As the cellphone market evolves, a lot of new features are introduced with each new device. This also means that a lot of old concepts and features have to be trashed. This is usually for the best as manufacturers discontinue features that never took off, or weren’t really useful. There are however, some features that I wish were still standard in all cell phones.
1) Infrared
Yes, infrared. The align-devices-in-a-straight-line, snail-slow infrared. It was deprecated by Bluetooth, but I miss this for one reason and one reason only – irRemote.
irRemote is a brilliant piece of software that lets you use you IR enabled cell phone as a universal remote. I hate keeping track of a TV, DVD Player, Set Top Box and AC remote. I remember using irRemote on an E51 to tinker around with a lot of devices. Its also fun to switch channels on TV’s in restaurants and airports :p
The only problem with the IR that used to be on phones was that they barely had a range of 1 meter. What would really be useful is the reintroduction of IR on phones, only this time the real deal that’s used in proper remotes. It would be incredibly useful and another device would be ‘converged’ into your phone.
2) Classic Keypad Layouts
The 6630, or ‘Charlie’ as it was called, was one beautiful phone. It broke the 1 megapixel barrier of cellphone cameras, and was cutting edge at its time. I used it for two years and absolutely loved its keypad. It was an evolved version of the Nokia 3650′s horrendous circular keys. It was, by far, the most comfortable T9 keypad I have ever used. Its design should be incorporated into a modern day keypad driven phone.
Another keypad design I loved were the minimalistic keys of the Nokia N82. A lot of people found them hard to press, but they were also loved by an equal amount, including yours truly. It was extremely easy to type without looking on it and was a good looking yet functionally superior design.
3) Custom Buttons
Each phone should have one hardware button on its side that is prominent, easy to press, and does whatever you want it to. Each person is different, so leave us a button or two to do whatever we want to with. This applies for touch phones also. Custom buttons are incredibly useful and need to be reintroduced into modern phones.
4) Explore Phone Via Bluetooth
This was always a mystery for me. Low and Mid End cell phones from Samsung have always had a certain feature that I always wished would pick up. The other day I was browsing my grandfathers entry level Samsung device, and connected it to my as-modern-as-it-gets Galaxy S. All of a sudden it asked if I wanted to browse the Galaxy S on the phone. After confirming, I could see all the files of my smartphone, and could add and remove files from there!
Why is a feature like this restricted to old low end phones of a particular brand is beyond me.
Are there any other features that are no longer there that you miss? Do let us know in the comments below!
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