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I used to have so much fun back when cell phones had IR blasters. Changing channels and messing with people before it was common knowledge that you could do that on a cell. I wish phones still had that.
Back in the day when they were actually focused on putting features into phones instead of stripping them out…
RIP FM antennas, too.
used to have a FM tuner on the modem. International models do still carry modems with FM tuners on them. And the antenna was you headphone cord. Which is why it doesnt and won’t work with Bluetooth… And for all likely hood it won’t work with USB c headphones either
RIP headphone jack 🫡
Swappable batteries was the big one for me
Oh man my LG V20 was great for this
There are still ways to do that. A friend of mine loves to mess woth Telas. He can open their charging door with a device.
Long before smartphones, Casio used to make an IR blaster watch. Nobody ever suspected the person checking the time was messing with the TV.
When the teacher took your watch at the beginning of class it was either test time or tv cart time.
GS4 owner checking in. That was the best phone I’ve ever owned for the year it was…
RIP my note 4, back when the note line meant something
I loved it when my phone had IR. I really hate it when restaurants have tvs on in the dining room. I would turn the volume down or even turn it off. I really miss being able to do that.
My Galaxy S5 was great when people insisted on watching Fox or Nancy Grace at full volume on the lunch room TV.
Could you age restrict Fox and OAN?
Most Chinese brand phones like oppo and Xiaomi still has it as standard.
I use it to control my air conditioning all the time.
what is a good phone that has it?
My Xiaomi 13 has it.
In the US, OnePlus Open is a recent phone I can think of with an IR blaster, but that’s a $1700 phone.
I wonder if that’s why phones no longer have IR blasters.
Phones don’t have IR blasters anymore for the same reason they don’t have aux ports or SD card slots anymore. For one, they remove these features to make room for other things that take up the real estate of a thin slice of technology. And for two, cutting those things increases the profit margin of the phones they sell, even if only slightly.
For one…
The absence of the component frees up room for the phone’s taptic engine – which allows your device to vibrate – and creates room for a larger battery.
I’m not saying I agree with it. I prefer a phone with an aux port, and apple pioneered taking it out. It is what it is
They also removed radio capabilities. Rip the days I would listen to live radio at 2 am while I washed dishes at chili’s.
Well that was the behavior of a jerk.
10/10, would turn screens off for a more enjoyable dining experience again.
I miss using my LG v20
i still have redmi note 4 with one
fully controllable with an api tooI had that phone for like 4 months and loved it! Unfortunately the police stole it when the house I was living in was raided… it was a good phone, I spent quite lot of hours researching which to get and decided that would be the best.
you had the snapdragon one right?
I’m pretty sure it was the Helio series one? How come
I wonder if an IR dongle is a thing that’s available and would function well…
look irplus wave if you have a headphone jack
if you have a headphone jack
about that… :(
yeah my phone doesn’t have one (pixel 7a)
mine has tho (a52s)
well main reason I have a pixel is I hate one ui
oneui is pretty decent but actually i don’t like the build quality on most older a series, including mine.
it got better with a54, a53 and a7x ones tho
Yeah, mine doesn’t either, but I guess I could get a USB to 3.5mm, then the 3.5mm IR dongle… Eh, I’ve lived fine without it, as much as I’d enjoy having it back.
Did that in my high school. Turned on Thomas the Train.
I was a rebel. They unplugged the TV after that
I just brought a universal remote to class, admittedly causing the TV to get unplugged as well.
Removed by mod
Huh?
My Roku Ultra is behind a cabinet and it works just fine 10ft away. It’s not an IR repeater. It’s either Bluetooth or Wifi, I’m not sure.
Roku tvs use IR remotes like any other TV.
True.
I didn’t realize they use the same remote.
I used to have a Samsung Galaxy S4, and its main gimmick was the IR blaster that also made the phone a universal remote. Great way to mess with people when I was in college at parties muting the TV or slowly making it louder over the course of a long time.
My roomie and I also had the same exact TV, which made it fun to point the remote in her room and turn it off from time to time.
S4 was peak Samsung. IR blaster, removable battery, SD card, water resistant, amoled screen that phone just had it all
It was not water resistant, actually. I’d know. Mine was broken when I got pushed into a swimming pool. :(
It was, even had a cover for the USB port. I took a few baths with it (really dumb idea now that I think about it)
Honestly, though. The S5 has a user-replaceable battery, IP67 water/dust resistance, USB 3.0, a fingerprint reader, a headphone jack, an AMOLED display, expandable storage, awesome cameras…It was absolutely peak Samsung and the phone’s only major flaw is the Micro Type B port.
Well, allow me to express my apologies then, I was wrong
It’s all good, dude.
You mean the micro USB 3.0 v1 which was backwards compatible with micro usb. That’s right you could use the new fangled USB 3.0 port and cable and get those speeds as well as charging rate. Or… Use a bog generic USB micro USB 2.0 cable and it would still fit on one side of the port and was still useable for USB 2.0 speeds and charging rates.
But I concede that it is one of the worst and most delicate ports ever stuck on something expected to have a plug jammed in it literally a thousand times.
I still use my s4 with LineageOS. It’s on it’s third battery but still going strong.
All I want from my next phone is a headphone jack, an OLED screen, and expandable memory. User-replaceable battery would be nice.
So anyway, this is a route I might seriously consider.
I have the app “Unified Remote” on my S4, which allows me to control my amp, tv’s, my laptop (Which is just a glorified dvr for my yard cameras now), and even my computer.
It’s a bit of a pain to set up, but works nicely once that’s done.
Great ROM support too, going to stock 4.4 KitKat when it was new was a great upgrade from TouchWiz. Can go to up Android 11 at least iirc as well.
It’d be crueler to open the VUDU app.
Fucking, sick
Came here to post this. There’s a great diy post I always wanted to make that integrated one into a hat
Such a brilliant product!
everyone who doesn’t use roku: ???
spared from the ravages of an agent of an agent of chaos
Wouldn’t this only work with a remote that’s already paired to the Roku, though?
The Roku TV remotes don’t operate via Wi-Fi like remotes for the dedicated Roku boxes, instead they suck. The Roku TV ones are simple IR remotes.
VIA WI-FI? LE Bluetooth would be much better.
On my Roku box I believe the remote requires pairing
When I was in high school in the 90s, someone started selling little keychain universal remotes and kids would occasionally bring them to school to fuck with the TV while the teacher was trying to show a video.
My parents have a rough powered device
This isn’t how they work
