Logitech diNovo Mini
by Logitech
|
List Price: Our Price: $110.29 You Save: $39.70 (26%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $59.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech diNovo Mini
Customer Review: No more keyboard, mouse and flashlight! Thank you!
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Ok, I am a girl. I love this thing because it means no more wireless keyboard, mouse and flashlight with a piece of red cellophane covering the lens cluttering up my living room. (My husband never mentioned that when he set up the system) The keyboard was to enter info, the flashlight so I could see what the heck I was doing. To watch movies I wanted it dark but then to change anything without being blinded I needed the flashlight. Usually I ended up holding the flashlight in my mouth while trying to type on the keyboard balanced on my knees. Believe me, the diNovo is much more dignified. It senses how dark the room is and gives you the correct amount of light behind the keys, way better than a flashlight and you are not blinded in the process. I also love being able to mute quickly when the phone rings.
To get it work I plugged in the USB mini receiver (which to me looks like a thumb drive) in the back of the computer and turned it on. Our computer (A Dell XPS 600 running Windows XP) saw it right away. Pushed the lit up Windows Media button on the bottom and I was off and running, never bothered with the software included.
It is pretty small. I do need reading glasses to read the paper but I could see the keyboard and most of the keys without my glasses. I typed most of this review up to this point using the keyboard, it is slow but certainly do-able. There is no way I could use it as a regular keyboard, I must use my thumbs to type. The keyboard has a satisfying feel to it, with a quiet but audible "click" when you hit one of the slightly raised buttons.
I wish the cover would flip back behind the remote when using it. It is somewhat transparent so you can see through it, but it would be better if you could flip it around when you were using the remote. I also wish it had a dock to charge it (although the power pack is quite small so it can actually fit without blocking all the other outlets). It seems I would be more likely to recharge it every day if it had a "home".
Customer Review: Excellent HTPC Control in the Palm of your Hand
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using a PC in my Home Theatre System for over a year now, and it was frustrating to try and find an all in one device that would allow the kind of control an HTPC requires. I was using just an inexpensive Logitech Keyboard and mouse combo, which was bulky and required unsightly storage on my entertainement center. The problem with HTPC control is that items like the presentation pointers or accelerometer mice are fairly expensive and only solve the pointer issue, a keyboard is still needed for surfing video downloads. Gigantic million-buttoned universal remotes might run the Media Center in windows but one is stuck again when it comes to good keyboard control.
The DiNovo Mini solves all these problems in one flexible handheld device. I am tall and have large hands, while my girlfriend has small hands. I was concerned when I ordered a device like this that comfort and accurate control would be an issue for one or the other of us, but we can both use it with ease.
The dual mode which allows use of Windows Media Center is great for popping in DVDs and pausing while watching. Then we can flip the switch and use the mouse and keyboard controls to watch movies and videos online. Or switch out and look up actors on the internet. This device is just at home surfing the web as it is navigating Media Center.
It is also small enough that it finds a home with my remotes on the end table. Its design is elegant and stylish.
I Love this device.
There is only one negative. The touchpad can be extremely twitchy from time to time, file selection and button clicks can be a bear when the cursor blips to the far side of the screen for no apparent reason. I am unsure if this is a device issue, or a driver issue, but the touchpad will occasionally bind up and the cursor will freeze for a moment and then jump across the screen. But this is a minor annoyance that may go away with a few driver updates, and given all of the other plusses to this device I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for HTPC control in a compact device.
Good Work Logitech!
Customer Review: Simplify your HTPC experience
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Logitech's diNovo Mini is a neat luxury for home theater PC owners because it allows uses to take full control of their HTPC with one small, simple device. The clamshell shape can be held in one hand and takes up very little space on your media center. High eye appeal and diminutive nature is at the very least a conversation starter, as at first glance, it appears to be a tiny PC.
I have had it a few weeks now, and I am getting more comfortable with typing on the small keyboard, although it is a bit of a pain (I hate blackberries for the same reason). I don't do a lot of chatting or IMing, so I don't use the keyboard that much. People who do type a lot may not like the keyboard, but generally those are the same people who type faster on a blackberry than I type on a keyboard, so it's probably a non-issue.
At this price, it may seem like you are paying a lot for what amounts to a keyboard and a Bluetooth connection, but since it monopolizes the market and plugs a hole that has been missing for the HTPC functionality, it is not overpriced. It took less than 10 minutes for me to set up the device. The unit works with a PS3, but is not compatible with Xbox or Apple.
A neat option is the control pad which switches from the standard directional buttons to touch pad. Users will quickly see the benefits when they realize the touch pad works perfectly for navigating a webpage, but is not the right match for the standard windows menu tabs.
Overall, this is one of those gadgets you didn't think you need until you heard of it, and once you have it, you won't be able to imagine life without it.
Customer Review: Miniature Key Board Perfect for HTPC controls
Summary: 5 Stars
When I set up my first HTPC in the living room, I immediately figured out that in order to switch from HULU to JOOST to You TUBE and search for playable content, I was going to need either a wireless mouse and wireless keyboard, or some slick remote.
Since I also own a Playstation 3 (which is controlled using blue tooth), I was in search of a remote that could handle that as well.
After a bit of research I bought the diNovo Mini to surf the web from my couch. I was pleasantly surprised by the easy to set up and easy to customize keyboard. Especially with the "clickable" circular touch pad (there's also an "Enter" key to mimic the mouse click function), and the light up phone like (but bigger) keyboard that has all the keys set up in intuitive places. You may need to adjust the mouse cursor sensitivity a bit in the set up process since the touch pad is pretty small. Otherwise it can take a couple of tries to get from one side of the screen to the other.
But there's more than one way to navigate the screens. The page up and page down keys work great, the tab is fully functional, and getting to links is generally pretty snappy.
While it a little slow typing on the small key board with my oversized fingers, it gets me where I want to be, and still manages to look good on the coffee table (it looks a bit larger than a Blackberry, and with the clamshell cover, is sufficiently protected from drops and spills). It has a good rechargeable battery life (generally recharge it once a week).
Gamers, this is not the FPS / RTS keyboard and mouse replacement for you(unless you like a lot of challenge).
But I highly recommend this to someone who want to control their Playstation 3 or PC which is connected to a TV from the comfort of their couch / bed where a wireless mouse and keyboard is not welcome.
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.