Is the ir port functional on the 7280? And if so how does one turn it on.

TIA,

AlanB

No.

I would just like to know if the (IR Port) will ever serve any purpose or if their just for show? Can't understand why it's part of the design if it has no functioanlity...

The IR port was used in old Rev's of the 72xx series ( and others ). RIM decided to remove the IR chipset to cut cost. This probably happened about 8-10 months ago.

Bummer, if there's one thing I miss from using a Palm way back was the ability to sync via the IR port and my laptop. I would love to do the same with my Blackberry.

I would love to be able to beam my contact info to others and receive theirs as well. It would be great if somehow that was compatiible with Palm OS and Pocket PC but obviously I can see the difficulty in talking with multiple languages.

better yet.

Just introduce Bluetooth and you won't need IR and you will get a lot more.

I have a great deal of difficulty believing that a piece of kit with the sophisticationof a Blackberry (I have an 8703e that I just spent a fortune on) is unable to accomplish a simple task like beaming contact information from one bb to another. Incredible. Unbelievable.

This tops off my first couple of days using this new blackberry and I must say, for the record, that my Treo 600 and 650 were much more user friendly and intuitive than this Blackberry will ever be.... to the extent that I am seriously considering dumping it and going with the Treo 700 or another Palm based product.

C'mon RIM... get with the program!