I bought the Cideko air remote to use my Dell Zino media PC connect to my HDTV (typing the review now, while burning a movie to my hd collection). The size of the remote is good. It's a bit larger than a deck of cards and easy to get used to, like my LG ENV3 phone. There are hot keys for surfing the web, email, my computer, search, calculator. The cool feature, in theory, is the pointing aspect. You use the remote and point with it to move around your computer, web etc. In reality, however, the HD settings make each hyperlink small and the movement of the pointing device just isn't that accurate. I sometime, quite often, find myself pointing the keyboard remote perpendicular to the tv just to get to some of the web or pc actions. It works, but just ok. If I had to do it again, it would get a trackball remote (Lenovo just came out with one) or a touchpad to move the mouse cursor.
I was looking for a small keyboard and mouse device to finish my home entertainment PC. I was apprehensive as the item is very new with not much feedback. It arrived in a small box. Set up was a snap. The mouse movement was smooth although I will likely need to increase the mouse sensitivity in Windows. Range appears to be good; I use it from my couch 10 ft away and the USB dongle is in the back of my PC. The keyboard is not designed to type a large volume of text but instead, this keyboard focuses on the needs of the Media PC; For example, there are keys for volume control (including mute), video control (fast forward etc.) and one touch internet. The only keys it seems to lack are some top row keys (F1-12 etc.) In summary:
Pros-
Size: It's just over 5 inches wide. It fits entirely in one hand!
Special media keys: Seems to be designed specifically for a home media PC.
Coolness factor: This is the coolest device I've seen in a while.
Cons:
Documentation: The documentation is a bit sparse. I would like to know more about the middle mouse key.
All in all, I am very pleased so far.
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I have the Rii also and I have to say that if you are wanting to know what is better for an HTPC remote, hands down this Cideko air keyboard kills them.
Why?
*The mouse-shoulder buttons are intuitive for clicking stuff, fitting nice in your hand like a gamepad. With the Rii or diNovo you must change hand-positions too frequently.
*the keys in the cideko can all be reached by your thumbs for fast thumb-texting. the Rii is HORRIBLE for typing because of that touchpad that you can't wrap your right-hand around. If you use the cideko and then use the Rii you are so spoiled that you get frustrated with the awkward way in which you must hold the remote.
*Most of all, the Air-mouse built in the Cideko is 100x faster to navigate with because you just point. AND i can drag-n-drop with the cideko just as easily as i do with a regular mouse.
Lastly i feel the media keys and arrow keys are positioned much better for playing movies and music. Even better then the diNovo's.
I have researched a lot for the best HTPC remote and this is it. It is even better than the Lenovo. And what is funny is that this Cideko air keyboard isn't even marketed to the HTPC audience.. yet it is clearly the best one.
My only gripe is that sometimes the mouse pointer moves on rare occations without me moving it. I find the best way to solve this is by flipping it over and laying it motionless on it's face.. i don't know why it works but it somehow recalibrates/centers itself.
Also, sometimes when i reboot the computer and turn this air-keyboard on the connection to the dongle can sometime act weird and rebooting and waiting out the 4-minute idle self-shutdown on the cideko tends to clear it up.
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In the search for htpc controllers there is a lot of options, most are not that great, this one makes a great stride in the right direction but could use some minor changes in my mind. Being a long time gyration user, the gyro style mice are unbeatable in ease of use when you don't have room for a traditional mouse, that being said, it takes practice like anything else does. The fact that gyration does not have a device that has a keyboard and mouse in one small package is making me look elsewhere.
The Cideko has one main fault that I can't get over making it a pain at best to use, and that is the constant on gyro that is used to move the pointer. Gyration users I imagine will have the most trouble as the gyration system only senses movement (moves the pointer) when the trigger or activation button is pressed and held, allowing you to move to an icon turn the sensing off and then click or double click your target. Cideko's gyro is turned on by clicking the left mouse button, and stays on till you push the gyro off button. This sounds like it would work, but makes it difficult to point and click small things, and if you happen to click a text field, start typing the pointer continues to move while you type. The gyro also has a "keep the pointer steady" helper built in. This is great to help keep it steady, but I feel like it is set to help way to much, sometimes you need to move just a tiny bit and the pointer does not move as the system thinks you are not intending to move the pointer when you really are intending to.
The best thing about this device is the keyboard and typing, I have a rii mini as well and this cideko beats the rii in all ways with the keyboard. It has a soft push and also auditory click feel and sound to help you make sure you hit the keys fully. In the entire time I have owned the cideko I have not noticed a single time where it has missed a key being pressed due to RF issues or the button not responding when being pressed. Unfortunately, the keyboard also has a pretty big fault as well. You have to press the mouse button that turns on the pointer in order to use the keyboard. The keyboard does not turn on when you press a key. If the keyboard goes to sleep and you don't happen to look at the screen, you may end up typing a mass amount of text into a sleeping device.
Some things I would like to see in this model? Trigger style gyro, some better control of the pointer, keyboard buttons could turn on the device, and that nice looking rubber grip on the side of the keyboard could actually be rubber instead of cheap plastic, and function keys. Backlights would be great. It kind of looks cheap, but the build quality seems to be great. Overall, I really want to like this mostly due to the awesome keyboard feel, and the speed you can type. However, the two main faults I see make it difficult for me to want to use this full time.
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Well done Cideko.. For once somebody made a product that does exactly what its supposed to.
For those of you thinking of getting this I'll tell you a little about it. First off, it comes in a little box with the keyboard, dongle, and a manual. You take it out of the box and all you have to do is put in the batteries and plug it in. No Setup, no anything. In about 10 seconds its working just as you would expect. Every key works, the mouse works, everything. Now I got this little guy because I have a computer with a projector as a screen. So a wireless keyboard and mouse sitting on the couch just doesn't work. The Cideko wasn't meant to be working full time. I just want something small that I can grab when I want to watch movies from the computer or online videos. I have a laptop for all the real work. Now, the mouse on the Cideko is easily comparable to the way a Wii controller is, not as accurate as a real mouse but very easy to use. It only takes a few seconds to get used to, and there are only a few things to learn about the mouse. The first is that you can't move it Super super slow. Because if you tilt you hand too slow, it doesn't pick up the movement. Not really a problem though. And the other thing is, since it only knows where to move the mouse by the way you move your hand.. It has no idea at what orientation the device is to the screen. But that's actually pretty neat, because you can use the edge of the screen to push and orient the pointer any way you want in relation to the unit. They also have a mouse button that you can just hit to turn on and off the mouse. I use that to center everything. All in all it's still faster to click on things then using a touchpad. The keys are very similar to using a cellphone that has a keyboard.
There are pictures online where the unit looks different that the picture above. But I just got mine a few days ago and It looks almost exactly like amazon's picture. Everything is the same as the picture, but the buttons are black with a rounded face.
This little thing is great though. Amazing for the price!
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I would suggest this to anyone who plunks down the cash for the Tungsten T5. The cradle is reasonably sturdy/heavy/unlikely to fall over when your PDA is sitting in it and looks reasonably nice on your desk. I also think it is much easier than messing around with the cheap adapter and USB cable which comes in the box.
