Over a year ago we cut the cable/dish around here and began using Home Theater PCs, and various extenders and it has worked out much better than I had hoped. My wife and two sons have been delighted with the selection of content available and we’re saving almost $125/month by not having DirecTV.
All went smoothly in the transition, building the HTPCs was easy, putting the Rokus, Popcorn Hour , Microsoft XBox360 and Thecus NAS on the network wasn’t a problem either. The only real issue we had was finding the right remote keyboard. I tried a slew of them and could never find one that was easy to use, small enough to fit in one hand and accomplished all the functions necessary to fully utilize the Windows 7 based PCs that were acting as the heart of our system.
Along came the the Lenovo Multimedia Remote, a fan-shaped, gem with a roller-ball and qwerty-keyboard. It was almost perfect except for two things: 1. The keys weren’t back lit so it was very hard to see, and 2. There was no way to easily scroll (wheel) through web pages.
Well, it appears my desires are about to met as Lenovo has introduced the Enhanced Lenovo Multimedia Remote Keyboard (N5902). The new model incorporates a scroll bar, touch pad rather than a ball, back-lit keyboard and, it appears, a little nicer overall look. It’s going to sell for $79.99 and should be shipping September 1. I promise a review as soon as I can get my paws on one.
It’s really refreshing to see a company that has listened to its customers and made changes to an already pretty-good product. I’ve included a short video highlight the keyboard and the changes that Lenovo made
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
Just noticed that Lenovo is offering the new keyboard at 50% off for a limited time. I bought two! http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/09/01/deal-of-the-day-%E2%80%93-50-off-lenovo-enhanced-multimedia-remote-with-backlit-keyboard/