Thanks for visiting Palm Discovery

A BIG THANKS goes to Palm Addicts for the recent mention of Palm Discovery on their front page!

Palm Discovery would like to extend a BIG THANKS to Thomas of USB Fever for providing the product for this review.

Are you one of those people who are still using an older computer (like me. Okay, my laptop does have infrared support but I’m sure many others do not) and wish to try to squeeze out some extra features and functionality out of it as much as you can? Ever wished that your computer had infrared receiving capability? Well, now it can!

With USB Fever’s USB to IRDA Super mini USB adapter, you can easily add infrared capability to the aging computer that originally did not have infrared support. Especially since some of us use Palms or other mobile devices that have an infrared port, it would be nice to be able to transfer some of the data from the PDA to the computer rather than plugging in the hotsync cables and doing a hotsync. And even then, you are only synchronizing specific PIM (Personal Information Manager) type files. If you wanted to transfer a specific file, you can’t do so with hotsync.

For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

The package includes the tiny and I really mean an extremely tiny USB to IrDA adapter plus a mini CD that includes the necessary drivers to install to enable this little adapter to work as a very decent infrared receiver. I’m actually quite AMAZED at how tiny this little adapter is. It’s hardly bigger than the tip of a finger.

Click on the thumbnail images for a bigger picture

Product Video

Video at YouTube

More details (taken from USB Fever’s website):

Functions:

- USB to IrDA Adaptor x 1
- Driver CD x 1

The mini CD contains drivers to a huge list of products so it may be a bit confusing to figure out which folder to venture to and install the driver. Go into the USB to Super Mini IRDA folder and then select the relevant Windows Operating system you are currently using: Drv98 (for Windows 98), DrvME (for WinME), Drv2000 (for Windows 2000), DrvXP (for Windows XP).

With the drivers installed, simply plug and play! Your computer will now be able to receive infrared beams from your smartphone, cellular phone, or another other infrared beaming devices. Plug in the adaptor into the USB port or USB hub and you should notice that the red LED light will turn on to indicate that it’s working and plugged in. To receive or send files via infrared simply align your adapter to the infrared port of your target (eg. Palm, PDA, cellular phone, etc).

If beaming from a PDA device to the infrared adaptor, simply set it up and initiate the beam. The adaptor will detect the infrared beam and start up the infrared software program in the system tray. It will likely come up with a pop up window regarding the detection of a file being sent from an infrared device. You can also send files from your computer via infrared using the IrDA adaptor. Simply launch the program and select the file you wish to send, align the infrared ports and it should work.

Here are my observations:

What can I say? This is so AMAZINGLY small in size. I am quite flabbergasted that such a tiny device can work. And it works very well. With this adaptor, you can now send and receive files between your computer and other infrared supported mobile device (eg. cellular phone, PDA, etc) with ease, adding the added convenience of wireless transfer to your old computer.

I can’t find any fault with this adaptor. I guess the only thing I can say is that it’s so tiny that you may miss it. A possible suggestion is maybe adding an extension cable so that you can align the infrared port in a position that is more suitable since most USB ports are normally located at the back of a computer (especially desktop computers). Having such an extension cable will allow easier access to the infrared port than being stuck using it right at the USB port. Otherwise, there isn’t anything I can say about this IrDA adaptor. Of course, you can always buy an extension cable or use one that may be supplied by other USB devices but it’s much nicer if it’s supplied. It’s so nice that this infrared adapter is so small and works.

Review Summary

Stop the press! This is one tiny and amazing IrDA adaptor that works and about the size of the tip of your finger. If you’ve been complaining that you don’t have infrared support for your old computer, this is the best solution. It takes up so little space and works so well. You can send and receive files between your computer (via the adaptor) and your other infrared mobile device that you may wonder how you could have been without it for so long.

Check out USB Fever’s Super Mini USB to IrDA Adapter here.

Palm Discovery.net again wishes gives a BIG THANKS to Thomas of USB Fever for providing this nifty little accessory for the review.

Thanks for visiting and supporting Palm Discovery. If you are not reading this article from Palmdiscovery.com or Palmdiscovery.net, the website you are reading it from is copying and posting my content without consent. Please visit Palm Discovery for the original source of the material.

Kinoma Player 4 EX

Del.icio.us categories: archives categories usbfever super-mini-usb-to-irda-adaptor usb-to-irda-adaptor usb-adaptor hardware-review

Popularity: 12% [?]