I bought this last night from Best Buy. I judge my keyboard by the way the keys feel when I type, obviously. I think I may be the only person on the planet earth that cares about how soft my keys on my keyboards are. I need them to be soft, otherwise I cannot type fast. So, I was hoping and praying that the keys on this model were going to be as soft as the Microsoft Wireless Optical Pro keyboard set which is also an ergonomic wireless keyboard.
My hopes were shattered when I opened it up and started typing on it. The keys are slightly soft but not soft enough. Also I think over time the keys probably get much more harder to press than they are now. That’s just a guess — this is how it was with the older Natural ergo keyboards from Microsoft. Out of the box, the keys are extremely soft, after a few hours of heavy typing, the keys would start to get harder and harder to press. There we go, I had a hard time hitting the A key. I just don’t understand why it’s so hard to have a keyboard have its keys soft ALL the time no matter how worn out it gets. The MS keyboards use this rubber molding underneath the keys and I believe over time the rubber just gets worn out. Like any rubber that is depressed over and over again will eventually start to lose its shape or form and eventually you’ll have a hard time pressing the keys.
The features on this keyboard is nice. They have five keys that you can customize to your liking. Customize meaning you can have each button open up a program of your choice via the keyboard software that comes with the keyboard.
I found this article through www.digg.com and I found it very amusing at this particular quote from a spokesperson of the MPAA.
”A common misconception among people who use networks like these is that they’re in a group that is above the law,” said movie industry association spokeswoman Kori Bernards.”
I mean come on, it is THE MPAA who think they’re above the law. They go in and sue innocent old grandmas who don’t even have computers. They are idiots! I am in no way condoning piracy but the acts that these idiots pull are just are reprehensible as the pirates. They’re already making MILLIONS of dollars and they’re crying over piracy? I use the logic, the people who download the movie or song probably would not have gone out to watch the movie anyway so they’re not necessarily losing money… unless that person sells it to someone who was planning on going to see it. 9/10 times if I watch a movie that was downloaded I go and see the movie in theater!
Gotta give a shout out to my man, Chuck Norris! Please don’t round house kick me!
Cost, relatively cheap, I got it for $55.99 with a $16.00 MIR through SanDisk. Size and speed, amazingly tiny and amazingly fast at the same time. I transferred a 10GB file in less than a minute.
Reliability, not so good. My first unit is defective. The light on the unit is supposed to stay on unless there is some type of data transfer going on. Unfortunately, my light blinks on and off intermittently every few seconds. I have to go and return the unit and get another one from Best Buy.
Third, this unit comes with U3 software on it. What this U3 software does is basically install itself onto every computer that you plug this guy in to. It says that it will leave no traces of the software at all but it’s still a pain in the ass. I use my thumbdrive primarily for taking and putting a bunch of programs on client’s computers to remove spyware. In having this U3 software always install it 1) takes up precious time that I have to wait for this thing to install and 2) puts useless software that I don’t even care about or use.
If you search Google for U3 removal, one of the first few links will take you to a page where you can actually get a program that Best Buy uses to remove the U3 software. I tried it and it worked flawlessly and it did not do any harm to my thumbdrive. You may be thinking maybe that’s why I’m having issues now but it isn’t. It was blinking intermittently since the first time I plugged the unit in. In any case, I hope whoever stumbles upon this mini-review will take it into consideration when purchasing this drive.
With that being said, I have owned the 256mb version but that one died last week when it fell off and got smashed into pieces. That drive lasted me well over a year and a half and would have continued to serve me well hadn’t I smashed it on accident. The major changes from that first generation unit to this second generation unit is that the light that lights up was blue and is now green. Also the design of the thumbdrive itself has changed. There was an almost indestructable plastic casing that surrounded the thumbdrive. Now, there are sleeves of think rubber that surround the thumbdrive and when taken off it is ugly as heck. You’re given the choice to rice out your thumbdrive with three different colored sleeves. You have red, blue and the standard clear that it comes packaged with. If you have any questions or anything, feel free to send them to me!