hits counter

Monday, September 29, 2008

Infrared dead?

I like do-it-all devices, which is one of the reasons I'm still hanging on to my circa 2005 Windows Mobile HTC Apache (xv6700) PDA phone. True, it's not as sleek as some newer models, it doesn't have as much memory, and it's getting a little slow, but thanks to reflashing with newer, sleeker OS's, it does just about about everything I could want.

But when I first saw the specs of the HTC Touch Pro -- a thin, super-powered WinMob touchscreen with a keyboard -- I thought I might jump...until I noticed the lack of infrared. Why HTC, why? Verizon cripples your devices enough -- do you have to help them?

I know, Bluetooth, EVDO, and wi-fi make data exchange via IR redundant, but as a 24/7 PDA user, my phone is also my universal remote. Wherever I am -- sometimes even in public places -- I can fire up Novii Remote Deluxe, aim my 6700 at a TV or Tivo, and run the world. Don't make me go back to the old remote-control forest.

Bring back IR. I'll wait for you...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm with you on this. Only Palm offers IR anymore. This is the reason I got a Centro rather than a WinMo device. When transferring data, beaming is like magic, compared to the stultifying PC-as-middleman approach.

I beamed almost everything from my old PDA to the Centro.

I also have a pen scanner (C-Pen brand), from which I beam all its captured text to the Palm. Device magic.

Kalnel said...

Hi Joseph,

Yeah, it's infuriating. I have a portable Canon printer/scanner that also can connect via IR, so without the it, I can't print directly from my PDA anymore.

kal