Today arrived the final pièce de résistance of my HTPC, a diNovo Mini keyboard. When I assembled my mediacenter a couple of months ago I was looking for something to control it but I did not really want a full fledged keyboard and also didn't want an average remote.
The diNovo Mini is the perfect balance between the two. It's small enough to be stored in a drawer or to lie on a table like your normal remote would, but still has the power of a full keyboard. Granted, typing with ten fingers is faster but this keyboard did not require any getting used to, in fact I'm typing this blog entry with it! If you've had a pda or smartphone with a keyboard you'll feel right at home . The best feature I've discovered, until now, is the ok button which you can press with your left thumb, while your scrolling with your other hand. Very ergonomic. The keyboard is also backlit, orange meaning normal and green media center style. It would appear that there is a light sensor on it so if there's enough light in the room the battery will be saved. The lights of the keyboard and the clickpad also work seperately, meaning that the keyboard lights only go on when you use it, again to prevent waisting power.
The battery is a cell phone like model, a charger is included as well as a cleaning aid to remove any fingerprints on the cover. There's also a cd included, haven't used it though I read that it comes with a program to bind key combinations to actions.
The clickpad however will need some time to grow on you since sometimes it's very sensitive and the other minute it's not very responsive, this is the only negative remark I have for the moment. I'll conclude with some picture, my apologies for the bad quality, you can click on them to see a bigger picture.
