Comment by /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee on 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

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

Honestly? For all the bitching when Apple first removed it, I hadent and haven’t used wired headphones for a long while. I had Bluetooth headphones long before then.

I think it came a bit too soon. I had a mid-tier (couple hundred bucks) pair of headphones, so it was annoying to me until they broke and I moved to Bluetooth (Sony WH-1000 gang)

They did have a dongle for it. Annoying, but not insurmountable by any means.

It’s probably a rarer use case, but I use the headphone jack on my S10 all the time to connect it to my stereo and get good audio quality, most cheaper bluetooth receivers only use SBC so the difference is quite noticeable. (Also because the S10 has a pretty good DAC).

I use them daily at work. Luckily I found a pair with a lightning connector. I also use cable in the car (it’s too old for Bluetooth) and it’s a pain not being able to charge and listen.

We have a Bluetooth adapter for our car audio and it’s great. Plugs into the aux jack and car power. Really handy not needing to plug in.

I still don’t like them, audio gear should last, and Bluetooth earphones are the ultimate in disposable tech. Costs more, shorter lifespan; only good thing is that it’s a revenue driver for those producing them.

I’ve owned three Bluetooth headsets in total. The first I lost, the second is now my wife’s, and the third I still use. I wouldn’t call them disposable, but I’ll agree they are easier to lose.

Something a wired set of anything can’t give me is absolute freedom to move my head and walk away from my phone. I will never willingly go back to wired for anything other than gaming.

The batteries in them aren’t going to go past 4-5 years; I have headphones and earphones over 10 years old, with one pair about to reach the two decade mark.

That is honestly impressive. I can confidently say I’ve only owned one wired headset for a decade, and it’s the one I use for gaming so it never leaves my office.

Everything else has either broken, or been lost. Though I fully admit, serviceable wireless buds would be a thing of beauty. IIRC there are people out there actively working on the problem (other than the companies explicitly aiming for them to be a consumable forever.)

In my experience wired gear doesn’t last as long as wireless. The cable is a major weakness and there’s no affordable way around it.

Couldn’t disagree more. Plenty of wired headphones and iems come with detachable/ replaceable cables. On the other hand wireless earbuds can be difficult to keep track of and easy to lose if one happens to fall out. If you lose one, congrats you have to buy a whole new set because they don’t generally sell replacements and usually come paired from the factory meaning getting a second replacement wouldn’t work.

I’ve got wired buds i bought ten years ago that are still kicking and wired headphones made in the late 80s that have only needed cup replacements. Wired headphones will cost half that of wireless for similar quality and if a cable is ever damaged and isn’t detachable it really isn’t difficult to solder in a new one.

God I wish I could get a pair of wired headphones with detachable/replacement wires.

Definitely something I really wanna invest in some day in the future since I have had pretty bad luck with the audio jacks breaking on me.

You should look into the world of IEMs and “chi-fi”. There are great sounding headphones with detachable cables that are still very affordable.

I don’t know why you are downvoted. Wires are major breakpoint in many earphones. When i used a cabled earphones daily for hours as a student, one wouldn’t last me 6 months. I could not solder freely since they always broke near jack entry for some reason and i didn’t have cables around me all the time since i wasn’t an electrician. Finally last headphone i used had detachable cables. After that i used bluetooth all the way.

No affordable way around it? If you are approaching BT headphone cost, your headphones or buds will almost definitely come with a detacheable wire.

Personally my on the go is PortaPro, they dont have detacheable cable, the wire is flimsy but are only 30 bucks and the repair on them is actually super easy, the part where the wires solder on is actually easily accessible.

I use IEMs when I’m on the go. It would be much better if I had the functionality of using that port instead of the charging port.

I dont care about the jack, the lightning-3.5 for 10bucks is more than a-ok, that said fuck bluetooth headphones, apart from the “smart” features, sub 50$ cans can and will blow the audio quality out of the water for many of the “entry level” (quotes cause entry is still approaching 100 bucks) BT ones and when you match price it is no-contest.

That said BT cans are still fine but after dabbling with hi-fi I can’t go back to BT.

physical sim card trays

Seems like a backwards move IMO. honestly haven’t needed a tray in ~6 years

That tray is important to me at least since my last couple phones used that same tray to also hold the SD card. I can’t speak for anyone else, but a phone without an SD card for extra storage is a huge NO from me, so that tray is an absolute make or break for what my next upgrade is gonna be.

I find them VERY useful because if you break your phone, you can just swap your sim into a backup immediately.

But honestly it’s not a huge deal, I swapped an esim in under 3 minutes last week

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What discontinued feature do you miss from phones or other technologies?

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