kevinmc's Full Review: Logitech Internet (967057-0403) Keyboard
Updated: April 26, 2003
Many of the problems I previously hammered home about logitechs software (in regards to winamp) have been fixed in their newer versions. However many still exist. And it is still certainly bloatware. Privacy issues still exist by default.
However, new versions of this keyboard have made substancial improvements (eg new boards have rotary volume knobs)
--- Original review below ---
I recently purchased this keyboard because it claims to operate winamp as well as having fully programmable buttons.
This is a total fallacy.
If winamp is visible (not in the tray) it will work with the forwards backwards play etc buttons however the volume buttons do not operate the winamp volume they operate the system volume level. completely useless if you have amplified speakers and use the line out port.
The media button is supposed to launch your favorite player and is _supposed_ to be configurable. However it just displays a list of all the players installed on your system forcing you to use your mouse or a shortcut key to launch the actual program. Logitech claims to have a workaround on their site for this but it doesnt work. least not in windows xp.
On top of all that the itouch software uses (on my system) a whoping 4,744kb of ram when running and idle. More if you launch a program. For a simple keyboard trapping app thats totally sick. If you install mouseware its up to 10 or so for both. If you've only got 32 megs of ram you've just lost 1/3 of your system resources for a few stupid little buttons that dont work right.
The itouch buttons, the reason for buying this keyboard instead of a smaller one just dont work right. When you set them to launch a webpage they dont open their own browser window. They just reuse whatever window you're trying to read at that moment. Which for anyone who actually multitasks is a true pain in the a$$.
On top of all of that the keys are delayed, eg if you press next twice on the next keys for winamp it takes like 2 full seconds to go two songs next... vs pressing the b hotkey which does it like instantly when winamp is active.
On the issue of programmable buttons, only a few of them actually are. The big buttons at the top can mostly be programmed but the volume keys cannot, the mute cant the media key cant, and the forward back buttons can only be programmed through manually editing an ini file and then will only work on a forground application thats not in the systray. (eg it uses a lame appActivate call instead of a proper api call) the go and back buttons cant be set to anything but their default actions. Eg if you wanted to set the arrow to tab to goto links and the go to execute the selected link (for easy 1 hand page navigation) thats totally not possible.
To make matters totally worse, logitech spams their website by default on EVERY button. Thus tracking your IP address and IE ver etc any of the nice CGI variables that are available to the logitech servers through your web browser. and if thats not enough if you are viewing a page and press a button, the site you are currently lookin at's referrer field is sent to the site thus allowing them to track your ip, browsing habbits and system info. This is corporate spyware at its finest.
Bottom line, this could be a really nice keyboard if the software backing it up worked at all and was properly configurable but its just not even close to acceptable yet so, its time for this big peice of junk to go back to the store for a simpler non-logitech model.
Buy this keyboard if you like sacrificing your privacy and desktop space for buttons that dont work as advertised.
I've emailed logitech, and am more than willing to say this publically and non-anonymously. So you can check my site http://www.kevin-mcarthur.com (im a programmer by the way) and I might make some custom drivers for it because the actual hardwares not half bad (why i bought it). Its logitech software dept I've got a beef with not the hardware side of the company because this board is really not half bad as a peice of hardware.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.