A.2 Infrared (IR)
IR is another technology that's seen better days, but once again, its
replacements
are still struggling to standardize. Consequently, you may find it worth your time and effort to make IR work on your Mac.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, IR is also referred to as IrDA, short for Infrared Data Association. IrDA is the
name
for both the body that creates IR standards as well as the protocol they've created.
IR is quite possibly the most popular form of wireless technology on
earth, simply because it's used in so many places other than computers:
it's the technology that's used by most remote controls, so it's
included in almost everything in your home theater setup. A short time
ago, we
replaced
an air conditioner in our office, and the new unit came with an IR
remote control. And, as you already know from having to point your
remote at your TV set in order to change the station, IrDA involves
short-range line-of-sight connections between two devices.
However, Apple's made it pretty darn clear that IR is the past, and
Bluetooth is the future. If you're considering buying a phone or Palm
device with IR support, we strongly recommend that you consider one with
Bluetooth instead (or in addition). IR in Mac OS X has considerably
fewer capabilities than it did under OS 9 (such as file transfers), and
it's not likely that Apple will offer much in the way of future support.
After all, they haven't introduced an IrDA-equipped Mac in almost two
years
.
If you have a Mac that was introduced after January 2002, you don't
currently have IrDA. If you have an older Mac, the "Apple and IR: a
Brief History" sidebar and Table A-1 will tell you if your Mac currently
has an IR port. You can also tell by looking for an IR port; Figure A-3
shows its location on a PowerBook G4.
Table A-1. Which Macs support IRTalk and which support IrDA
Macintosh model
|
IRTalk
|
IrDA
|
PB 190
|
Yes
|
No
|
PB 5300
|
Yes
|
No
|
PB 1400
|
Yes
|
No
|
PB 3400
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
PB 2400
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
PB G3 (early)
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
PB G3 (later)
|
No
|
Yes
|
PB G4 (through Gigabit Ethernet)
|
No
|
Yes
|
iMac (Rev. A and B only)
|
No
|
Yes
|
Figure A-3. The IR port (circled) on a PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)
Apple and IR: A Brief History
Apple has shipped a variety of Macs with number of different infrared
receivers, starting with the Mac TV in 1993. Unfortunately, this machine
(along with a few others) only used IR for input, so the included
remote control could send commands to the Mac's internal TV tuner.
Starting with the PowerBook 190, Apple started to include IR on its
laptops as an early way to share files if you didn't happen to have
network cables on hand. These machines (which also included the
PowerBook 5300 and PowerBook 1400) were not IrDA-compliant ”instead,
they used an Apple-proprietary technology called IRTalk, which was used
to transport AppleTalk via IR. These were the first Macs with
bi-directional
IR, although IRTalk has data throughput speed of only 230 Kbps. In
effect, IRTalk was a wireless replacement for an AppleTalk or serial
cable between machines.
In 1997, with the PowerBook 3400, Apple made the decision to support
both IRTalk and IrDA, as the latter can handle AppleTalk and TCP/IP as
well as connecting to external devices at up to 4 Mbps. Consequently,
the 3400, 2400, and early G3 models are the only laptops that can use IR
to communicate with both early and later IR-equipped machines.
In 1998, Apple shipped their only IrDA-compatible desktop machine and
their first IR-capable machine to not support IRTalk: the Revision A and
B Bondi Blue iMacs. IR on the desktop was discontinued in 1999 with the
fruit-colored (revision C) iMacs.
The PowerBook G3 Series (Bronze Keyboard) shipped in 1999, and was the
first IR-equipped PowerBook to not support IRTalk. All PowerBooks from
this one up until the PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) in 2001 came with
IrDA-only capability. No iBook has come with IR.
The PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) was the last Mac to include IR, and
Macintoshes introduced in 2002 and later do not ship with IR. Table A-1
shows which Macs support which protocol.
|
Don't have IrDA on your Mac? If you find that you need it, don't give up
yet ”as long as you have USB, you can use MadsonLine's
(http://www.madsonline.com/) $58 USB-IrDA Adapter (seen in Figure A-4).
Just plug it in, and you've got an IR-equipped Mac. In fact, because IR
is so picky about line-of-sight and distance issues, it can be easier to
use the MadsonLine adapter, because it attaches to your Mac via a USB
cable ”so you can point it in any direction you want.
Figure A-4. MadsonLine's USB-IrDA Adapter
|
If you're using a PowerBook that's plugged into a BookEndz dock, you
have two choices if you want to use IR: use the MadsonLine adapter, or
detach your laptop from the dock every time you need to use IR. Photo
Control (the
makers
of the BookEndz dock) claim that "the angled IrDA port allows easy side
access to infrared transmission," but we've never been able to get that
to work.
|
|
Hooking the adapter up is as easy as plugging in a USB cable. Once you
do that, go into your Network Control panel, and you'll see a message
like the one in Figure A-5.
