12-01-2005, 02:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Do You Use Infrared?
In Darius' excellent review of the E-Ten M600 the first thing that jumped out at me was that there is no IR port on the device. I am not sure if it is the first Pocket PC without an IR port or not, but it is the first one I've heard of, other than industrial devices like Symbol makes.
To this day, I make sure my laptops have IR on them and even though I don't IR sync much as bluetooth and USB are both faster (as is WiFi but the lack of WiFi sync is another rant altogether :? ) I do frequently beam files off of my laptop to my Pocket PC and back since a simple IR squirt is much faster for smaller files than waiting for ActiveSync to get up and running. Of course, IR is much easier to send data to other devices than bluetooth is, especially as a one time shot of contacts or a file or two. That alone would keep me from seriously considering the M600. Note too that some of you have a foldable IR keyboard that obviously wouldn't work with the M600, and this eliminates any possibility of using the PDA as a TV remote. I did that one time to see how it worked and never again. I know some of you though love the Nevo type software. Am I in the minority though on the importance of IR today?
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12-01-2005, 02:03 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 634
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The only thing I use IR for is Nevo, especially since my husband like to hog the remote. :wink:
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12-01-2005, 03:26 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 450
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Why did no one tell me before that that red thingey at the left side of my PDA can be used for transmitting data? I disassembled my PDA2K and used it to make my Bluetooth LED purple, by glueing the red plastic onto the blue LED...  ops: :roll:
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12-01-2005, 03:32 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 6
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"I could care less" is incorrect. "I couldn't care less" is correct.
Don't mean to be a stickler :wink: , but the correct phrase for the second sentence of statement 4 "Never or almost never. I could care less about IR." should be "I couldn't care less..."
If one could care less, then there is still some caring left in them. 
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12-01-2005, 03:38 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Last time I tried to use IR was to beam a contact to a colleague. Futzed with it for a while and couldn't get the devices to talk. We popped up BT had had it done post haste.
Only thing that has ever had any interest to me with IR is printing, and that is rare.
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Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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12-01-2005, 03:40 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,520
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IR is one of those things that I always mean to use but haven't gotten around to. So if a device didn't have it, I'd probably complain.
But if you called me on it, I'd have to back down.
Remote control is something that I think about more and more as my Home Theatre PC set up is realized over time.
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Phone: Nexus one Backup Phone: AT&T Samsung Jack; Future Phone: I'm Watching WP7; Media Player: Platinum Zune HD 32GB; Home Server: HP MediaSmart Server LX195 Console: XBox 360, PS3, Wii |
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12-01-2005, 03:56 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 129
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If more offices had IR capable printers, I would use it more.
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12-01-2005, 04:01 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 952
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I use it mostly for remote control. Surprisingly one of the fun things an Samsung SCH i730 can do is act as a decent TV remote. Not as good as the iPaqs with NEVO but decent.
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12-01-2005, 04:35 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Re: Do You Use Infrared?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
To this day, I make sure my laptops have IR on them
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It's probably Sony's fault, but I've gotten used to laptops without IR (in my defense, this was some time ago; I'd never buy a Sony laptop now post-DRM-evil). For file transfer, I use my Sandisk SD Ultra II card with an embedded USB connector. Works great. And as for an IR keyboard, I'd much rather use a BT keyboard.
<shrug> The one thing I've done with IR on nearly every Pocket PC is to turn off beam receive, and that's been it. I see the value of beaming for business card exchange, but the human interaction protocol (HIP?  ) still suggests paper cards, which I then proceed to type in and tear up. I've only occasionally done IR send/receive with others for fun, and not anytime in the last 2-3 years.
The notion of a remote control is interesting to me, but on many of the newer Pocket PCs, the position of IR is in a bizarre place, making it unintuitive, and the strengths vary greatly. I guess I could use my old iPAQ for a remote control, but the battery's just about dead... and I'm tempted by this (admittedly freaking expensive) remote control. :drool: (They do have cheaper units, too.)
--janak
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12-01-2005, 05:09 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,768
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I have an older HP 2215 that I used with Nevo quite a bit. With my new QTek9100 (HTC Wizard), I do not use my PPC for that anymore. I do however, occasionally still need IR. Mostly to send a business card or to beam a file. Not all devices have BT and IR is the lowest common denominator. Not to mention the Wizard does not support BT OBEX yet.
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Jonathan (JonnoB)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke
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