Infrared Goes Internal

[Brandon Miniman]

Back when Bluetooth wasn’t around we had IrDA, or infrared, with which to send files between devices. The transmit speed of about 10kbps wasn’t anything to get excited about, but it was better than nothing. And it was always obvious when a device had an infrared port, because it looked similar to that on the top of a remote control – a black piece of plastic, as seen below.

Now in 2006 – devices don’t have IrDA ports anymore. Or so I thought. The last few devices that I’ve gotten to play with had no sign of an IrDA port, and yet, the specifications said otherwise. And since the specs usually don’t lie, I decided to poke around in one of these newer devices to find a trace of infrared functionality. Low and behold, if you click onto a file, you still have the option to beam it to another device! This perplexed me. Did I miss the development of the internal IrDA port? Is someone playing tricks on me?

Anyhow – do you still use IrDA, or should OEMs phase them out?

[Pony99CA]

Both my Motorola Q and iPAQ hx2795 have obvious IR ports. The iPAQ's top (like many of their recent models) has plastic similar to that covering most IR ports, but there is a little "beam" icon to identify where the port is.

I don't know if it's still true, but all Pocket PCs had to have IR ports. I'm not sure if that was true of Smartphones, though.

By the way, I always thought the plastic is very dark red, not black.

Steve

[adamz]

The "Beam" command is also used to send files via bluetooth. Was it able to actually find any infrared recipients??

[whydidnt]

If the device has Infrared, then it HAS to have an exteranal "window" to beam from. Infrared operates by sending a infrared beam to another device - The naked eye can't see the beam, but it is a line of sight technology and will not work if there is no place for the signal to beam from.

Most likely your device has an infrared port you can't find or the "beam" function is there for use with bluetooth. It would be crazy for a manufacturer to include IR with no possible way to use it.

By the way I never use IR, it's fine with me if manufacturers phase these out. I have only used it once or twice in my life to transfer files and found it a real pain to use, getting both the laptop and PPC IR turned on, then lining up the device, etc. I definitely favor non line-of-site technologies such as bluetooth.

[Brandon Miniman]

You guys are very right - I just did a test, and indeed it WAS Bluetooth beam!

[Pony99CA]

Hmmm, I don't think they should overload the term "beaming".

However, here's how I think you can check for IR support. For Pocket PCs and Smartphones, go to Settings, Connections and see if there's a Beam applet there. I don't think Microsoft overloads that applet; instead, they use the Bluetooth Manager for configuring Bluetooth.

Steve

[MitchellO]

Hmmm, I don't think they should overload the term "beaming".

However, here's how I think you can check for IR support. For Pocket PCs and Smartphones, go to Settings, Connections and see if there's a Beam applet there. I don't think Microsoft overloads that applet; instead, they use the Bluetooth Manager for configuring Bluetooth.

Steve

On my new Treo 750v the beam applet also controls whether it can receive files via bluetooth. If the "Accept incoming beams" is not ticked, then you can't receive anything via bluetooth.

[Pony99CA]

On my new Treo 750v the beam applet also controls whether it can receive files via bluetooth. If the "Accept incoming beams" is not ticked, then you can't receive anything via bluetooth.
I have the Beam setting off on both my iPAQ hx2795 and my Motorola Q. I was able to send a file from my iPAQ to the Q using Bluetooth and vice versa. I also tried sending the file from the Q to the iPAQ (and vice versa) using IR, and that failed. Turning the Beam setting on allowed IR transfers both ways.

My Bluetooth devices are paired, so I assume that helps, but turning the Beam setting off does not prevent all Bluetooth connections. Maybe it prevents anonymous incoming connections, but I don't feel like deleting my partnerships to test that right now. :)

Does your Treo not have Bluetooth Manager software? It seems silly to have the Beam applet control Bluetooth when you can so easily turn Bluetooth off or control who can see your device.

Steve

[MitchellO]

The Treo 750v uses the standard Microsoft bluetooth software, which pales in comparison to the Broadcom software.

When I first tried to send a file to my Treo 750v without the Beam setting active, it would not connect. Since activating it receiving files works just fine.

No amount of tinkering in the Bluetooth control panel would let me send a file to the Treo. The devices were paired as well. Now that the beam option is enabled, it doesn't matter if they are paired. All I need to do is accept the transfer.

[Pony99CA]

The Treo 750v uses the standard Microsoft bluetooth software, which pales in comparison to the Broadcom software.

When I first tried to send a file to my Treo 750v without the Beam setting active, it would not connect. Since activating it receiving files works just fine.
OK, so maybe it's a Microsoft Bluetooth Stack issue. HP has always seemed to use Widcomm/Broadcom (probably because Compaq used Bluetooth before Microsoft integrated support into the OS); the Q also seems to use Broadcom (the registry has Widcomm entries in it).

Maybe the Microsoft stack uses the Beam setting but the Broadcom stack does not. That's probably something useful to know.

Steve

[MitchellO]

Yeah the Broadcom/Widcomm software is much better, and probably doesn't make use of the silly Beam option, which most would assume (reasonably so) that is only for the infrared port.