Posting here also since more will likely see then in the contest thread.
OK got my new HTPC up today and got to play with the keyboard during the installs and setting everything together. I am running Vista Home premium and MCE included in that.
Ok the keyboard works very well but bad things first you need to be aware of the range of it is a bit small. My couch is about 5 feet from the computer and normally it is great but every once in a while if it has to go through my leg or something it is hit and miss. The only other issue I had was with the track ball shifting a bit when the keyboard tilts. I know this is expected but when watching something on tv and the dog steps on the keyboard all the controls pop back up on the screen. That is about all I can say bad about it so far. There is also no power switch so will have to see about battery life.
Now the good. The track ball is great and the fact that the mouse click buttons are not on the same side is great. You can control the trackball with the right hand and click with the left holding the keyboard with both hands. It is actually pretty natural to do. The Media controls are all by themselves on the left side and include a scroll wheel it has everything there that is found on a MC remote. The other feature is across the top of the keyboard is several hotkeys. These all work as expected and include one that has a house picture that brings up your homepage anytime. The only confusion I had was the house doesn’t bring you back to the first MCE screen but instead a new webpage.
The biggest compliment I could give the keyboard though is that my wife grabbed it from me and played with it for about 30 minutes. She loved it and though she would not spend the money on it, she saw why people paid that for it. She actually normally even hates new remotes and refuses to touch my harmony but this she had no issues with it surfing the internet and running through our music selection.
So finally it is actually a very well laid out keyboard and works well. The material feels kind of light and the trackball slips a bit but nothing major. Well that is my mini review after one day playing with the keyboard. Thanks again to everyone involved in the contest it was a great prize.
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