Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard

Reviews: Peripherals

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Max Slowik
Kurtis
Logitech
Apr. 29, 2007

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The Touchpad

The touchpad is a little too small. While it's enough to get around a low-resolution desktop, say, an HDTV, it's shy of being able to completely replace a mouse. There may be some middle ground between sensitivity and acceleration, but the bundled software doesn't do it.

The buttons are stiff--this is true for all the media buttons as well--but can be avoided. Like a laptop touchpad, you can tap it to left-click. They're also a bit difficult to reach because they're small and directly below the touchpad.

The scrolling, on the other hand, is ingenious. Once the top or side scrolling area is touched, moving a finger around the edge of the touchpad in circles scrolls indefinitely. (Ed: Sounds cool but I wouldn't give them too much credit since the iPod made that type of scrolling popular?) No letting off the touchpad to scroll down or left another page. There is a raised, lit bump at the top and right of the touchpad to let fingers know they're in the right place.

One of the media buttons on the left is a second left-click button, for using the keyboard like a big, flat, thumb-driven mouse. If the touchpad proves utterly useless, it can be turned off and on with function-left and -right mouse buttons.

The Media Keys and Software

The media keys, for the most part, are function-F-key combos. Holding down the function key lights up the area above the top row of keys with handset, skillet, envelope, and barn, followed by rewind, stop, play/pause, and fast forward. The last four F-keys are a, b, c, and d, to be assigned by the user using the SetPoint software. Er, those first four are supposed to be "VoIP, One-Touch Search, E-Mail, and My Home". . .I was really hoping to order a piping hot barn by mail. Injustice.

As far as running a media center, the media keys don't replace the remote, and the software doesn't let you add or change the media center commands.

There is a touch-sensitive volume bar above the touchpad that is a sight to see: it lights up along its length, but the sensitivity is low and not adjustable. It takes a few swipes at the volume to get it from high to low. There is a mute button below it.

Logitech was kind enough to realize that these media functions aren't really for everyone, and the software allows you to re-program the non-media-player related keys. It's very easy to manage, and can be set to default, open a specific web page, launch a program, open a file or folder, run a key macro, or nothing at all. But you can't re-bind a key to menu, and only eight of the keys can be re-programmed.

Realizing that the touchpad isn't all things for all people, SetPoint also allows you to enable "Game Mode", which automatically disables the touchpad and enables the other mouse connected to the computer. In this mode, there are separate settings for the other mouse, like sensitivity and acceleration.

The software also adds a super-imposed Caps Lock, scroll lock, and master volume bar that pops up on the monitor, in lieu of having lights on the keyboard. But it doesn't disable the beeping that the keyboard makes when you hit Caps Lock, which is really annoying.

Aside from these features, the software doesn't do much that the Windows options don't already.

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Page 3 of 4

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Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: The Keyboard and Keys
Page 3: The Touchpad, Media Keys and Software
Page 4: Conclusion

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2 User Comments

1 - Posted by Doug the Neard on June 4, 2007 - 11:29 pm

If I'm not mistaken, that beeping is from the "Accessibility Options" of Windows (where you have mouse keys and all those), it's called Toggle Keys. And you had to turn it on in the first place...

I for one like it. I keep my keyboard (which isn't the Edge, but an older Logitech model) stashed under the desk on the tray (yes, I don't have to see the keys to type like some lazy people), so the beep lets me know what's on and off, since I can't see the lights. I guess you could use tray icons, but that place is so full as it is...

Ok, enough ranting.

2 - Posted by Max Slowik on June 5, 2007 - 12:23 am

No, I'm talking about the beep that comes from the keyboard itself. It has a little piesoelectric speaker built into it. It'll beep when you hit capslock even if the drivers aren't installed.

And it does come from the keyboard, I've walked it outside the house and made it beep.

One funny thing is that if you have two keyboards hooked up, and hit capslock on the other, the Edge beeps, too.

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