I have been looking into getting my first pda to find out if I can become a user who will benefit from its business capabilities. I do not doubt its functionality in that regard. However, never having had one, I was thinking if I find myself not using it for the intended purpose it could be useful as a programmable remote like the Pronto/Marantz I have.
So far the story I read on that topic is that either ipaqs do not work well at all for IR due to short range or, it may be a software issue and some of them may do IR functions well and others not. Can someone please clear this up for me.

I understand from several posts that Dell does not have a problem with IR.

Thanks