You can “bind” one of the user-definable keys on the right of the keyboard to run your favourite MP3 player, and actually control everything straight from the multimedia keys. You can mute, control volume, play/pause, stop, and even move back and forth through your music playlist… All this without having to program the buttons!
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| The internet and multimedia buttons on the Logitech. |
When I first loaded up Sonique, I was pleasantly surprised by the ability to literally do everything the keyboard was designed to do, straight from the box. The mute button actually turns off audio in the audio control panel, while the volume controls give you direct access to the volume control from the audio control panel – if you open up the audio control panel you can actually watch as the slider bars move up and down in response to the volume buttons on the keyboard! My favourite is the ability to go back and forth in my Sonique playlist, because the buttons even work when Sonique is playing in the background. Now I know some of you MP3 die-hards have all the necessary shortcut keys memorized, but believe me when I say this is the ultimate in convenience!
What’s more, the iTouch software actual has onscreen text cues when you use the multimedia buttons… volume, for instance, brings up a familiar set of green bars that move according to your volume settings… it’s all very much like controlling a remote on your television. If the onscreen cues are not to your liking, then you can turn them off in the options panel, but I have found them to be very useful. Heck, for those who are windows hack savvy, a small amount of registry tweaking allows you to rename the onscreen text cues to whatever you want. These text cues also pop up whenever you press one of the user customized buttons, a green text cue using the name of the button pops up to tell you what’s running. A last button located on the far left hand of the keyboard is the sleep button, and that one functions no differently than the same button on the MS keyboard.
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The iTouch's onscreen cues simulate familiar TV like displays. |
With all this iTouch functionality, I was worried that my games would experience some adverse effects. I loaded up some common games and they worked fine on the keyboard, even to the point of allowing me to control volume, in game, using the multimedia buttons. The text cues didn’t pop up however, though I doubted that they would.
Logitech used rubber buttons for the extra keys rather than the fancy plastic buttons Microsoft used. I have to admit the plastic buttons have more of an appeal to me, but then again the functions of the Logitech buttons are far better than those of the Microsoft buttons. The funny thing is that I run MidiLand speakers, which come with an excellent remote control module. Since I’ve had the Logitech Internet Keyboard installed, though, I haven’t once reached for the control module… the multimedia keys are THAT convenient. I can’t stress enough how much time this keyboard saves, at least for me. I would definitely recommend it to everyone, everywhere.
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