What happened to infrared?

[zovirl]

2 years ago when I signed up with AT&T the free phone was a nokia 3360 with infrared. Now, I'm looking to get a new phone and none of the cheap AT&T TDMA phones have IR. In fact, of the TDMA phones in the store I only found 1 with IR.

Am I the only person who enjoyed beaming contacts from my palm pilot to my phone?

Kind of frustrating...I don't want fancy ringers, I don't want fancy color wallpaper images...I just want a cheap phone that vibrates and has IR and I can't find it.

Anybody know what happened? Why IR seems to have fallen out of favor? Any suggestions on where I can go to get a cheap phone w/ IR?

[ILUVSOCAL]

Try going to Phonescoop , it has about every phone out there, if I think of cheap phone with infrared, I'll let ya know [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[ILUVSOCAL]

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=382

I found one, the Nokia 6560, it's TDMA and it has infared! AT&T has it online for 49 bucks after a 100 dollar instant rebate, not sure what they'd charge current customers, looks like a sweet little phone!

Nokia 6560


The world's smallest TDMA phone with a color display, and Nokia's first Series 40 TDMA phone. Key features include a color display, speakerphone, Java, voice dialing, and an xHTML browser.

Offered By:
• AT&T Wireless
• Cingular
• U.S. Cellular Tentative


Modes AMPS 800 / TDMA 800 / TDMA 1900

Weight 3.11 oz (88g)

Dimensions 4.16" x 1.73" x 0.75" (106mm x 44mm x 19mm)

Form Factor Bar

Platform / OS (N/A)

Battery Life Talk: 4.00 hours
Standby: 264 hours (11 days)

Battery Type LiIon
780 mAh

Display Type: LCD (Color)
Size: 128x128 pixels
4,096 colors / STN

Antenna Type Internal

Phone Book Capacity 500

FCC ID GMLRH-25 (Approved Sep 11, 2003)


Features

Alarm works when phone is off / snooze option

Calculator plus currency converter

Calendar Yes

Custom Faceplates / Covers front and back covers

Custom Graphics wallpaper / supports JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, and WBMP formats

Custom Ringtones Yes

Data-Capable via infrared / carrier-dependent

Digital TTY/TDD Yes

EMS / Picture Messaging Yes

Games Number of games: 4
Triple Pop, Bounce, Backgammon, Chess Puzzle, plus downloadable Java games

Infrared (IR) Yes

Java (J2ME) pre-loaded applications: Portfolio and Converter

Multiple Languages Yes

Multiple Numbers per Name Numbers per entry: 5

Polyphonic Ringtones Yes

Predictive Text Entry Technology: T9

Soft Keys Number of keys: 2

Speaker Phone Yes

Text Messaging 2-Way: Yes
supports chat

Text Messaging Templates Yes

To-Do List with priority levels

Vibrate Yes

Voice Dialing Number of entries: 10
plus up to 5 voice commands for menu items

Voice Memo 3 minutes total

Wireless Internet supports xHTML / carrier-dependent


Links


Here's a pic

[zovirl]

Thanks for the reply,
AT&T said that phone would be $124 minus a $25 mail in rebate. That's with a 1yr contract by the way. That's a little more than I wanted to spend (my 3360 was free, after all) but it looks like no one gives out free phones without a 2yr contract. A result of number portability perhaps?