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.
It used to be fun going to superstores with their mega walls of TV’s and running an app on the HTC One M7, and see how many TV’s would react to the power down signal from the phone’s IR blaster. They also made a good backup to your TV’s remote in case you misplaced your old one. :)
I still keep my S5 around to control the telly and Kodi, can’t even remember the last time I used the physical remote. Nice to just carry with me to another room and then use the same “remote” with that telly too.
I also had the LGv20 and loved the idea of it, but had a really bad experience with it. The IR blaster was a huge plus for it though, still miss that function, could only imagine the great stuff you could do with one on a modern phone
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.
It used to be fun going to superstores with their mega walls of TV’s and running an app on the HTC One M7, and see how many TV’s would react to the power down signal from the phone’s IR blaster. They also made a good backup to your TV’s remote in case you misplaced your old one. :)
I still keep my S5 around to control the telly and Kodi, can’t even remember the last time I used the physical remote. Nice to just carry with me to another room and then use the same “remote” with that telly too.
I was so salty when my LGv20 died the big die. 3 days past its warranty… ugh. IR blaster was life.
I also had the LGv20 and loved the idea of it, but had a really bad experience with it. The IR blaster was a huge plus for it though, still miss that function, could only imagine the great stuff you could do with one on a modern phone