Tech Talk at ShieldsGroup

When we do presentations on the big screen, we sometimes want to do some navigating and even editing that a standard presentation mouse does not afford. As such, we use a wireless keyboard so we can make changes on the fly. There have been times when, realizing something needed to be changed within the presentation, I’ve blanked the screen and made some edits while someone else is on the platform. It’s very handy.

We recently replaced our Globlink ifree GL3001 wireless keyboard. It usually functioned well, but from time to time it would fail to connect with the receiver, requiring removing batteries, restarting the PC, and doing handsprings and backflips to get it to work again. This failure seemed to happen at the most inopportune moment — as people were arriving for a meeting.

The keyboard we bought to replace the GL3001 is the Logitech diNovo Edge pictured here.

This bluetooth keyboard worked right out of the box.

I installed the software because it has several extra features including:

• The ability to adjust mouse speed. (The mouse is a touchpad on the lower right of the keyboard. If you hate touchpads, get over it — they are here to stay.)
• The ability to assign function buttons.
• The ability to interface with multi-media functions.

These features were important to us.

The keyboard itself is beautifully designed. The unit stores as seen in the image above so that it can be charging when not in use. Additionally, vertical storage takes less space and collects less dust around the keys.

If you’re thinking of getting a wireless keyboard, you might want to consider the following:

• Be sure your keyboard is RF wireless and not IR wireless. IR depends on sight, like your television remote control. If IR is not able to see the receiver or bounce a signal to it, it won’t work. RF can go around people and around corners, like your cordless phone. You’re not going to get huge distances on any keyboard, but most RF keyboards will work if you’re in the room.
• Be sure it has a mouse built into it. Our primary reason for having a wireless keyboard is so that we can make changes when away from the computer standing or sitting. It’s hard to be mobile when you have to carry a mouse in one hand and a keyboard in the other.
• You may want to make sure your keyboard has rechargeable batteries. Our ifree took alkaline cells and we had to remove them when it was not being used or we would only get about one month out of the batteries.

I’d be interested in reading about your experiences with wireless keyboards. If you have comments or even questions, please post them here.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 6:57 pm and is filed under General Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.