When LG visited work recently to show off their new G2 Android smartphone and some other product including a couple of Ultra HD televisions (which looked fantastic in my opinion) there was one particular feature on the smartphone which I really liked.
It wasn’t the large screen or the quad core CPU, its speed or how fast the cellular connection could go. it wasn’t even the audio quality or affiliation with a boutique audio brand. It ended up being the infrared capabilities.
You might think this is odd but not every device has Wi-Fi connectivity and a smartphone app to allow remote control. Plus, there can be additional configuration required to get the smartphone applications to work usually by enabling access in the device as a form of security. Conversely, infrared just allows you to point the remote at a device and control it.
The infrared control app on the LG G2 had stacks of built-in compatibility with all of the major brand names across audio visual devices such as televisions, Blu-ray players, Foxtel set top boxes as well as appliances including air conditioners. Potentially handy if you’ve lost the remote or if one is unavailable. Of course, you could also use this capability for nefarious means but I would not condone such activity 🙂
Is it a gimmick? Maybe so but choice is always a good thing in my books and I can perhaps see this as becoming a standard feature on the higher end phones particularly as manufacturers look for other things to cram into smartphones.
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