My new Samsung E105 has an IrDA port. The manual is less than helpful, only stating that it can be used to transfer data to and from an IrDA equipped computer, and the Samsung website is even less helpful. What the heck can I use it for? Can it be used to let the phone function as a modem?
It’s an infrared data port. You can “beam” numbers between IrDA equipped phones or beam phone numbers and names (even entire sub-lists) into the phone with an IRDA quipped PDA. Most Palm PDAs have this feature onboard.
It’s infrared, for data transfer. If it’s a palm phone, and your computer has an IR port (unlikely, but you can buy an adapter for fairly cheaply) you can hotsync with it. You can also trade files with other, similarly-abled, phones.
I’ve had a phone with it for over a year now… I think I’ve used the IR port maybe four times.
Many IR-enabled phones include (or emulate) a modem; if you also have an IR-equipped laptop or PDA, you can probably use the phone to get online (I used to do this with my Nokia 8210 and Sony Clié PDA.
You will also probably find that ‘beaming’ a phone number from the phone to an IR-equipped PC creates a ‘vcard’ file on the PC, which can be opened/imported in most personal organiser software.