Eight household items your smartphone’s made redundant

There are items common only a few decades ago we’d simply not recognise if they were put in front of us. A fleem. A wringer. A carpet beater. A warming pan. Our kids are going to look the same way at these eight devices – all replaced by the smartphone.

1. Remote control – Have media centre, have smartphone? Then download something like Gmote (Android) or Air Mouse (iPhone). Sit on your couch, browse your collection, pick what you want. If you don’t use a media centre and want to control your non-smart devices you can buy an IR dongle for about US$30-50 – although the proprietary control codes can be tricky to get right. But soon everything will have Wi-Fi built in.