Brando Wireless Keyboard Review

As I said a few weeks ago, I had a Brando wireless keyboard w/ touch pad on order.
Well, a week and a half later, it showed up on my doorstep.
So, without further ado... iwanttech.com presents the product review

Shipping and Customer Service:
I didn't know this at first, but all these items ship from Hong Kong. I was getting pretty frustrated with the whole ordeal, I even emailed Customer support about it. They were very calm and helpful through their emails, explaining that the product shipped from Hong Kong and to expect a longer ship time than usual U.S. orders.
After all was said and done, I was very pleased by their customer service.

Product Review:

Range:
I was pleasantly surprised with the power and range of this small device.
As soon as I plugged it in, went across the room to my couch and found I could still control both mouse and keyboard without any kind of lag or interference. I even stepped back into my kitchen and could still use both mouse and Keyboard.

touch pad:
The touch pad is smaller than I thought it would be. I really think they could have made the pad larger than it is. Be prepared to set your mouse sensitivity up to keep your hand movements to a minimum.

Keyboard:
A standard QWERTY Keyboard with full F1-12 support. It's a standard Laptop size keyboard, so if you're not used to it already (as I am) you might not like it's compact design.
The keys are good quality, it doesn't feel like they will fall off in your hands if you type too hard.

Media keys:
The "media Keys" as I like to call them are superb. I love sitting on the couch and hitting Pause, Play, Mute, etc. You can switch tracks, eject a disc, or even put your computer into standby mode.
The internet and e-mail keys are handy as well.

Power Saver:
The Power saving switches are great, as you don't always need to have the touchpad on. The option to switch both off is handy.

CONS:
-needs a bigger touchpad surface
-needs to run on something other than 4 AAA's. Something rechargeable would be great.
-I keep hitting the small windows button to the right of the keyboard...they could just get rid of it or reposition it.
-click and drag is a drag...hard to keep the mouse from going beserk.
- no scroll feature on the touchpad, or even a seperate scroll wheel.

iWant Tech Tip: Clutter-Free Desktop

iWant Tech tIp:

Kudos to my brother for this idea.

Ever wanted to just cut down on all the clutter on your desktop? Icons getting in the way of your uber-sweet LOTR background? No sweat.

Create folders on your desktop:

1. Right click on the desktop

2. click "New Folder"

3. Rename the folder to whatever suits your needs (I chose mine to be Office, Media, Games, and Internet)

4. Choose an appropriate picture or icon by right clicking on the folder and clicking "Properties". Go to the "Customize" tab and choose "change icon"

5. Put whatever shortcuts you need in the folder.

This is really customizable, you can put anything you want in these folders, not just the ones I have. Tailor to your needs.

Screenshot of finished product:

Enjoy a clutter free Desktop!

~Aaron

iWant Preview: Brando USB Wireless Keyboard w/ Touchpad

The little-known company Brando has branched from it's Wireless keyboards w/ trackballs to a very interesting wireless keyboard with touchpad.

current known specs are as follows:

(from the usb.brando.com website)

Features:
- 88 Standard key + 11 hot keys
- Hot Keys: www, E-mail, Vol -, Vol +, Mute, Pre Track, Play/Pause, Stop, Next Track,

Eject, Sleep
- On-off switch design, you can turn off the Keyboard and touch pad manually
- Portable and Slim design
- Powered by 4 x AA batteries.
- Suport Windows XP, ME, 2000 and Vista.
- Size: 36 x 17.7 x 1.5cm (approx.)
- Weight: 552g
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A couple of things that concern me is the fact that they don't say anything about range.

I want to be able to sit on my couch and type away on iWant, or just be able to play and pause my movies without having to get my lazy butt off the couch. Is that too much to ask for? methinks not.

One of these bad-boys is on order and I will be your personal guinea pig and post a full review sometime in the coming week.

~Aaron

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Info:

- Website: http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00447

- Originally found on: http://www.gizmodo.com/

iWant: Slacker Personal Internet Radio Device

February 12th, 2008

Well, Folks, after a brief haitus (ok, so it was a month, sue me) iWantTech is back in full swing!

First order of business, The Slacker Portable Internet Radio

From the Slacker.com page:

The World's first Personal Radio Player

Personalized Radio

Slacker is the world's greatest personalized radio service. With over 2 million songs and powerful personalization features, Slacker makes it easy to listen to the music you love. Slacker stations are all delivered in CD-quality sound, and come with high resolution album art, artist images, album reviews and artist biographies.

Everywhere

When your Slacker Portable is in Wi-Fi range or connected to your PC, it automatically connects to your account, figures out which songs it needs to keep your stations fresh, and saves them. Since the Slacker Portable plays from the saved radio library, your stations play everywhere you go, whether you are in Wi-Fi range or not.

For Free

Best of all, the music is free. Thousands of fresh new songs that match your taste in music are automatically saved on your player every time you connect. And you don't have to pay a dime. All you need to do is buy the Slacker Portable.

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Sounds like an ingenous idea to me. You've all probably heard of the program PANDORA, (www.pandora.com) part of the music genome project. If not, you need to check it out.
So, here's a way for you to take customized stations (much like Pandora) on the go.

enjoy!

-Aaron