I have an actual Pronto but

1) If you go with what most people get on the few forums I visit, Dell and Compaq seem to be the most popular. The compaqs with Nevo have a built in consumer grade IR, so you won't need the CF card like you will need with the Dell

2) Don't know of any RF for control of electronic equipment. Not sure of the question

3) Yes, but I think the ipacs 39XX you can have both since they have good IR (look for the ones with NEVO)

4)B&O uses a high frequency. I know the Prontos can handle it, but don't know if a PDA can. On the range and dispersion, my experience (and others) is that the Pronto is stronger then what is available for PDAs

------------

Also since you are talking about PCs in the same section, there are three programs (I think) that can be used, there is the one from PDAwin, that uses IR and then there is Netremote and mainlobby that were both created for HTPCs and use 802.11b. I don't know if they can be made (through the PC or on their own) to control equipment through IR