| Mac users hosed again! (edit: sucks for Windows too!) |
| I bought this keyboard for my Mac Mini recently, and I am not happy. The keyboard lags just enough to drive me insane! For example, while capitalizing the first letter of a sentence, if my finger lingers on the Shift key for just a bit too long, the next 5 characters I type take about a half a second to appear, and are all capitalized. Likewise, the mouse takes anywhere from 2 to 5 seconds to respond after waking from the screensaver.
The Mac software for this supposedly Mac-compatible keyboard is worse. Some of the extra buttons do nothing at all in the Mac OS, and others don't do what one would expect. The browser buttons only support Safari, and do nothing in third-party browsers such as Firefox and Seamonkey (support "may be added in future versions" according to the manufacturer's website, but the current version is over a year old). The multimedia keys control iTunes only, not Quicktime or any other multimedia application. If iTunes isn't running when I press one of the multimedia keys, it will start iTunes then perform that function; a pointless and annoying feature. The interface to remap the buttons includes all of 3 buttons, one of which is incorrectly labeled. I have yet to determine battery life, as the software randomly pops up "low battery" messages no matter how recently I replaced them. Overall, a very shoddy and useless driver program.
I'm irritated that I wasted my money on this thing. Even with the recent price drop, it's not worth the money.
***EDIT***
After this set failed me for my Mac, I gave it to my wife for her Windows machine. It worked OK untill I downloaded and installed the driver software so I could remap the extra buttons beyond the defaults. Now the multimedia and Internet buttons on the keyboard no longer work, and the mouse is permanently borked. It responds to clicks, but it will not respond to movements. I've even uninstalled the software and the drivers in hopes of returning to its former working state, but it still refuses to function.
Don't waste your money on this! There's a reason they just reduced the price by $30. Even at the reduced price it's still not worth the money.
| | Good keyboard, bad mouse... |
| We are using this product with a new iMac G5. The keyboard works well and has nice functionality in the form of all the custom buttons. Keep in mind the board along with the hand-rest take quite a significant chunk of space on the desktop - significantly more than the minimal Apple keyboard. The mouse looks and feels great and is designed very ergonomically. It's one major fault is that its wireless trait make the cursor (little arrow) very jittery and I couldn't quite find a good compromise. It is adjustable and there are different settings, but compared with a standard wired-mouse, it is very difficult to get the cursor point exactly where you want it, particularly in slow speeds. This one thing damages the whole experience with the product and should be considered when purchasing it.
Also, after about 3 weeks (of rather minimal use), the batteries of the keyboard already need to be replaced!
| | I bought this in the hope of getting all the multimedia and browser buttons of a Microsoft keyboard but the correct key labels and layout for my Mac. Having switched from a MS keyboard, however, I'm now regretting it. The Kensington pilot board seems to have significant difficulties transmitting wirelessly, as it regularly drops keystrokes and often shows a perceptible lag between key hit and computer response (compared to a wired keyboard). I'm returning mine.
| | Well at least it works as a normal keyboard now. |
| I am a Windows user and concur with other bad reviews on this product. I have had similar problems. Most of the extra keyboard functions do nothing. I have had problems with my mouse that the click would work but the mouse movement would not. Ever since installing the product my OS takes 10 - 15 seconds longer to boot-up. To get everything working to an acceptable state I have had to do a lot of re-installing and tweaking. Currently I have everything setup so that it works fine minus all the extra key functionality (bummer). Maybe if I tried a little harder I could get the extra keys working, but its not worth putting more time into it--it does what I need it to do. FYI I am a Software Engineer with a CS degree and I found this difficult to impossible to get working as it should. Kensington!!! You need a patch for this. ...and... It better not break mouse functionality again!!!!
| | The keyboard sometimes misses, I believe because of signal interruption. This is a real hassle, It is nt from lack of keypad pressure on my part. I also agree that the extra buttons don't work and the software was no help. It really stinks.
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