Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10 family

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by 0xfaded on Thursday November 20, 2025 @07:03PM (#45999629)

Waaay back when in Japan, sekigaisen (infrared) was a verb meaning to transfer contact details or photos or whatever between phones via infrared. It was amazing how fast the iPhone took over Japan and killed off their quirky phone ecosystem.

Edit: want to emphasize that it was totally ubiquitous. Every phone has it

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by parl_match on Thursday November 20, 2025 @07:16PM (#45999733)

yes, "beaming" in the us was also used for quite a while. as in IR beam

japanese phones were buggy, feature packed monstrosities. a bunch of companies fighting to check as many boxes as they could. it's not a surprise that they got wiped out by an attempt to make a holistic internet communicator.

but for a while, there was nothing like them and their ability to get information on the internet

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by vel0city on Thursday November 20, 2025 @08:19PM (#46000124)

My friends in school would send ringtones, wallpapers, and other small files through Bluetooth. It normally worked pretty well no matter the device.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by ricardobeat on Friday November 21, 2025 @04:09AM (#46002694)

Those were the good days of early bluetooth tech.

Everything got quickly walled off soon after, and for two decades we were left wondering why it wasn’t possible to share a picture from your phone to your computer, both BT-enabled, and instead must use proprietary protocols like AirDrop or convoluted steps in Windows. I hope these EU regulations will finally bring things back to how they should have always been.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by ehnto on Thursday November 20, 2025 @09:28PM (#46000561)

I remember being blown away by the Gameboy Colour IR link. You could use it to trade Pokemon. That makes a bit more sense now if sekigaisen was already a popular ecosystem.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by edbaskerville on Thursday November 20, 2025 @11:31PM (#46001246)

In the US (edit: and elsewhere!), "beaming" worked great between Apple Newton devices, including the pretty cool eMate 300 (an early Jony Ive creation, I just found on Wikipedia).

In 1993.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by onlyhumans on Friday November 21, 2025 @03:40AM (#46002528)

Microsoft Zune had the ability to send music wirelessly to other Zunes, it was called squirting

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by tempfile on Friday November 21, 2025 @03:56AM (#46002628)

That's appalling. "Yo let me squirt you"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by type0 on Friday November 21, 2025 @04:17AM (#46002730)

Somehow "squirting their users" perfectly defines Microsoft to this day

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by throawayonthe on Friday November 21, 2025 @06:29AM (#46003484)

squirt me bro

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by Lutzb on Friday November 21, 2025 @03:49AM (#46002579)

I wonder if this was driven by the Palm Pilots in the early 2000s. We beamed contacts, calendar entries, whole apps via IR. At trade shows exhibitors had terminals that would constantly send out contact informations via OBEX (?).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting wi... by cachius on Friday November 21, 2025 @07:20AM (#46003823)

And in Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal on GameBoy Color you could send Mystery gifts via IR!

Someone even ported it to an emulator! https://shonumi.github.io/articles/art11.html

[ Parent | on HN ]