Nice wireless keyboard from Microsoft

Despite my gadget loving reputation, it's actually pretty hard to get me spend money on new computer hardware. This is mainly due to my bad experience of buying hardware in Hong Kong. About 50% of the time I have to bring back the hardware I brought from computer store to either exchange for a workable one of the product or got unsold to a more expansive mode of he similar product. That was not good, consider that the commute to and from the computer store can sometimes be more expansive than the product I tries to return!

Beside the bad experience, I am also a value conscious person. I work hard, so my gear must work at least as hard as I do. I don't want to buy some butt ugly productive, but at the same time I wonder pay hundreds more just for the style.

So when I finally got to a point of buy a new keyboard for my laptop, it took me several months to shop and shop. Before that I was burned by wasting HK$29 on a crappy USB keyboard. That piece of jerk is still around me, and one of these days I will smack that crappy keyboard apart just for fun. That keyboard was lousy because it was hard to type AFTER A WHILE. It's strange that when I trial used it it was not that bad, but after using it for more than 15 minutes, you will realize how suck it is.

Forward to today night (about 3 hours ago). I was at computer storing checking around and see if there's any new stuff worth mentioning in my blog. And then this Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 keyboard with optical mouse combo set caught my attention.

With the price HK$230, the combo is at the same price range of the Logitech with the similar functionality. And in fact I saw most store selling Logitech wireless keyboard than the Microsoft one. However, the experience I had with Logitech wireless product at my friends house was less than OK, so I promised myself not to buy any Logitech wireless product. Frankly, the reason could be similar that the product was using old IR based technology instead of the recent radio wave technology. But sorry, the damage has been done.

Back to the Microsoft keyboard. This basic one is the lowest price among all the wireless product from Microsoft. The high end ones comes with comfy wrist rest, Bluetooth instead of radiowave (thus you can move your keyboard much futher away), cooler design and so on. But like I mentioned before, I am a realistic person. So I went for the cheapest model. And guess what, I wasn't regarding it.

The keyboard is similar nice to type on, and very quiet. The USB plus makes the combo working with both my desktop and my notebook, and the boxes even says that it works with Mac (which makes total sense). I will later try it by rebooting my desktop to the Mac OSX 10.4.6. So, since both the mouse and the keyboard work with the same wireless station, I only need to scarify one USB port for both the mouse and keyboard. In addition, the USB wireless station allows quick switching between my laptop and the desktop since all I need is unplug the dock from my desktop and then plug it in my laptop's hub. I tried, and while it worked reasonable as the device was recognized within 5 seconds, the desktop XP require an additional hardware scanning when I plugged in the wireless station. While I can still use the keyboard without completing the hardware recognition process, this is still a bit annoying. Why can't the system simply recognize the keyboard and the mouse generic keyboard and mouse? Strange to me. On the other hand, the laptop takes the keyboard and mouse almost instantly.

Most of the function key works without installing any software, but of course you get more function and flexibility after you install the macro program. I hate installing extra stuff on my machine, so I gave it a pass.

The most important thing about this combo is the wireless aspect. The fact that I can get rid of that long tangling wire on the table and enjoy the complete freedom of moving the keyboard and mouse wherever I feel like was priceless. I was not too crazy about the wireless keyboard and mouse thing before getting this combo. But now I SIMPLY CANNOT GET BACK to the OLD way. Get those wired keyboard and mouse away from me >:-} !!!!!