Are the times advancing or shrinking? A list of apps that are about to disappear

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The software and hardware of mobile phones have been evolving rapidly, and changes in certain hardware often lead to changes in some software.

Are these changes in mobile phones necessarily good things for users? Not necessarily. At least the disappearance of some classic designs has reduced the number of ways to play mobile apps, and users have lost a lot of fun.

Today, let’s take stock of some apps on mobile phones that have gradually disappeared or faded out of sight due to design changes. Have you used them?

A radio app full of emotion

The radio APP here is not an internet radio, but a real radio.

In the early years, the radio was almost a standard feature of mobile phones. After installing the radio app, you can listen to FM radio waves by plugging in headphones. Even if the network is not good, you can still listen to various news and enjoy various music.

Perhaps you may find it strange, why do you need to plug in headphones to use this kind of radio app?

In fact, the earphones act as antennas here. Can't the mobile phone have its own radio antenna? It's really not easy.

Taking FM modulation as an example, the wavelength of FM is about 3 meters. According to the circuit principle, the length of the antenna needs to be one-fourth of the wavelength, which is 0.75 meters. An antenna of this length is difficult to build into a mobile phone.

The length of the headphone cable is generally more than 1 meter, which is suitable for using as an FM radio antenna.

Why were radio apps available on almost all mobile phones in the past?

In fact, the functions of the radio are often integrated into the mobile phone CPU. After being equipped with the corresponding circuit, you can listen to the radio by plugging in headphones.

Although mobile phone CPUs still have FM functions integrated into them (for example, the WCN3998 WiFi module integrated in the Snapdragon 855 supports FM digital frequency modulation), headphone jacks are becoming increasingly rare, and mobile phone manufacturers simply do not make corresponding circuits. As a result, more and more mobile phones cannot use radio apps.

From my observation, most of the current flagship models cannot use the radio app, but the mid- and low-end models with headphone jacks still have FM radio capabilities. If you have a special liking for FM, you can give them priority.

Amazing headphone jack app

As mentioned earlier, the disappearance of the headphone jack is one of the reasons why radio apps have been neglected. In fact, the headphone jack can do more than just connect the headphone cable as an FM antenna.

After the corresponding hardware is inserted into the headphone jack, you can cooperate with the APP to realize many magical functions.

If you are an old player of Android phones, you should be impressed by the "smart keys" from previous years.

This is a small piece of hardware with a 3.5mm headphone jack. It looks like just an ordinary button, but when used with the corresponding APP, it can quickly call out functions such as the camera and voice assistant.

There are more than just "Smart Key" apps that can realize functions through the headphone jack, there are also card readers, infrared transmitters, etc.

For example, there used to be a POS machine solution that was connected to a headphone jack. With the corresponding APP, functions such as credit card payment could be realized, but this payment method has now been basically eliminated.

By connecting the headphone jack to an infrared transmitter and installing the corresponding APP, the mobile phone can be transformed into a remote control to control home appliances, which is quite practical.

The reason why the headphone jack allows so many apps to work is that it can transmit different signals through the left and right channels, which can be used for communication after digital modulation.

With the disappearance of the headphone jack, the expansion function of the mobile phone has regressed. Although it makes the appearance of the mobile phone simpler, it also makes the mobile phone more boring.

All-powerful remote control APP

If you have used a Nokia mobile phone, you must know the infrared transmitter function.

In the early years, most mobile phones were equipped with infrared transmitters as standard. In the era when Bluetooth and WiFi were not popular, infrared was the most common method of exchanging contacts - by pointing two mobile phones at the infrared transmitter ports, contact business cards could be transferred.

Even after the popularization of Bluetooth and WiFi, infrared transmitters still have a lot of uses.

Most home appliances are remotely controlled via infrared. If your mobile phone has an infrared transmitting function, you can install an APP to remotely control home appliances such as TVs, air conditioners, set-top boxes, etc.

Remote control APPs often integrate thousands of infrared signal generation schemes, which can basically take over all electrical appliances on the market. A mobile phone can replace all remote controls, and there is no more trouble in finding remote controls!

Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer mobile phones that come standard with infrared transmitters. Although mobile phones can still be connected to infrared transmitters through the headphone jack or USB port, it is quite inconvenient to use.

Although the remote control APP is very practical, it has gradually faded out of people's sight due to the loss of the hardware platform on which it relies.

Many years later, will your friends still remember the experience of secretly using their mobile phones to remotely turn on the air conditioner in the dormitory?

Afterword

The design of mobile phones is changing with each passing day. With the disappearance of some classic components, the APPs that rely on them are gradually withdrawing from the stage.

In the future, even components such as USB ports and physical buttons will come to an end, and the way you play with mobile phones will be very different.

Is the practice of reducing components a step forward or a way to save costs? We will leave it to future generations to judge.