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I have a Sony media streamer that's been discontinued. The remote is broken. Getting a new one is $50. You can control it with WiFi but you need IR to turn it on. So glad my phone had the blaster, it saved me replacing it. Thats just one example why an Ir blaster is pretty useful

Cool. I once had a mobile phone with a physical keyboard. It was pretty useful. Therefore, the next iPhone could fail if it doesn't have a physical keyboard. ←That is how absurd this thread is.
 
Of course it will fail. All iPhones fail, because they don't have the really cool stuff that everyone wants. That's why no-one wants them, and they don't sell.
 
Cool. I once had a mobile phone with a physical keyboard. It was pretty useful. Therefore, the next iPhone could fail if it doesn't have a physical keyboard. ←That is how absurd this thread is.

Yup, I use it to control my stereo. Much easier to stop by the entrance of the room, point and adjust the volume then to go after the remote.

Also comes in handy in hotels
 
Cool. I once had a mobile phone with a physical keyboard. It was pretty useful. Therefore, the next iPhone could fail if it doesn't have a physical keyboard. ←That is how absurd this thread is.


lol


Yeah the 6 will fail because of no ir blaster, just like the 5s did.

Oh wait....
 
Yup, I use it to control my stereo. Much easier to stop by the entrance of the room, point and adjust the volume then to go after the remote.

My Yamaha stereo connects to WiFi and I'm able to use an iOS/Android app to control it. I think it works better than the IR blaster because it doesn't require line of sight.
 
I doubt you'll ever see an IR blaster in an iPhone. Apple is moving away from IR. Like with the Apple TV companies are shipping remotes with devices but allow remote control through a smart devices across a local network.

For those that don't know before you bash IR too much aside from TV manufacturers Apple probably has the largest range of IR receiver equipped devices out there. They used to be built into all Mac's for quite a while so there are plenty out there. Then of course the Apple TV is still shipped with an IR remote.
 
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IR blaster was awesome when I had the HTC one. I liked not having to look for my remote and I had all the tv's in my house programmed for it. I do miss it
 
I see this being a big issue when the new iphone launches, all phones have the ir blaster now and apple didnt include it, what does it cost ? $2 to include into the hardware ? Discuss
Haha... I used to think this was a big deal too. Until every single person who has a galaxy phone I've talked to, I ask if they ever use the ir blaster (or I call it the remote for their tv) and they say, what? I didn't even know it had that.
So, basically, I don't think the 90% of people who have smartphones care about the infrared blaster.
 
i truly dont think so, i dont think a lot of people will realize the phone will even have an IR blaster or will ever bother to learn how to use it...
 
i truly dont think so, i dont think a lot of people will realize the phone will even have an IR blaster or will ever bother to learn how to use it...

You'd think that Apple would have learned after the spectacular failures of the 5 and 5s.
 
Haha... I used to think this was a big deal too. Until every single person who has a galaxy phone I've talked to, I ask if they ever use the ir blaster (or I call it the remote for their tv) and they say, what? I didn't even know it had that.
So, basically, I don't think the 90% of people who have smartphones care about the infrared blaster.

100% of people I know don't care about Passbook, Nike+, Newstand, etc...

Kind of pointless statistic don't you think? Or should Apple get rid of those things?
 
An IR blaster would be nice. But what I really want the next iPhone to have is a parallel port so I can connect up to my Apple Dot Matrix Printer and create hard copies of my most precious iWork documents. Will it happen? Maybe. Nobody knows yet.
 
100% of people I know don't care about Passbook, Nike+, Newstand, etc...

Kind of pointless statistic don't you think? Or should Apple get rid of those things?

No it's not pointless. It's a normal, not-so-technical-person point of view to share.

You're welcome.

The point I'm making is to answer the original question. I don't think it'll matter much to the sale of the new iPhones.
 
Wait...you're telling me the iPhone 6 will NOT have an IR blaster?! Well god dammit.. where's that six foot piece of rope I was saving..
 
I see this being a big issue when the new iphone launches, all phones have the ir blaster now and apple didnt include it, what does it cost ? $2 to include into the hardware ? Discuss

I have literally never heard anyone I know mention the lack or inclusion of an IR blaster as a deciding factor when choosing a phone. I have no idea why you think this would be a big issue either way.
 
I bought an IR dongle for my iPhone 4 years and years ago. It was back before AT&T and the others had their remote app, and it worked with the typical TV codes to set it up. It came in handy when people lost their remotes, and it worked great on my TV too.

Sadly, that company went out of business, and so did the app.

I use the Apple remote with my MacBook Pro a lot too, and still have my 2006 version kicking about.

AT&T now lets you do this wireless by setting it up on the TV. Considering that it's a PITA to setup these things in the first place, that's a good reason for them going the wifi route. Our connections are on par with the IR receiver, and much safer (I used to know people who would bring universal remotes to school, turn on the TV and change the channels when the teachers weren't looking :rolleyes:).

You incorporate one thing, you have to limit yourself in other things or make the device bigger.
 
How many people know that smart phones have IR blasters? Yeah it will be fine. Its not a huge problem any way


!Exactly



I just use the App for the device I need to control. Like my cable tv or my remote for my computer. Both use wifi which I can control from other rooms. I would think that would be better than IR blaster.
 
Apple's way of introducing features is way more sensible. Many people would find the IR blaster useful, that may be true, but there's only so much real estate inside a phone and Apple likes to reserve that space for things everyone can appreciate. Otherwise, it is just adding cost to the product without adding value to the majority of customers.

I bought a Harmony Link a few years ago, because I thought it would be so cool to control everything with my phone, but without physical buttons, you can't look at the TV screen and press buttons at the same time. This makes lots of tasks very time consuming and frustrating. I still use it sometimes but I find myself grabbing the remotes more.

Touch screen remotes are not ideal, but if people want that, I prefer Harmony's method: a separate IR blaster that connects to your wifi network. This way, you can control everything in the house without line of sight. I doubt most people need to use an IR remote outside of their house so why should they have to carry an IR blaster in their phone with them 24/7?
 
Point of this thread basically is IF apple incorporates it into their hardware the consumer will make use of it. Apple added siri which wasnt such a hit at first but many people i know find it very useful and use it on a daily basis now , so i dont see why apple shouldnt put it in their devices, if not the iphone why not the ipad since thats more of a device thats mostly used at home. I see so many people on these forums wanting so many stuff stuffed into the their idevice that i thought was complete nonsical. I guess thats what im looking like right now. Either way it was just my opinion and who knows if the i6 might fail due to the lack of it, i see it probably wont sell as much as lets say a galaxy phone which has the Ir blaster as a standard feature
 
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