extra for the device and then a monthly fee, but now that I have it I can definitely see the appeal of a tablet that just works anywhere you go. Except since it folds you can put it in your pocket too.
I've been considering getting one but I've read too many horror stories about them breaking
You need an extended full coverage warranty, otherwise it's too stressful. That said, it's not nearly as fragile as you'd think.
I'm on iOS. In 6-7 years I will have the chance to buy the iPhone 20 Pro Mega Butterfly - one of the first folding screens in a phone [with: insert apple technicality] at barely a 40% markup over the Android versions and with some fatal flaw that will be my fault for noticing. I'm just giddy with anticipation.
Doggy style and x-files
You n me, baby!
Allo was the best messenger. So many useful features
My friends and I still talk about how much we miss the big/tiny text feature of Allo.
It was a simple messenger but it made it fun
Apple’s 3D Touch on iPhone. Force Touch or whatever they called it. The ability to hard press to get something like a right-click. Wish they’d kept it. Used it every day for placing my cursor.
Democracy in the US.
To show how old I am, a phone without a physical keyboard.
Which is, like, every smartphone?
now
Not in 2007
PIE navigation control
Still using it myself, in fact! LMT is still going strong, though I imagine it would work better if I were able to root the phone I'm using at the moment.
Oh man, I forgot that even existed! I used an app for it for quite a while, I didn't realise how long it must have been since I used it
FM radio. Also my old Motorola had a "karate-chop to activate camera" which was very useful
I'm using "double chop" to activate flashlight and double twist turns the camera on.
That movement is so ingrained in my muscle memory, and I'm so absent minded, that I have to admit that I have used my phone's flashlight to try and find my phone in the dark... for several minutes.
I, out of pure self reflection, can't laugh at the TikTok trend of "you forgot your phone" message anymore.
I'm old... the internet.
The internet
Idk if this counts as i dont really involve myself in a lot of discussion, but MAN do i miss two button navigation. it may still be present in some other Android distros but on Graphene an update removed it for me a while ago.
Android 13 QPR 2 broke it so Google temporarily remove it. Honestly why do you prefer it? To me it's combined the worst of 3 button and gestures.
Hardware navegation buttons.