EMAGINE mini wireless keyboard
I was at the launch of EMAGINE yesterday, and all of us walked away with a door gift: an EMAGINE mini wireless keyboard.
When I first saw it I thought it would be a Bluetooth wireless keyboard (potentially handy for a tablet). Sadly, I notice that you need to connect it via USB. It works like a clicker.
Its vendor is Sonix Technology Co., Ltd. The manual is clearly written in China (words like “Accissories”). It’s been around for quite some time (testing on Fedora 7, Ubuntu 8.10, etc.).
It’s a 2.4GHz wireless mini QWERTY keyboard, comes with a touch pad as well (so you can mouse around).
Plug it into Linux or Mac OS X and it “just works”, without drivers. You end up having to power the device on/off. It comes with its own USB-based charger (no wall-plug), so I presume you’re meant to charge it/dock it at the EMAGINE device itself.
In the package contents though, it suggests you only get a remote, not this keyboard. Beta testers (I’m not one) claimed that they already had a keyboard.
I’m not sure that the keyboard is made for many regular hands. I consider my hands no larger than the average, and find it quite difficult (not impossible, just strained) to type with two thumbs as it is a little too wide, thanks to the touch pad. Your mileage may vary. Then again, how many of you want to do serious keyboarding in front of your TV?
Next up, some thoughts on the EMAGINE (based largely on tweets from last night). I do plan to order one to give it a twirl.
