The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

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doug-doug the mighty's picture
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The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

Was thinking about picking up a good Classic laptop to use with my Newton. I need the Geoport (so a PDQ PowerBook) or a ______________?

Having trouble finding the answer and I prefer not to use USB adapters if possible.

TIA.

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Re: The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

If you only care about IrDA I believe the last Mac laptop to have it was the second-generation Titanium G4. (The 550-667mhz model, identifiable by a small infrared window on the corner opposite the power plug on the back.) Does a Newton do IrDA? I honestly don't know...

Maybe this is helpful?

http://lowendmac.com/2015/irtalk-irda-and-the-mac/

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Re: The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

The 5300 Had IR.

Steven Smile

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Re: The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

gsmcten:
Now that you mention the 5300, I do recall having something like one of these in my store unit (not sure if it was actually an older one or what), I just need to pick up a power brick to bring it to life - I will look into this in the coming weeks as I clean my unit up.

Eudi:
Yes, the any Newton can dock via IrDA or by MacSerial (Geoport). Things are less complicated if you are running Classic OSes but you *can* use the OS X versions to load packages and sync things up and you *can* use USB-Serial adapters but I want the most simple, natural way I can. So I was thinking a pure Classic OS on a laptop that meets the port needs (Geoport and/or Ir). Of course I want the most evolved hardware I can get.

Knowing now that the Ti-Books had IR and most could do native Classic, I can consider those machines as well. The end goal here is a Classic laptop that will be a docking station for my Newtons (100 and 2100) but may also be used for iTunes (2.x). I may task it for some basic entertainment functions like DVD viewing if the machine is capable of this without much work. If I stick to the early-gen laptop I have in storage then I obviously won't view DVDs here.

So now I will do some more homework...

Thanks for the info.

***BTW: The latest/last laptop I can find that had the Geoport was the G3 PDQ, the one one right before Lombard and Pismo. Can anyone verify this?

alk
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Re: The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

Yes. The last PowerBook with classical serial ports (not USB) was the PowerBook G3 (PDQ or Wallstreet II).

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Re: The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

I've been considering grabbing a VGA TiBook for the exact same reason as they are in fact the last portables with IR built in. Right now I am currently using my 3400 or PDQ G3 to IR stuff to the Newtons. Make sure if you get a 667 it isn't the later DVI model because thats when the IR port was removed. The last desktop I think would have been the original iMac G3.

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Re: The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

I've always vaguely wondered if the wireless module inside the original tray-loader iMacs would be compatible with other machines. Internally it connects to what seems to be a normal Mac serial port (old how-tos used to explain how you could pop off the plastic cover on the bottom of the machine, unplug it, and use the port as a localtalk/serial port), is there anything special about that port or could you take the module from a disassembled iMac, plug it into, say, a Beige G3, and get the same IR functionality?

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Re: The last Mac laptop to have an IR port was?

I used my Bondi iMac's IR port to sync my Hamdspring PDA and to sync my Newton MP2100. Never had an issue there.

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