Logitech diNovo Mini
by Logitech
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List Price: Our Price: $109.00 You Save: $40.99 (27%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $68.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech diNovo Mini
Customer Review: Great keyboard
Summary: 5 Stars
This keyboard functions just as well as I expected. I haven't gotten a month between charges like it states (I have been getting between 2 and 3 weeks), but I believe that I use it more than a normal media center pc user. I was actually able to get this device to work with both my xbox (orig not 360) and pc. I hard-wired the provided dongle to the xbox and soldered a push-button to the connect button on the dongle, then mounted the button on the back of the xbox and hid everything inside behind the hard-drive. Now to use this device on my xbox I just have to hit the connect button on the keyboard and the self-installed button on the xbox. I also wrote a script for my living room pc to automatically connect to the keyboard if it is not currently paired with it. So all-in-all the connection functionality is great and the provided dongle (which is seen as a usb hid, human input device, like a usb keyboard or mouse) allows for connecting to all usb hid compliant devices (like an xbox) that I have tried it on. Using the keyboard is not as good as it would be with a full sized keyboard, or something like the diNovo Edge, but that is to be expected with the size of this device. I have been using htc phones for several years and this usage has gotten me used to thumbpads, so the transition was almost seamless. The only downside that I have found is that the zoom-in, zoom-out, and lower right media center button do not function in linux (no codes are registered when monitoring incoming keyboard and mouse codes). Every other key does work though, with a little customization. My final thoughts on this device are that it is an excellent device for "couch surfing", but would not be good for writing code or extremely long documents. It does function past my initial expectations though, and for this I rate it 5/5.Customer Review: Check One Out In Person
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
First, the demographics for this device are the typical teenager or college student. Sure, it looks cool and is about the size of your hand, but its size is not necessarily an advantage. It is easily charged and set up with a convenient CD package and a blue tooth USB stick.
You can text, play and watch TV/Movies from a distance (up to 30 feet), but that's if you have perfect vision. I did like the way the media-center instantly pops up and the mouse scroll is easy to work. If I want to text or write an Email, I found the keyboard to be just too small and the set-up is slightly different than a typical keyboard. If you are good at text messaging on a phone, you won't have a problem here. You can change the keyboard to be a `directional pad' or a `touch pad', which is kind of convenient.
As far as viewing anything on your television or in your stereo, you would need a direct cable connection from your PC to your entertainment center. Most people now have a mini-stereo system on their PC or a HTPC anyway. The battery life is plenty long enough and I just keep mine plugged in constantly. Like most Logitech items, the look is sleek and handsome, although the smoked plastic cover could easily be broken or cracked. I see this as a fun toy for teens or people in college or early twenties. Its interesting to see that so many modern items are getting smaller and smaller while the `boomers' group is getting older with less nimble fingers and poorer eyesight. I would inspect one in person before buying.
Customer Review: Too many glitches
Summary: 3 Stars
Main points
Pros:
-No other product like it, the concept of a good HTPC remote is hard to find (at least from reputable manufacturers)
-Once setup/working properly, it is very comfortable to hold. It's light and a perfect size for an HTPC setup.
Cons:
-Disc drivers were buggy. Do not install the drivers off the disc, get them off the site. On my Win 7 64 setup, the disc drivers disabled needed features (such as mouse sensitivity, keyboard shortcuts, etc.) in the logitech settings page. The online ones fixed this.
-Battery life is NOT NEARLY as long as advertised. They advertise 30 days on the logitech site. I get 7 at best right now (owned it for 2 months).
-My biggest complaint now is build quality. Certain buttons take more/less pressure on the keyboard. (For example, the 'o' key takes 2-3X pressure to register.) From what I've read on forums (from braver folks who disassembled it, and could identify the issues), the internal construction has too tight tolerances (e.g. wires used are barely completing circuits, causing inconsistent electrical contacts).
Summary
The only other logitech product I own is their 5.1 speaker setup, the Z-5500 digital. After 7 years, the system is running strong despite 10 relocations. All other aspects of quality are excellent. I assumed that Logitech would put the same effort into a $150 retail HTPC remote, but so far that has not been my experience. The software issues (buggy disc drivers) can happen with any product, and they are usually very easily fixed. However, had I known before the refund deadline of how poorly this thing would last (especially in terms of battery life and construction quality), I would have rather stuck with standard keyboard. Buyer beware.
Customer Review: Incredible!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is hands down the must have accessory for any HTPC. Small, stylish, backlit, bluetooth, rechargeable batteries.. it looks good ... not like a cheap POS keyboard in your living room. No, you're not going to write a novel on it - but thats not what it was designed for! I cant say enough good about this little keyboard. I have not had any issues at all with this keyboard. I have been building / using HTPC's for about 5 years. I have tried umpteen different controlling combinations of mice, trackballs, gyratron remotes, etc - pretty much everything. This thing so far is my favorite and heres why:
1 - Its tiny, but not small its unuseable. This might sound obvious, but its nice not to have to keep a full sized wireless keyboard around. With the lid closed this just looks like a high end remote control on your coffee table.
2 - The dual purpose scroll pad , while not perfect, works quite well compared to other solutions.
3 - Backlit keys - cool
4 - Has all your major media control buttons, plus a "right click" button, and a few others that actually work fairly well. I was able to surf from my couch relatively easily, very surprising how well it worked in fact. I have never used my HTPCs for such tasks as checking webmail / ebay etc but with this thing by my side I have found myself doing that much more often!
5 - Charge it for like 30 minutes and its good for a week. It would be cool if it had some kind of "base" you can just drop it on to charge, but I could see that adding considerable cost... that combined with the fact that you dont need to charge it that often, its not that big of a deal.
6 - Ctrl+Alt+Del key!
7 - Rechargeable Battery included.
Get one!
Customer Review: Great Idea but not just there yet
Summary: 3 Stars
Its a great product, a great idea but one feels that it is just not there. I've been struggling with getting a Living Room PC keyboard and tried everything that is out there. Microsoft Media, Logi Tech, Graytion etc. Desktop keyboards do not make good couch keyboards.
My requirements were:
1. Bluetooth, no line of sight limitations. My computer is in the other room so receiver should be able to receive the signal behind the walls.
2. Small compact, could be stowed away in a remote drawere or left on the coffee table with other remotes.
3. Ability to use it while lying, sitting, standing, operating with lights off and then could tugged away beside you if you fall asleep on the couch.
4. Must have integrated mouse functionality.
5. Elegant looking, should look part of the living rooom/drawing room furniture.
This Keyboard fits my needs but does not operate perfectly where it matters which is moving and positioning the cursor perfectly, especially for the price. I found its mouse movement sluggish and it tired my thumbs out. I've been a long time user of small devices like OQO, Sony UX-series etc., so small keyboards are not new to me.
My feeling was that it was good enough for media center and writing URLs but not good enough if you want to reply to an email or even fill out an order form.
Also, its playstation compatability is a suspect as it does not implement its importatnt keys and you may need to reach out for your controller after every two minutes, even all if you were doing was browsing and blu-ray movies.
Overall it does not do a decent job for the price. If it were $50.00 then my thoughts would have been different.