I used to have so much fun back when cell phones had IR blasters. Changing channels and messing with people before it was common knowledge that you could do that on a cell. I wish phones still had that.
I loved it when my phone had IR. I really hate it when restaurants have tvs on in the dining room. I would turn the volume down or even turn it off. I really miss being able to do that.
Phones don't have IR blasters anymore for the same reason they don't have aux ports or SD card slots anymore. For one, they remove these features to make room for other things that take up the real estate of a thin slice of technology. And for two, cutting those things increases the profit margin of the phones they sell, even if only slightly.
I had that phone for like 4 months and loved it! Unfortunately the police stole it when the house I was living in was raided... it was a good phone, I spent quite lot of hours researching which to get and decided that would be the best.
I used to have a Samsung Galaxy S4, and its main gimmick was the IR blaster that also made the phone a universal remote. Great way to mess with people when I was in college at parties muting the TV or slowly making it louder over the course of a long time.
My roomie and I also had the same exact TV, which made it fun to point the remote in her room and turn it off from time to time.
When I was in high school in the 90s, someone started selling little keychain universal remotes and kids would occasionally bring them to school to fuck with the TV while the teacher was trying to show a video.