{"id":217,"date":"2011-04-12T13:42:14","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T20:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/?p=217"},"modified":"2012-11-21T15:18:36","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T23:18:36","slug":"my-new-top-choice-for-an-htpc-keyboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/archives\/2011\/04\/12\/my-new-top-choice-for-an-htpc-keyboard\/","title":{"rendered":"My new top choice for an HTPC keyboard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently bought an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iogear.com\/product\/GKM571R\/\">IOGear GKM571R<\/a> mini keyboard.  Copied and pasted from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/review\/R35CHNDDV4H86P\/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&#038;ASIN=B004OBB4KQ&#038;nodeID=172282&#038;tag=&#038;linkCode=\">my Amazon review<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>I really like this keyboard for HTPC use. I also have the <a href=\"http:\/\/support.lenovo.com\/en_US\/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-74153\">Lenovo N5901 multimedia remote\/keyboard<\/a>, and while the IOGear GKM571 is quite a bit more expensive, it&#8217;s also much better.<\/p>\n<p>Things that I like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>It&#8217;s backlit.<\/strong> This is the single biggest flaw in the Lenovo N5901.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>It has a scroll wheel.<\/strong> Scrolling without one is a chore because it&#8217;s not easy to accurately grab and move a scrollbar thumb with a mini-trackball, and it&#8217;s not easy to press arrow keys on a small keyboard by touch alone.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>It uses standard batteries.<\/strong> Li-ion batteries have a higher charge density, but like all batteries, they eventually wear out, and replacing them is usually a pain. I much prefer replaceable, standard batteries (especially low-self-discharge NiMH ones).\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>It&#8217;s the right size.<\/strong> It&#8217;s larger than the Lenovo N5901, but it&#8217;s still compact. The larger size allows it to have more spacing between the keys, so it&#8217;s easier to type without accidentally pressing adjacent keys.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>It has a full set of keys<\/strong>, including F1-F12.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>Its power switch is intuitive.<\/strong> It turns on when you open the lid and off when you close it.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>It&#8217;s easy to set up<\/strong> (at least on Windows). It was instantly recognized when I plugged it in, and no configuration was necessary.\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Things that I don&#8217;t like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>It occasionally drops out.<\/strong> This might be because I plugged the RF dongle into a rear USB port, but I didn&#8217;t encounter any such issues with the Lenovo one.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>The keys are mushy.<\/strong> Unlike with the Lenovo one, there is no distinctive click when the key registers.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>There are no dedicated arrow keys or escape key.<\/strong> They require using the Fn modifier key.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>I&#8217;m not sure how I&#8217;ll clean the trackball<\/strong> if it gets gummed up.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>The scroll wheel can&#8217;t be pressed<\/strong>, so there&#8217;s no native middle-click.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>I wish it used Bluetooth<\/strong> instead of requiring its own RF dongle. Oh well. The RF dongle is unobtrusive, at least, and RF contributes to the ease of setup.\n\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tI&#8217;ve occasionally had a little bit of trouble reading some of the keys when lit. <strong>Maybe it&#8217;d be better if IOGear used a green or red backlight<\/strong> instead of blue; humans have poor visual acuity for blue.\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Things that I&#8217;m (mostly) neutral about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\tThe Lenovo N5901 trackball can be used with one hand (although dragging requires two hands and then becomes awkward) whereas the IOGear one is designed for two-handed use. I prefer the two-handed design though; if I&#8217;m going to type anything, I need two hands anyway.\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently bought an IOGear GKM571R mini keyboard. Copied and pasted from my Amazon review: I really like this keyboard for HTPC use. I also have the Lenovo N5901 multimedia remote\/keyboard, and while the IOGear GKM571 is quite a bit more expensive, it&#8217;s also much better. Things that I like: It&#8217;s backlit. This is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantsraves","category-reviews","tag-keyboards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slimjimmy.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}