A little history on OmniRemote
Pacific Neo-Tek wrote the popular Palm application OmniRemote over two years ago. (In fact, the ground-breaking application won a PalmPower Product of the Year award in 1998 which you can read about at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199901/aprodyear001.html.)

To quickly review, the application transforms your Palm device into an incredibly versatile infrared remote control for your CD player, DVD, satellite tuner, television, cassette tape deck, and even some ceiling fans using infrared (IR). A device equipped with OmniRemote is pictured in Figure B.

FIGURE B

OmniRemote turns your Palm device into a universal remote control. Click picture for a larger image.

OmniRemote gets a sidekick
PDA D'OR is a newcomer on the scene with its PC software ORDesktop. So what's it do? ORDesktop allows you to open the OmniRemote.pdb data file on your PC and simultaneously edit all the various category screens full of buttons. This allows you to copy, paste, and drag and drop buttons across screens. For example, you can copy your volume and mute buttons to every screen for instant access. ORDesktop is pictured in Figure C.

FIGURE C

ORDesktop lets you easily edit your OmniRemote categories. Click picture for a larger image.

If you've endured an hour tinkering with OmniRemote, re-labeling and repositioning all the buttons, you'll instantly appreciate the beauty of ORDesktop. Most importantly, ORDesktop promises to let you share your OmniRemote databases or individual screens with your friends and the world. Whole libraries of pre-set screens for controlling various home theater and stereo components can now be shared online because this tool will let you copy elements or screens from one database and save them in another.

From whence such inspiration?
Peter Sharpe, the visionary behind ORDesktop, wrote the application in his spare time while away from his job at SoftQuad, the creators of HotMetal and XMetal. Peter thought OmniRemote was an "utterly fantastic idea" when he first downloaded the demo. But Peter also thought, as I did, that creating all those buttons and moving them around was a royal pain. There had to be a better way. For some months, Peter had been drawing a following of like-minded PDA groupies in a discussion thread on RemoteCentral.com. Eventually, ORDesktop was created to solve the problem.

Pacific Neo-Tek and PDA D'OR aren't affiliated in any way, but their respective products work together superbly. Jointly, the two applications-one for your handheld, and one for your PC-give Palm OS devices the magic necessary to compete with high priced universal remote controls for the honored place in the crack of your couch.

A great use for that old Palm device
You've got an old device lying around in a drawer, don't you? You can even soup up your old PDA-even if it lacks IR-by buying an OmniRemote module from Pacific Neo-Tek or the IR Blaster from Talestuff.com for about $30. The OmniRemote module is pictured in Figure D.

FIGURE D

The OmniRemote module adds or extends your device's IR capability.