Why isn’t there a “page” button on the TV that, when pushed, causes the remote to beep incessantly until you find it?
Why isn’t there some kind of sensor light on the dashboard to alert the driver that a taillight has gone out?
(I know there are many more. I think of them all the time.)
I’m not looking for answers to these questions (unless you happen to know for a fact that it would be impossible to integrate a “page” function for your remote because it would interfere with the delicate workings of a television set).
I would really love to read what conveniences/gadgets others think should exist.
IIRC, Panasonic had a remote finder on some of their TVs roughly 10 years ago. Apparently, it didn’t get public acceptance, otherwise I’d think it’d be more common.
I had a 1981 Subaru that had a display for burnt-out bulbs. Very useful little doo-dad. Again, I don’t know why this and their hill-holder brake didn’t catch on.
IIRC, there was a TV (possibly Panasonic) that had the remote control locator built in to the TV. I tried Googling, but got a ton of universal remote websites.
an alarm clock with a number pad so you could just enter the damn time rather than have to speed through all the possible times in 24 hours and then zoom right past the time you need. And would a AM/PM button be so hard?
Um, and one touch sunscreen. You would squeeze out one blob or apply a patch or something and the stuff would crawl over your whole body on its own. Anybody’s whose ever tried to sunscreen a protesting toddler can see the utility.
IIRC some major electronics corporation had a TV that had that paging device for the remote. Can’t recall who it was though. My cordless phones have that paging gizmo.
I had an 89 Camry that would tell you that “A” light was out, but you’d have to hunt it down yourself in the veritable Christmas tree of lights on that car.
Why no portable stereos that read DVD/MP3/CD formats with out jacks? Why? I don’t have the budget/living arrangement to properly use a full-sized house stereo. I want one do it all component that I can also bring to a softball game.
If there are enough people to make the “page” a recurring feature on cordless phones, I wonder why this same chunk of the population wouldn’t latch onto the “remote finder” function. It seems like a really useful thing.
Same goes for the taillight sensor. Why wouldn’t something like that catch on?
I’m picturing a product in Sharper Image: a vast army of nanobots with tiny little mirrors that scurry all over your body reflecting the UV away and allowing a small amount to hit the skin in an even pattern–want less exposure? Deploy more bots! And at the end of the day you push a buton on the control module and they all scurry back into their container where they are attended by nano-repair-bots to make sure they’re all running fine. Unlimited usage for a set.
Come to think of it, why not couple this same technology with video transmission for ultrasneaky surveylance and an adapted, color-changing line for cosmetics. Hell, birthcontrol bots that seek & destroy sperm and/or eggses.
Speaking of remotes, I’ve been looking for one that enables you to have an on-screen channel guide that will tell you what’s on all the channels, even if you don’t have digital cable (or cable at all, really). I assume it would have to hook up to your TV, which would in turn be retrieving the information from a satellite.
And what about an alarm clock that you can set a different time for weekends (or no alarm at all) without having to remember onFriday and Sunday to switch the alarm off and on again?
Well, if “on-screen” can mean “on the remote’s screen”, then check out the Harmony . You connect to their website and then upload the TV schedule into the remote. It only displays show titles, not descriptions, but it’s better than nothing.
An alarm clock with like twenty different alarms. WON’T SOMEBODY INVENT ONE?
I become “immune” to an alarm within a couple of months, to the point that I won’t hear it anymore.
Currently I use my cell phone for this purpose, b/c I can use different ringtones as my alarm, but I still don’t understand why nobody’s come up with an alarm clock with alternating alarms, because I know damn well I’m not the only person who develops immunity to the same ol’ beeping in the morning.
Speaking of clocks, I want to know why all modern digital clocks don’t have a simple button for “Daylight Savings Time on/off” that just adds an hour when flipped one way, then takes it back when flipped the other. I’ve seen a total of one clock that did that. It’s so incredibly simply to implement, and would save the user untold time and frustration twice a year!
Oh, and on cars and warning lights: Way back in prehistoric times, I had a Datsun 200SX (yes kiddies, there was a time when the company now known as Nissan was called Datsun). It had a light on the dashboard that came on when you stepped on the brake peddle. Ok, so it was marginally useful to be able to see that your brake lights were on, I mean you oughta know where you had your foot. But the truly great thing was that if one of the brake lights went out, the light on the dash would briefly come on when you stepped on the brake, then go out. So, if you step on the brake and the dash light stays on, you have the reassurance that your brake lights are working. If you stepped on the brake and the light blinked on then off, you knew that a brake light was out. I mourned when I got a new car and had to give that up.
Eh, those have been around for ages. They’re not particularly useful, either, because it simply lets you set the mix for hot/cold water, but without taking into account what the temperature of the water is. If you’re the first one to shower in the morning, the water in the hot water pipe will be cold, requiring you to adjust the mix, and then re-adjust it as your hot water finally gets hot.
What I think FisherQueen was anglin’ towards would be a faucet that lets you turn a knob to set the temperature, then use thermostats to determine the temperature of the water and automagically adjust the mix to get the desired result. There’s nothing technologically complicated about this, either; the only reason I can imagine for not having this already might be concerns about repairing the mechanism if/when it goes bad.