Logitech has delivered a very stylish cordless desktop with media remote control to the market. The keyboard, mouse, remote bundle might even make it into the lounge room.
The look is razor thin with polished black and silver tones.
The Cordless Desktop S-510 Media Remote has a minimalist appearance to try not to make too much of a statement by competing against your room decor. The designers kept the buttons to a minmum, but didn’t hold off on the functionality. The programmable buttons advanced 27 MHz wireless technology and five meter remote range are far from minimalist.
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The desktop is compatible out of the box with popular media player applications, such as iTunes, Musicmatch, Windows Media Player, and WinAmp, plus there’s proprietary Logitech software to deliver a full-screen interface which brings together music, pictures and video into one interface.
The remote has seven customisable keys, including three smart keys, which can be programmed with Logitech SetPoint. The smart keys can also be programmed simply by pressing and holding them while in the desired online-radio, play list, application, folder or Web page.
The keyboard includes buttons for manipulating images and music, including Rotate and Shuffle. By default, the Rotate button turns digital photos 90 degrees to the right, but it can be configured to turn them to the left. A Ctrl+Rotate key combination rotates the image in the opposite direction.
The 800 dpi optical mouse features Logitech’s Tilt Wheel Plus Zoom scroll wheel for scrolling side to side and zooming in and out of photos and documents. Each of the buttons on the mouse and keyboard can be programmed to launch applications using SetPoint.
The keyboard has an expected battery life of six months or more with regular use. Meanwhile the mouse battery has a life of eight months or more. An on/off switch on the mouse extends battery life even farther. To avoid the surprise of a dead battery, each of the S-510 desktop components features a battery indicator light, which turns from green to red when the keyboard, mouse or remote has 10 days of battery life left.
The slim remote has an intuitive design that makes it easy to control media – without looking at the remote. Instead of the traditional D-pad or four-button navigation design, the remote has a roller located in the centre of the device – the natural landing area of the thumb – for maximum comfort and improved access. The location of the roller limits the range of finger travel and allows for more fluid movement through scroll menus on three-metre user interfaces. Large Back and OK buttons can be found by touch due to their prominent locations above and below the roller.
Suggested retail price is $179.
