Tag: Keyboards

Why I am no longer going to use the Logitech K750 keyboard

Logitech K750 solar-powered, wireless keyboard. Nice concept, but isn’t a reliable technology in practice.

I think the days of the solar wireless keyboard are over for me. The technology works when it works, and works horribly when it doesn’t. The Logitech K750 solar wireless keyboard, even under the best lighting conditions, locks up for no reason after only a few months of use, and works again sporadically. I believe I will be going to shop around to see what kind of keyboard I can get. I am not ruling out an old-fashioned “wired” keyboard.

This article began as a discussion on the pros and cons (mostly cons) of the Logitech K750 keyboard, but has ended up being a general discussion on mass-market keyboards and the fact that the pricing of them was done by an abstract artist. Utterly no sense of proportion or reason to the pricing in most cases I have seen. So much so that a good section of this article begins with comments on the most expensive keyboards sold online down to the least expensive, and then returning to the K750.

I am looking through the non-gaming keyboard section of a popular computer store where I live, and the priciest keyboards come without a numerical keypad. These ones which max out at $200 are called “minimalist” keyboards. They don’t even come with a touchpad. Oh, but some of them are backlit. Ooooh.

It is interesting, viewing keyboards in order of price from most expensive on down. For $100, half the price of a “minimalist” (read feature-poor) keyboard, I finally get a standard-looking one with a normal-seeming layout. It is a JLab, a brand I have not heard of. Some of the keypad keys such as Print Screen and Scroll Lock have been replaced by keys with icons printed on them. Even though some of what replaced the PrintScreen, Scroll Lock and Pause buttons are for other wireless devices (it can take up to 3), pass.

Go slightly cheaper to $89, and you can get a mechanical illuminated keyboard from Logitech. However, the keys are a bit more cryptic than normal (PU for “page up”, SL for “scroll lock”, to name two of many keys labelled this way), and will keep me looking.

Down to the $79 range, and you get an Adesso keyboard, a conventional layout and labelling, with a media selector and touchpad. I don’t care for the touchpad, as I will probably disable it in favour of my mouse. Actually, that means it has too many features at this price point, at over $120 below the most expensive keyboard discussed here.

I would like a backlit keyboard, but failing all else, I think I would end up buying the Logitech K840 “corded” keyboard that boasts an aluminum chassis. It is not backlit, but the layout is pretty standard, which is what I prefer. It is $59. A reviewer says it is missing a Num Lock light. Oh. Damn.

The biggest irony is that if I go down to the $10 range, I do finally get a traditional keyboard which has the key layout that I am used to with no unpleasant surprises. No keys in unexpected locations, no “designer” key labelling, no missing indicator lights. But the trade-off is that the keyboards are not wireless, and are not backlit. The backlit feature isn’t that important, but wireless is something I have become used to after years of coping with a clutter of wires around my computer. It is a welcome feature to have a computer without wires getting in the way.

What I didn’t want was another wireless keyboard that consumed more batteries. This is why I went solar with the K750. But these keyboards have short lifespans, and don’t generally last longer than a rechargeable battery (yes, it still uses batteries, but a very small one) inside the keyboard. Rechargeable batteries can only last so long and be recharged only so often. The rechargeable battery can be ordered online, but the replacement has not necessarily had a reputation for being successful. My keyboard that just got finicky on me is about 6 months out of the box. I am typing on it now after placing it to one side with the power off for some time, and it seems to be working right now. For some reason, the K750 is not detected under Logitech Options even as I type this, but my older K400 keyboard was. Not sure why that is.

For a long while the Logitech K750 was the only game in town for solar rechargeable keyboards for the Windows PC. I have noticed now that Targus is marketing such a keyboard now at around $90USD on their website. It boasts using bluetooth, which is not supported by the K750. The Targus “Energy-Harvesting Eco-smart” keyboard (AKB868US) is also made from recycled materials. It is on their website, and at Staples (online only) for $125CAD, which is relatively pricey compared to my K750. Lenovo proposed one last year, but I have not seen it online. With some narrow exceptions, a DuckDuckGo search for nearly all “solar wireless keyboards” point to the K750, clearly the most popular of them all if I choose to stay the course and put up with the frequent flakiness.

Just for the heck of it, I searched Amazon for a similar keyboard, and what came up were keyboards by Sequin and Arteck, but not the K750. Interesting. The Arteck and Sequin keyboards both boast bluetooth. The last time I had to shop for a K750 I recalled that it was difficult to find in a brick-and-mortar store, and I think I ended up getting this one at a Best Buy at the Heartland Town Center, the only Best Buy that had it in stock. I don’t think it was stocked at all at Staples, or anywhere else. But after my experience with this, my second K750 (both of which ended up being flaky in the same way), it is little wonder that others had the same opinion and have ended up wanting to abandon solar powered wireless keyboards for more reliable technology.

