Debate: What's the best phone feature you want back?

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CamDexter
CamDexter
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

What's a Party Line? :)))

Something we had in the UK decades ago, where 2 households shared a landline. It was a cost saving thing but had many privacy flaws as you could listen in to the other house if they were using the phone. Here's a more formal explanation:

Party lines are where two or more subscribers are connected to one telephone line pair. The most popular party line used was the two-party line, which as it name implies provides for two subscribers on the same pair of wires, one party was the A-line and the other was the B-line. Party lines do not provide secrecy from the other party, but they use earthed ringing circuits so that only the intended recipient’s telephone bell rang. When a subscriber wished to make a call they had to operate a push-to-make switch on their telephone to signal to the exchange that they wished to make a call, this ensured that the exchange metering billed the correct subscriber. A subscriber wishing to make a call had to wait for the other party to finish their call, if they were already on a call. If the call was an emergency they had to request the other party to conclude their call. Shared service was introduced on automatic exchanges in 1942 but ended in the early 1980’s as the new system X and system Y digital exchanges did not have the facility for party lines.

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tywanjames
tywanjames
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

I sorely miss HTC and their IR blaster with their tv guide. Open up the app and I could see what was on and with the press of a virtual button it would turn the channel.

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Mariyan Slavov
Mariyan Slavov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 1y ago
↵CamDexter said:

Something we had in the UK decades ago, where 2 households shared a landline. It was a cost saving thing but had many privacy flaws as you could listen in to the other house if they were using the phone. Here's a more formal explanation:

Party lines are where two or more subscribers are connected to one telephone line pair. The most popular party line used was the two-party line, which as it name implies provides for two subscribers on the same pair of wires, one party was the A-line and the other was the B-line. Party lines do not provide secrecy from the other party, but they use earthed ringing circuits so that only the intended recipient’s telephone bell rang. When a subscriber wished to make a call they had to operate a push-to-make switch on their telephone to signal to the exchange that they wished to make a call, this ensured that the exchange metering billed the correct subscriber. A subscriber wishing to make a call had to wait for the other party to finish their call, if they were already on a call. If the call was an emergency they had to request the other party to conclude their call. Shared service was introduced on automatic exchanges in 1942 but ended in the early 1980’s as the new system X and system Y digital exchanges did not have the facility for party lines.

Oh, we had the same thing in Bulgaria; it was called a duplex line. Absolute rubbish but cheap as ****. :)) I remember the neighbor banging on my door to free the line up, and I'm silently waiting for my mp3 to finish downloading through the 256Kbit modem... Funny times...

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LogiR
LogiR
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵propov said:

A Memory slot have no more place in phones because is super super slow in data transfer. 3.5mm jack and a replaceable battery have no chance because of the IP68. Probably in the budgets other the midrangers but all that is simply not compatible with the flagships tendency since a couple of years. Im missing a... HTC style and wish it comeback. The body and UI design was unique. Like a jewelry.

There are higher end cameras that uses microsd. Prefer to store images on card (easily retrieve wejn phone breaks and eliminate date change when copy paste) + cloud. Issue is most consumers buy slow cards, then complain phone lags. Ad card removed for the sake of 99% of consumers who don't know how to properly use one or test a genuine and card

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LogiR
LogiR
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

I'll like to add some things most people might not remember. Really miss features from old smart phones.

  1. Alarms that still go off when the phone (not just screen) is turned completely off.
  2. Ir remote function which was first available since Nokia 3230 days (with third party app).
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titosbars
titosbars
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Charger and cable stop the stupid excuse about the planet, or they means their pocket.

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KingDavid
KingDavid
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Squeeze phone to access Google Assistant from my Pixel 2XL.

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KingDavid
KingDavid
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Lockscreen widgets.

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Partii123
Partii123
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

I would like to have a fingerprint scanner on the Apple Iphones.

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fastanddubious
fastanddubious
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

The feature I miss the most is, hands down, design variety. I want crazy-looking, crazy-shaped phones with different display shapes and sizes, slides, swivels, rotating phones—you name it. It was so much more fun in the 2000s :))

But then no one buys them ?

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