Asklemmy

Unlockable bootloader, removable battery, headphone jack, being assembled with SCREWS rather than GLUE.

Removable battery is the big one. I had a phone where they only cost like $15, so I could take 2 of them on a trip and last a week w/o charging.

IR Blasters!

I feel like I'm the only one who used them or cares that they were quietly phased out of phones.

You used to be able to use your phone as a universal remote. Being able to control my TV, sound system, ceiling fan, and lights all from my phone was so convenient! Plus if you were stuck in like a waiting room and they had ads or garbage like Fox News on, you could change the channel or turn it off completely. It was an incredibly useful feature to me, but I guess barely anyone else used since it was removed from phones without any complaints.

Except me. I'm complaining!

IR blaster. You could have a universal remote app and control any tv from my palm PDA

User-replaceable batteries.

Headphone jack, dedicated fingerprint reader, removable battery, physical sim card trays

I miss the notification lights. One of my first true smart phones was the original oneplus. It was fun setting up custom colors for different types of notifications and came in handy every now and then

Fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. So you'd pick it up and your finger would naturally fall on the sensor, so that by the time you look at the screen, it's unlocked.

Headphone jack

I miss my smart watch waking me up outside of detected REM sleep.

On the Microsoft Band you could set a time window where the alarm would go off - say between 0700-0800. If you're in REM sleep at 0700, the alarm stays off until you naturally rouse, or 0800.

I've worked as a sleep scientist for 7 years, and the idea of not being woken out of REM is such a neat idea, and yet no other watch seems to do it.

• iris scanner
• Dedicated MicroSD card slot
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Removable/user replacable battery
• Metal backs
• Front firing speakers

A battery which lasts up to a week.

Physical buttons. Sometimes an app or the OS itself will fuck up and not show you the home or back button for example.

I would miss headphone jacks but any phone worth buying still comes with those... for now

This may sound dumb... An old Samsung phone I had years ago, came with alarms that gradually faded in. The most memorable, started with the ocean, and the seagulls... Then there was a fog horn in the distance. Slowly the horn got closer, and closer... Until it was all you could hear, and your alarm was going off.

I've looked everywhere for the sound file... It must be Locked away in a basement at Samsung somewhere.

One day I'll find it

Modern computers are slow.

Specifically, modern computers have inherently more delay time between the keyboard (or other input devices), the software, and the display than much-older (1980s) computers. This means that it is not possible to create games that are as responsive to player inputs as the arcade, console, or microcomputer games of the past.

USB is slow. HDMI is slow.

I like where phones are now for the most part, but the thing I miss the most is that magic moment of what leaps and bounds new technology/form factor/whatever was being incorporated into a new phone. Like when the iPhone was first announced or when Motorola announced (and marketed the hell out of) the original Droid - I can still hear the boot up sound.

I remember the debates and arguments had when the first 4+” phone was released and how it was “way too big” compared to the ideal sized 3.5” iPhone. The idea of swiping to type!? What a breakthrough! A fingerprint scanner to unlock your phone, that took like three or four tries some times and was met with skepticism by others.

Now I feel like, despite how monstrously capable are phones are now compared to even five years ago, there’s just not as much of a spark anymore. New phones are iterative and have been for a while. Bendable displays are sort of neat, but just doesn’t quite tap the same bit of magic for me.

Hardware keyboards on mobile phones

Headphone jack for sure. Like 90% of my phone usage is either listening to music or watching videos, so decent audio is like the only thing I care about lol.

I missed how I could set an alarm and then shut my blackberry off overnight and the phone would turn itself back on in the morning to alarm

The absence of notches

Charging once a week.

I loved how older versions of Android (and afaik iOS as well) could set the album cover of the currently played song as the lockscreen background.

It's a tiny and maybe completely unnecessary feature, but i loved it.

I really miss small phones. Used to be a time when manufacturers were competing to make them as small as possible and Dell's 5" phone was universally mocked as too big.

I miss the notification LED on older Galaxy phones.

Removable battery and LED notification lights.

Tactile keyboards

I miss the function when the phone would stay tethered to its cable at home where it wouldn't bother me all the time when I was out and about.

SensMe in Sony and Sony-Ericsson phones and players. It was the tool that analyzed your music collection and sorted it according to energy, mood and tempo.

The best variant was on the later products whey you had a list of channels representing either moods/styles (Energetic, Emotional, Lounge, Dance etc.) or time of the day (from 'Morning' to 'Midnight'). The results were very good, especially for the time channels (except the morning) which were perfectly fitting the mood and pace of times of the day, much like Indian ragas. It really felt like your personal radio stations, freeing you from having to make playlists by yourself ever again...

It was discontinued in 2010s because of declared low adoption by users according to some obscure internal studies :( I've been dreaming of replicating it using Python ever since, but never had time to do a proper research.

I miss actually owning software and hardware you bought.