The K750 was a great concept, but it clearly needs more work before it earns the popularity it deserves.

Keyboards and Keypads II

I had been searching for a good USB keypad for use with my laptop. I prefer to enter sets of numbers using a separate keypad rather than using the “keypad mode” keys native to my laptop, since I don’t need to keep switching between modes if I am both entering a list of numbers and going back and forth to text.

Over the years, I have had several different keypads, and the most common problem is that the rubber feet keep coming off of them. To anyone manufacturing these things, I need to tell you:

  • people who use separate keypads use them with their laptops;
  • this means that your keypad must be as mobile as my laptop;
  • when little pieces come off the keypad in my book bag, most likely one or more of the rubber feet, this causes the keypad to annoyingly rock side to side as I press the keys, since the pad is no longer supported in a balanced way;
  • this always happens, because manufacturers universally fasten the feet (which are made of rubber to keep the keypad stationary on the table as I type) to the keypad with glue;
  • this is a bad thing, because these feet eventually become un-glued;
  • there are many new keypad designs which come out every year, the prices of these differ wildly, as do their functions and capabilities;
  • all of these people glue the rubber feet to the keypad, regardless of how much you paid for the keypad;
  • meaning that all keypads from $6 to over $100 has a useable life of about 3 months, unless you wish to put up with the instability issue;
  • and so if you are like me and you get annoyed with it, you’ll spend $6.00 for a minimal USB keypad, knowing that you’ll buy one again in 3 months.

This is an open letter to the many manufacturers of such keypads: rubberize the entire bottom of the keypad. Affix it mechanically rather than with glue. Hell, you can even make the whole keypad waterproof. Even make the whole thing our of silicone like some manufacturers do with entire keyboards.

Above is a $6.99 keypad I picked up at Canada Computes, made by iCan. The depiction from the store website is more optimistic than my actual product, feet-wise. Notice that one piece of rubber goes all the way across the top. That would actually be nice, except that my actual keypad has the conventional four smaller feet. I am still hopeful that this one might be more durable, since they appear to be on the unit quite solidly. As a bonus, the USB wire wraps all the way around the unit when you store it.

Keyboards and keypads I

I have had a problem with dust, hair, and dirt accumulating on my keyboard, going in between and under keys thus and over time the keyboard gets increasingly difficult to use, even with compressed air. Elephant adds a silicone covering over the actual keyboard. The form-fitting layer is completely removable. Cleaning it is a simple matter of wiping. No more compressed air. The keyboard sold for under $20.00, so I picked one up.

It is also kind of slim, and is avoiding the recent trend toward a split keyboard design (not sure I liked it anyway). But in wanting this cleanabillity, I had to give up the direct access keys which my old keyboard had: for things like a calculator, a file window, and email. What I get instead are the 12 function keys which seem to have a dual function within applications. I can still control the sound card volume from this keyboard, however.

I had some past experience with other keyboards which boasted total flexibilty, whose structural material consisted entirely of silicone and thus could be rolled up, apart from its improved cleanability. The problem was that I found them more difficult to use. There is something to be said in favour of a keyboard that has a hard plastic case. It makes keyboarding easier when it is done on a hard surface. And with the silicone covering I get the best of both worlds.

[Video Monday] Next – Only A Friend Of Mine (August 1975)

Next, circa 1975.

This is my first instalment in a series of lost and forgotten records from the past. Most of these hits are Canadian hits, and they are the ones that bring back memories for me from my youth.

Below is a recording from a Canadian bubblegum rock group singed on to Columbia in the early seventies called “Next”, entitled “Only a Friend of Mine”. The personnel on this 1975 recording consisted of Mark Laforme on guitar and vocals; Mel Coburn on drums and vocals; the high voice comes from Garnett Zimmerman, who played keyboards; and on Bass and vocals, Roly Greenway. This being August 2010, marks its 35th anniversary, for what it’s worth. Roly Greenway is apparently of no relation to Brian Greenway, who plays with April Wine.

Greenway and Laforme appear on the credits as the writers/composers of this single. Greenway would be better known to the world as the bassist and leader of the Canadian band Crowbar, and earlier as the backup performer for Ronnie Hawkins. Crowbar would re-form intermittently after 1977. Next was never heard from again.

But no worries, I at least have audio in the link below of probably their biggest hit.

The song “Only a Friend of Mine” barely made it into the top-40 in many regions of Canada, but was pretty catchy.