Say goodbye to cords.
Written: Jun 13 '01 (Updated Jun 13 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Nice solid feel to the mouse, good spring to the keys
Cons: I just erased the review I was typing thanks to the mouse software.
The Bottom Line: Now a wired keyboard and mouse seem as funny a concept as a wire running from my remote to my TV.
|
|
|
| sprint_sucks's Full Review: Logitech Cordless Desktop ITouch (967063-0403) Key... |
Disclaimer: This review is on the $70 version from Logitech. I'm not sure what the differences are, other than design. (And possibly the way it connects to your computer.)
The Logitech cordless mouse and keyboard combination are great. I bought the set four months ago because I was tired of having to hit the 4 key many times before I could get a dollar sign. Or because I WOULD BE WATCHING T.V. AS I TYPED AND SUDDENLY REALIZE EVERYTHING WAS IN CAPS BECAuse I had pressed the shift key and when I let go, it stayed down.
Anyhow, the package comes with a CD containing software and three pieces of hardware.
RECEIVER
The first piece is the receiver. It's a 1 inch tall by 3 inch wide by 4 inch deep plastic gray box. I used to keep it hidden at the back of the desk behind a photo until I moved my desk around and now it's just tucked away behind the monitor. It has one long cord at the back that splits into two plugs at the other end. One plugs into the mouse port and the other into the keyboard port. (It's possible that the more expensive version uses a USB connection instead.) It's powered by your computer so there's no batteries or power adapters to deal with.
It contains a single button "connect" and similar "connect" buttons are located on the bottom of the keyboard and mouse. They are designed to re-synch the devices should they ever stop communicating with one another. I have never experienced this in all the time I've had them, even when I (I'm impatient, sue me) plugged the receiver in before installing the software -- they worked right away.
KEYBOARD
The keyboard is about the size of a regular keyboard. It contains the standard 101-key layout, including "Windows" keys on either side of the keyboard and a "Menu" key next to the "Windows" key on the right. There are little flip down tabs on the back to make it stand up taller like other keyboards, and a plastic wrist rest you can snap onto the front. I found that since the keyboard was wireless, I was moving it around too much (picking it up, setting it on the exercise bike's handle bars, etc.) that I removed the wrist-rest right away and tossed it back into the box. On the back there is a compartment for two AA batteries (duracel, included).
In addition to the normal keys, it features three small dark gray buttons between the arrow array and the delete-end-pagedown cluster. They are small and ovalish, and very easy to press. (They don't stick up like the keys around them, so you can't accidentally hit them.) They are labelled WWW, Mail and Search (and have little pictures on them). The Logitech software lets you set them up any way you want, so I've got mine set up to go to Hotmail.com, load Outlook, or compose a new message in Outlook. When you press the button, the name of the operation (as you've named it) appears in two-inch tall green letters in the bottom center of your screen while it's loading the program or website you've requested.
MOUSE
The mouse is the size and shape of a normal mouse, pretty much. It has a great feel to it. It's a two-button wheel mouse. Underneath the mouse is a tab that you press in and then all of the top of the mouse, except the buttons slides off and that's how you insert the two AAA batteries (duracel, included). I guess the mouse is probably a little longer than most mouse, but I find the shape fits my hand better. I'm pretty impressed with the engineering, being able to put the transmitter and batteries in there. The mouse is well-balanced. The ball is in the center of the bottom and it never feels top or bottom heavy.
When I bought my computer 5 years ago, I paid $60 for a Microsoft roller mouse because I loved the roller mouse I had at work. Unfortunately, it never got along all that well with my computer. My wife begged me a number of times to throw it out (which may have contributed to my going shopping that day). It was also responsible for a lot of lockups of freezes, especially in earlier versions of Internet Explorer. Not so with this mouse. The software seems to be much more stable.
I've also noticed that this mouse doesn't get nearly as dirty inside as the Microsoft mouse did. I think that there are fewer gaps on top, and a slightly different design inside the ball cavity make it less likely for dirt to get trapped on the rollers (these are fat and narrow, as opposed to Microsoft's long and skinny). Dirt on the rollers is what causes your mouse to start acting jerky.
SOFTWARE
One odd thing is that when you press down on the wheel, it brings up this giant round menu that Logitech's designed. The options spread out from the center like pieces of a pie. On the left side there are options like "Favorites", "Stop", "Back", etc., and on the right are options like "Shopping", "Sports", "News", which would take you to sites of their choosing. I never use that. I clicked on it when I was writing my review earlier and accidentally chose something and it took me away from my review. (This part came much earlier in the previous incarnation of this review.)
To conserve power, there are no lights on this keyboard to tell you if you have the caps lock, scroll lock or number lock off on. Instead, they are represented on your system tray.
Installing this software adds 5 (yes, FIVE) icons to your system tray. There's one for the mouse, one for the keyboard, one for the num lock, one for the caps lock and one for the scroll lock. You can turn these off by right clicking on them.
The software installs two folders into your program menu, "Logitech MouseWare" and "Logitech iTouch". You will use these so infrequently that you can move them to your "Unsorted Installed Junk" folder you've got hidden inside "Accessories" and rarely if ever need to run any of the programs in either of these folders again.
ON SCREEN ICONS
The mouse one is activated from the mouse control panel applet. If you left click on it, it will tell you what it thinks of the battery. (Mine's always said "Good".) Right clicking gives you the option of going to the control panel, hiding the icon or going to help.
The keyboard one is activated from the software in your program directory. (Since I hide programs/folders I don't use, I could not remember how to reactivate these icons tonight.) Left-clicking shows you what each of your three buttons are assigned to do and you can click on them to perform those options. Unlike the mouse icon which looks like a mouse, the keyboard icon is the upper-torso of an white-AOL-buddy-like-dude with his arms raised and a fat lowercase i with a green bottom and red dot. Right clicking allows you to reassign the "iTouch" buttons, visit the iTouch Website, do a Web Update, Help, About and Exit (which makes the icon go away, and takes away the other three icons if they're visible, also.) If you restart the program, all the icons come back and you can elect to get the other three without this icon.
The next three help you to know if your caps lock (A), num lock (1) or scroll lock (arrow pointing down at a line) are on. When they're off, the icons are small gray raised boxes with darker gray images. When they're on, the buttons look depressed, the images turn black and a bright green stripe appears. Left clicking any image will show you the status of all three buttons. Right clicking will give you the option of hiding that one button or going to configuration. This is kind of handy, you can have just the num lock and caps lock icons if you want.
HOW WELL DO THEY WORK?
Otherwise, these two devices work just like you'd expect their wired counterparts to work. Except that you can have someone sit at the computer and take the keyboard and mouse and stand behind them and give them a tour of something without having to reach around them or lean over them.
Oh, and I've had the computer on pretty much non-stop for the four months that I've had these devices and they don't show any signs of having drained the batteries yet. I know they have some memory conservation built in, but I assume that you can make them last even longer by turning off the computer.
If it turns out that these aren't compatible with the next computer I purchase than I will go back and get the USB version. The keyboard has a great feel to it, really resilient keys. The mouse has a great feel to it, well balanced, very responsive. And neither have pesky cords.
And that, my friends, is joy.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 70
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sprint_sucks
|
|
Location: Seattle, Wash.
Reviews written: 108
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
Crikey.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.