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okay that's fair but using one as a remote doesn't require it to be next to your head and you can pick them up in a happy meal these days. So even then, it makes more sense to me than an extra gadget (since most people already have them and they're easy and cheap to buy)
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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I'm not afraid to have a telephone at my head. Not after playing with unshielded megawatt microwave devices for a few years. It's more like I don't want to allow myself to be conditioned like a trained monbkey to respond to every beep of that thing and then affectionally have to stroke it to finally make it beep.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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CodeWraith wrote: I don't want to allow myself to be conditioned like a trained monbkey to respond to every beep of that thing and then affectionally have to stroke it to finally make it beep.
With opinions like that it's probably best if you stay away from smartphones. Also, if you ever feel the need to write a manifesto... it might be time to call a psychologist for a "tune up". 
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Mike Mullikin wrote: it might be time to call a psychologist for a "tune up"
As if it was me who runs around blind and deaf and eventually ends up as flat as a dead cat on the road.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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- Our remote runs on 2 AAA batteries for a long ever without charge.
- They can be tossed from couch to loveseat without fear.
- They don't have to be woken up
- It's not in the other room on a charger
- Smartphones can do a lot of things and new things it can do are new every day but that doesn't mean it should or is more practical.
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lol i always throw my phone around, and frankly, if not for TV remotes i'd never buy traditional batteries again.
true about the woken up part.
but i use an old ZTE beater as a DLNA remote for my home and it works great. Of course, it does nothing else, and has no service. But the only reason I haven't put it on my main phone is i just haven't set it up yet.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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honey the codewitch wrote: everyone has a smartphone.
1. No, not everyone does.
2. I don't have any idea how to use a smartphone as a TV remote.
3. I watch very little TV.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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1. okay, i was being hyperbolic. they're cheap to get sometimes less than a new remote for a TV if you go refurb.
2. Of course you don't, but if TVs had the ability to talk to them, you'd quickly find out, as would many who owned both a TV and smartphone.
3. I do too. Seems all the more reason not to have an extra gadget laying around doing nothing while its AAA batteries slowly corrode tucked away inside.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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It always amuses me how often the word "everyone" is misused these days.
"This is the film everyone is talking about"
"The must have device that everyone wants"
"Everyone needs ..."
Yes I have a smart(ish) phone, but SWMBO is quite happy with her old dumb Nokia.
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i've never been especially precise - just lucky.
someone on here described my code as a "thai traffic jam".
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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honey the codewitch wrote: someone on here described my code as a "thai traffic jam".
That probably means things are moving slowly but safely.
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Everyone should avoid interacting with me.
See? Sometimes it works.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Nah, I'll still talk to you. 
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You have to look at you effin phone to decrease the volume or switch channels. At you remote not. Superior interface for the use case.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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fair. i got used to swiping at mine. i suppose i could voice activate it.
Siri, turn the damned TV down!
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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Aye. 
/ravi
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Amen. Not to mention if your phone rings, it takes a few seconds to re-open up the App that controls the TV so that you CAN turn it down.
Brent
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No - smart people do not need a smart phones.
For example, my flip phone makes/receives calls (if I turn it on). The closest it gets to an 'app' is, well, it doesn't get close to one.
Or, to put it another way: I own my phone and not vis-versa.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Even if there was an app, it wouldn't work on my windows phone! 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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That's because of Windows, not the app. 
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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I don't use a remote to change channels. I get up and walk to the cable box and press the ChUp/ChDown buttons. Sometimes it's a pain to go from a low numbered channel (e.g. 7) to a high numbered one (e.g. 545). I don't channel surf much.
/ravi
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Because I need my reading glasses to operate my smartphone, since most asshats who write mobile software make touch targets too bloody small.
My TV and Blu-Ray player remotes, since they have real honest-to-FSM buttons, can be operated by simple touch.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Because tactile feedback.
I fear the day I have to take my eyes off the road to turn down the volume. When a white truck crosses the road.
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honey the codewitch wrote: everyone has a smartphone.
Nope. I don't. My wife doesn't. We've never lost a TV remote control. (Well, not for more than a few seconds anyway). Even the wireless ones (our first one was, yes, a wired one and there was no risk of losing that). The kids broke one once and we they bought a "universal" replacement which worked fine (and was never lost). Only disposed of when we got new "smart" telly with functions the "Universal" didn't know about; but thank goodness the telly came with a remote.
I did install a remote function on wife's tablet. Turns out to be unreliable; takes an age to start up (the app, not the tablet; add yet more time if the tablet isn't on standby); the tablet is more bulky than the remote (and often on charge plugged in, unlike the remote); we wouldn't risk chucking the remote across the room to someone who's actually interested in the garbage on telly anyway, and lacks 70% of the functionality of the remote control - despite being from the same manufacturer. And when the grandkids come round they can watch what they want without faffing about "synching" their phone or borrowing ours.
I just don't get the obsession with putting everything on a phone. Our phone is in the hallway where you can sit comfortably on the chair provided and have a private conversation away from other distractions. That way you can have a quality conversation with your friend/family/client and everyone is happy. (Especially having used the remote to pause live telly when the phone rings).
Now do you know why companies still make TV remotes?
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I basically agree with you.
Sometime ago I downloaded a remote control app for my smart TV to an older smart phone. I am very glad that I did that.
I don't watch much TV but I do use it for doing other things as well.
I don't often lose the remote either, however, I have had to go and look for it a couple of times.
Earlier this year I lost the remote during a clean up that wasn't performed by me.
Everyone said don't buy a new remote because if you do then you will find the old one.
First I looked up if it was possible to hail the remote. Alas no.
I didn't watch any TV for about a month.
Then there was a big sporting event that I couldn't miss.
How the elephant do you switch the TV on.
The remote app lets you turn it off but not on.
Search the TV and then went to the internet again.
Eventually found a secret switch that was hidden on the underside of the TV.
Ha ha, now I could traverse up the channels to get to the right one from the phone.
But the phone app is quite limited.
No air mouse so using the web was useless.
No voice control to go from channel 2 to channel 54.
It just did the basics to let me watch that show.
After 6 months I caved in and purchased a new remote.
Late on a Friday night I successfully attached the new remote.
Early on Saturday morning I found the old remote.
It was in a place that I had already checked.
If the phone app had the same power, utility and ease of use as the remote control, I would use it.
Then if I lost it I could call it and if it was somewhere where I couldn't hear it I could use the GPS to show me where it was.
I was humoured by megaadam's assertion that the reason for your "unpopular opinion" was most likely due to the fact that you are half the age of the bulk of people on the forum.
So, most of them are 80 years old. Yet a whole lot of them seem to be interested in writing smart phone apps. Still it must be nice to be referred to as a youngster. Gee, when I was 40 I was given a card that said, that it is all downhill from here.
Oh and I did discover that the only feature of the TV remote that uses infra-red is the power on button. The rest of the functions are either Bluetooth or WIFI radio. Possibly the reason the phone app doesn't switch it on as well.
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980
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