[NTLK] Android IrDA (was: Einstein on Android)

[Tony Morrow]

On Jan 25, 2017, at 9:06 PM, Dan <dan at dbdigitalweb.com> wrote:

> On 1/25/2017 8:39 PM, Doug wrote:
>> IrDA stands for both the Infrared Data Association standards group as
>> well as the set of protocols.
>> 
>> NTLK archive searches confirm an Apple engineer stating the Newton is
>> fully IrDA compliant. Great. Use IrDA to transfer .pkg files from an
>> SD card to the Newt, I though.
> *snip*
> Yep, but only the 2x00 is IrDA compliant.  And I *think* the eMate, but
> not the OMP, 110, 120, 130.
> 
> -Dan

My memory is fuzzy on this so please correct me: the other problem is out of the box the Newton doesn’t talk industry standard protocols over IrDA. Two Newtons can send and receive information between each other (although I think there are limitations between 1.0 & 2.0), but a Newton doesn’t know what to do when trying to talk with a PC, late 90’s PDA, or modern smartphone.

Eckhart Köppen wrote some apps for the Newton to make IrDA (and Bluetooth) transfers possible. "Nitro adds the TinyTP, IrCOMM and IrOBEX missing layers via a Newton OS Communication Tool… "Neo installs three OBEX transports (one for Bluetooth, one for IrDA, one for TCP/IP) which can be used to send and receive objects in the same manner as any other transport (e.g. email)…” They work, but there are limitations. Neo can only send/receive text based information. Eckhart had planned to add more capability for Neo, but the project was never finished. Even if you did find a smartphone with IrOBEX support sending packages won’t be possible.

Eckhart’s site: <https://40hz.org/Pages/40Hz>

Do smartphones still support OBEX? I’ve not used it in almost 10 years. I remember sharing ringtones from with friends from flip phones (unless they were on Verizon in the US who crippled the ability) over Bluetooth. That was an OBEX transfer.

Tony Morrow
http://lookanotherblog.com