[fan]

I think that can be applied to technologies that aren't open -- and it can be a property of the technology itself.

In fact, one entire category of technology that's overlooked right now is sensors. Besides sound (mic) and light (camera), accelerometers and magnetometers are already there. Some other detectors of "state" that make sense:

Pressure (think of being able to predict rain) Humidity/Temperature (think of an environment controller) Directional Microphone (4): Conferencing, noise cancellation, etc.

[nooneelse]

Having outputs is good too. I don't know a single smartphone owner I've talked to about it, who wouldn't love for it to have a general IR out for remote control applications.

[jarin]

Here's the thing though: It's not THAT big of a deal to grab my remote instead of my phone. I'd rather keep the cost of the phone down by not having an IR sensor/transmitter that only works for one function since my TV already comes with a remote that works perfectly well.