Smc ircc and remote control

TV's use "Consumer IR" while IrDA mode is for data. Consumer IR is
uni-directional, and is higher power, so it works further away.

The SMC IR controller is capable of both IrDA and Consumer IR.
Unfortunately, the transceiver on notebooks are strictly for IrDA (115
kbps, 1Mbps, and 4 Mbps). There is no way that you could change the
transceiver. When I worked for a manufacturer of IR chips, we did
build some all-in-one IR dongles with both IrDA and consumer IR, but
these were not the same as what is installed in the notebook.

So the short answer is no, you can't control consumer appliances with
the IrDA remote (though even this isn't totally true, as many PDAs are
able to simulate consumer IR with an IrDA tranceiver, but the distance
it works at is only a couple of feet, if that far).

There is a Handspring IR module that slid into the Springboard slot of
a Visor, and there is a Pocket PC IR adapter that plugs into the
headphone jack. But neither of these work with a regular laptop
(though the headphone jack one would work with the appropriate
software, which doesn't exist).

"http://www.griffintechnology.com/griffinmobile/totalremote/"
"http://www.pacificneotek.com/omnisb.htm"

It's too bad that no one has come up with a TV remote device for a
notebook or tablet PC. The USB IR adapters are all strictly IrDA.

The Griffin Technology "Total Remote" would certainly work with the
headphone jack of a notebook or Tablet PC, but you'd have no software
for it, since it's strictly a Pocket PC application.