Figure A-5. Mac OS X has recognized a new device; in this case, the IrDA adapter
A.2.1 Configuring IrDA
Whether your Mac came with IR installed, or whether you added it via an
adapter, it needs to be set up to use it. Start off by going into the
Network Control Panel. To modify the IrDA Modem Port preferences, show
the Network Port Configurations Pane and click the "On" button
next
to "IrDA Modem Port," as shown in Figure A-6.
Figure A-6. The IrDA Modem Port needs to be turned on in order to configure it
Figure A-7 shows the IrDA Modem Port Pane and the IrDA Modem tab. IrDA
devices can be used as a modem in a similar fashion to the way Bluetooth
devices can be used as a modem, as described in Chapter 7.
Figure A-7. The IrDA Modem Port pane
If you click the "Show IrDA status in menu bar" check box, the current
status of the IR port will be displayed. Depending on the current
status, different icons are shown, as in Figure A-8.
Figure A-8. The five faces of IrDA: discovering, idle, off, connected, and broken beam
The first icon is "Discovering" and the second is "Idle." So long as
IrDA is on and no IrDA-compatible devices are found within range, your
Mac will constantly cycle between these two icons. If IrDA is turned
off, the third icon will display. The fourth icon, "Connected," will
display when an IrDA device is found. The last icon, "Broken Beam," will
display if you've been connected, but the connection has been
interrupted
.
If you take a look at the IrDA pull down menu while you're connected,
you'll see a menu like the one in Figure A-9. The first line
tells
you information about your connection, the second allows you to
turn
IrDA off, and the third lets you control whether or not you want sounds to be
played
when a device is found.
Figure A-9. A successful IrDA connection
A.2.2 IR and Palm Devices
Before Bluetooth was added to Palm devices, there was IR, and Palm still
sells many devices that don't have Bluetooth. No, you don't always have
to lug around cables and docks ”you can use IrDA to sync the two.
Syncing your Palm using the IR port on your Mac is almost identical to
that of using Bluetooth, as described in Chapter 6. Consequently, we'll
only cover the differences here.
-
Turn off the IrDA Modem Port off, as shown back in Figure A-6. The IR port can only be used for one purpose at a time.
-
Make sure that the IR port is turned on in HotSync Software Setup
Conduit Settings, as shown in Figure A-10.
Figure A-10. Turning on the IR port
-
On the Palm, change the connection type to "IR to a PC/Handheld," and make sure you've
chosen
a "Local" connection.
-
Make sure that the IR port on the Palm and the IR port on the Mac are
facing
each other, and are less than three feet away.
-
Tap the HotSync button on the Palm, and syncing should begin.
-
Have patience, as syncing via IR can be very slow.
A.2.3 Other IR Devices
There are a number of other IR devices of varying
usefulness
, but overall, they're becoming less common as Mac OS X becomes more
popular. The accessories don't make the transition ”for instance, when
was the last time you used a Newton? IR-enabled printers, for example,
are being phased out as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-capable printers are being
introduced.
One handy device we've found, though, is the Keyspan Digital Media
Remote, (Figure A-11) particularly if you don't have the capability to
run Salling Clicker, which uses Bluetooth.
Figure A-11. The Keyspan Digital Media Remote and receiver
This device comes with its own IR receiver, which works (or so Keyspan
claims) up to 35 feet away from the remote. You do have to be in
line-of-sight, but from our experience, it's
fairly
forgiving
. It can control everything from PowerPoint to Keynote to iTunes to DVD
Player. Installation is simple; just plug it in and install drivers.
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The Keyspan Presentation Remote (mentioned earlier) clearly came out
after the Keyspan DMR, because the former went overboard in fixing a
problem of the latter: it's too easy to press the
buttons
on the DMR,
causing
it to run out of battery life just because the remote got wedged tightly in your briefcase. We've found two good solutions:
-
Put a piece of paper or light cardboard in between the battery and the
case, so that the remote can't be turned on without it being removed.
-
The remote is just slightly smaller than the size of a typical metal
container of mints. Clean the tin out thoroughly, put the remote in the
tin, put the tin in your briefcase, and it'll never get wedged again.
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Infrared is likely to be the last technology you'll have to deal with
that will require both devices to be within line-of-sight of each other.
Thankfully, its short distance and location requirements have combined
to make it trailing-edge technology.
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