Logitech I-Touch Wireless Keyboard (05/21/00)

Review

by Dave "Marauder" Kratky

 

Took this keyboard home a few days ago expecting to be taking it back to the store the next day and selling it. WRONG! What a nice little toy this guy is. For starters it's really sleek looking. The gray and white set each other off very nicely, and it's got pleasing contours. Installation was a snap. Just put the included batteries (YES! Batteries WERE included!) into the keyboard and plugged the remote unit into my tower where the keyboard normally goes.

Booted the machine and it worked as a normal keyboard. Installing the software was a snap and hassle free. Just dropped the software CD-ROM into the drive and followed the prompts. After it installed, I ran it and quickly configured my Internet shortcut keys for my personal home page, mail program (Defaults to Outlook Express), search engine and one extra web site. That was it, everything was good to go and worked great. Keyboard has a nice feel to it, and the wrist rest is very comfortable to use.

One thing that really threw me at first was the lack of CAPS/NUM/SCROLL lock lights on the keyboard. There are actually small icons that appear in your system tray (If you want them there) that replace the lights. I'm assuming this was done to save battery power in the keyboard. The line of buttons across the top of the keyboard were of particular interest to me, being the multimedia keys. From left to right you have: mute, volume up/down, pause/play, stop, last track and next track. THEY WORK IN WINAMP BY DEFAULT!!! YAY! No more bringing Winamp up from the task bar to change songs, or having to drop out of a game to stop the music. Just hit a key, done!

The volume is very nice as well. I use headphones on my home machine and it's a bit of a pain having to adjust my volumes in game so I'm not deafened. Now I can just use the controls on the keyboard. Very slick. Ah yes! And the coolest thing of course... No damned cord to get in your way... Just pick the keyboard up and rearrange it.. Or move it. Or whatever. :) Definitely a gadget worth getting!

Duoh. New update. Having interesting problems in Quake III. If you start hitting keys frantically in a fire fight, trying desperately to avoid the insertion of a rocket into any vital orifices the keyboard seems to forget that you released a key. Du'oh. So one strafes left... Then right... Then le... oh wait no.. Going right some more.. Into the aformentioned rocket. Mr. Keyboard got sold the next day. Damn those Logitech guys! Teasing me so brutally. <sob> Oh well, on to the next toy. Works great for everything else.