Smart Home Blog

Brando keeps making life of HTPC owners nicer and easier. Its new Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard is not bigger then ordinary remote control but provides QWERTY input, mouse touch-pad and navigation buttons. It has built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery which can be charged from PC USB port, and a lecture laser pointer in case if you need it.

The new Brando Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard probably the best portable keyboard for HTPC I have ever seen. The keyboard is supported by Linux, Windows and probably Mac OS X and it can be found on the Brando site at $92.00 or on the TomTop at $59.99 only.

[via Engadger]

Not ordinary keyboard for HTPC was produced by Cideko. The Cideko Air Keyboard is a wireless compact QWERTY keyboard with additional media and navigation keys. Additionally the keyboard has built-in gyration mouse which makes control of HTPC more handy (see the demo video below). To have that possibility you should spend almost 90 bucks. But I think it’s worth that.

There is only one disadvantage. It lacks F1-F12 keys which are used in the media software. For example, F7 brings main menu in the LinuxMCE and F8 – lighting “rose”. But from another hand it’d be interesting to configure the Cideko Air Keyboard similar way as it’s done for Gyration mouse or FiireChief. In any case, that keyboard can be a good addition to your home theater based on PC.

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I thought about buying wireless compact keyboard for my LinuxMCE hybrid server a long time ago. Something like that illuminated keyboard. And finally I bought RF Wireless Multimedia Tiny Keyboard. It’s really light and small. Also it has a big advantage over the illuminated keyboard – a trackball and mouse buttons. I was scare a bit about supporting of that features in Linux. But the keyboard started working properly right after paring with adaptor.

Another cool feature – switching off mouse to save battery. Personally I use mouse very rarely. So, that possibility is very helpful for me. I think that the RF Wireless Multimedia Tiny Keyboard is very good addition to Windows or Linux based HTPC.

I already wrote about using compact keyboard with mouse pad Logitech diNovo with MythTV. Now it’s time to use it to control your LinuxMCE core/hybrid or media director. Media buttons work out of the box. But to activate mouse pad just add following line to the /etc/modprobe.d/options:
options usbhid quirks=0x046d:0xc71f:0x00080000

After reboot enjoy that cool keyboard!

Another cool remote control with slide keyboard was found on the Engadget. The post is about Vizio and its services. But I couldn’t fine such remote on the Vizio web site. Maybe it’s fake or just concept. In any case, that remote looks very attractive for the HTPC owners the same as PS3 3in1 Wireless keyboard controller remote.