Monday, December 17, 2007

Hit Them Keyboards! - Which is best????

Trek thru wireless keyboard/mouse land!

It began with a failing wired mouse. Logitech is my usual choice.

The thing suddenly began double-clicking resulting in some weird activity. I decided it was time for a trip to Radio Shack....long a favorite place of mine dating back to the days of patch wires, etc.

I located a young man who was English-challenged....but enthusiastic. He quickly took me to a "special" on a mouse/keyboard wireless duo....something I had not considered. To date my wireless equipment had been limited to mice! The unit, by "LabTech" was quite highly recommended by the salesman, and it was closing out for just $19.95...throw in a 2 year extended warranty for $5.99 and you have a reasonable option.

Home....setup, and wait. The thing comes with a small "receiver" which has dual connectors for the keyboard and mouse slots on my PC.....then you hit "Connect" on the receiver and have 10 seconds to push a similar "connect" button on the bottom of the mouse. BINGO! So far so good. There is where it began to fall apart. It took about ten tries to get mouse and keyboard to connect. Then they worked fine....for five minutes. At that point both ceased working and would not reconnect.

I gave it a day to try twice more.....same result. Worked five minutes then died.

Back to Radio Shack. This time they pointed me (the Manager who must be at least 20 joined us) to a LogiTech unit costing $10 more......Now the $5.99 warranty is only 1 year. BUT I take it.

I must report success. This unit is slick. Same sort of "receiver" but nicely configured. The mouse connected before I began pushing buttons, and the keyboard followed closely behind. Both have now been connected through three system shutdowns and rehook up as soon as I boot. Love it....Get tired of typing, lean back in my high-back leather chair and type away from my lap with NO wires.

Software connected several additional keyboard "buttons".....now I can, from my keyboard, Mute sound or raise or lower the volume....I can stop-start-pause and restart videos from the keyboard....It also has an "X" key to close whatever window is on top...plus a "Back" key (complete with left facing arrow) to move back one screen online. They ALL work! Marvelous.

I now have invested about $40 with tax, extended warranty, etc.

My next stop was going to be the Microsoft setup, but it is more and I avoid MS when possible!

Did I mention the $10 rebate????

Nice stuff this technology!

Duke