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In order to get a real appreciation of how "customer-oriented" Logitech are, take a look at this petition, started some 3 years ago with close to 500 replies.

I use this one:

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/trackballs/wireless-trackball-m570

It works great for Civilization, Warcraft, Total Annihilation... but then again, I haven't ever tried it on an FPS. (Playing Morrowind on this trackball's grandaddy was pleasant enough, though.) I'm left handed too. :) I have been unimpressed with mice since the old logitech cordless ones (with real balls... heh.)

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/gaming/mice-keyboard-combos/g600-mmo-gaming-mouse

Only the market is addressed. There are magnetic, clip-on, bluetooth keyboards for iPad as well as case+keyboard combinations for other tablets. Microsoft is doing nothing at all new. Take a look at this Logitech design and tell me how it differs that much from MS's design.

But one doesn't necessarily have had to. There are bluetooth keyboard magnetic clip-ons for iPad with an almost identical design. I'm sure Apple internally experimented with the idea. There are loads of problem with the idea. For one, you have to reach up and forward with some degree of repetition and accuracy which is a lot more awkward and cumbersome than reaching your thumb an inch down to the track-pad or your arm right or left to a mouse. In addition, your screen gets dirty very rapidly when you're touching it constantly. It's not such a huge problem in the dark, but in a well lit room or sunlight, it makes an otherwise readable screen impossible to make out. It's not so bad when your cover has built in microfiber and cleans the thing every time you shut the lid but with a lid that's a keyboard, that won't happen. On the contrary. It's more likely the keyboard will leave a rather distinctive pattern in the finger oil. I predict a lot of people are going to complain about these issues and as a result, Microsoft is not going to have the sort of success they might like. Hey. Maybe i'll pick up one in a year or so in a fire sale like with the HP touch-pads -- and only then if I can put CyanogenMod on it.

If you have a Mac Mini or other living room media center setup, use this Logitech app or a similar app to control it.

Or the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover, or...

The idea of adding a keyboard to a tablet is hardly Microsoft's invention; Apple released a keyboard dock alongside the first iPad, to say nothing of the old convertible tablet PCs.

I didn't say it did.. I just googled it and found this on their blog though:

"The short answer is that Logitechâ(TM)s Unifying receiver delivers much greater energy efficiency than Bluetooth and is one of the ways that weâ(TM)ve optimized the keyboardâ(TM)s energy management.

To explain it further, unlike Logitechâ(TM)s Unifying receiver there is there is a very noticeable latency upon reconnection of Bluetooth technology when a product âoewakes-upâ after a period of non-use. To side-step this issue, Bluetooth requires a device keep the wireless connection active as long as possible, which is an unnecessary drain on energy. A Bluetooth solar keyboard like the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 would not have been feasible with todayâ(TM)s available technology."

I linked both my keyboard and trackball up to one receiver, which I have hooked into a USB hub on my desk, so it doesn't waste any ports on my laptop..

Ahem :p

A quick search on Google reveals a very large number of USB numeric keypads which have more than just 9 keys. If I were going to buy one today, I'd probably get one of these: http://www.logitech.com/en-ca/keyboards/keyboard/devices/wireless-number-pad-n305

That being said, I picked up a USB numeric keypad for my laptop about 10 years ago, and it hasn't caused me any problems. I don't use it any more because I've switched to ultraportable laptops and it's literally half the size of my laptop, but it still works.

One could buy a traditional Apple TV box and a port multiplier for the price of a Harmony remote. I have never seen a Harmony remote used in any of the households I've been in.

So where exactly can you find an Apple TV box and a port multiplier for $79.99 ?

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/remotes/universal-remotes/devices/6621

There are many harmony remotes, I'm giving the price for the one I have. The pricing starts at $29.99 for the 300 and goes up to $349.99 for the 1100.

there must be some way to cobble something together with say, an iPad. iPad runs an app that just turns it into a screen (2048x1536), while the keyboard part has the standard PC bits.

Something like this?

I'm not sold on the idea that 2048x1536 on a 9.7" screen is going to solve any real world lack-of-screen-real-estate-for-developing problems, unless you have magic eyesight, though.

Resolution is great, but there's a limit to where it is useful.

Logitech has a system that I purchased for my home: Logitech Alert.

You didn't specify exactly what you meant by "cheap," but you can get a full six-camera system (the max # of cameras it will support) for around $1,000.

720p cameras, motion detection, video stored on SD cards in each camera and copied to your PC, remote access, email alerts... It's got pretty much everything.

The best part is how ridiculously easy it is to set up. The system uses your home's electrical wiring to communicate between the cameras and the base system, so you literally just plug everything in and you're up and running. I was shocked at how easy it was to set up.

Here's some sample video from the camera on my front porch (which, by the way, I exported from their software to YouTube in just one or two clicks).

Logitech has a system that I purchased for my home: Logitech Alert.

You didn't specify exactly what you meant by "cheap," but you can get a full six-camera system (the max # of cameras it will support) for around $1,000.

720p cameras, motion detection, video stored on SD cards in each camera and copied to your PC, remote access, email alerts... It's got pretty much everything.

The best part is how ridiculously easy it is to set up. The system uses your home's electrical wiring to communicate between the cameras and the base system, so you literally just plug everything in and you're up and running. I was shocked at how easy it was to set up.

Here's some sample video from the camera on my front porch (which, by the way, I exported from their software to YouTube in just one or two clicks).

Logitech is working as hard as they can to remove anything remotely "advanced" from the Harmony line.
The older remotes had an artificial limitation on sequence length of 5 commands.
(And no, activities are not a replacement for sequences).

See here.

I wonder about the potential for greener computing. If the power usage is so low, drop the battery all together and add a solar cell with a low leakage super cap.

You mean like this? http://www.logitech.com/en-au/keyboards/keyboard/devices/7454 . It's not bluetooth, but I think it'll work with tablet with full fledged USB port such as the Acer Iconia, or the GTab with usb adapter

I used a similar product, the Logitech io for a number of years. It worked pretty well, but I never really utilized the digital copies of my notes - it's often much faster to just flip through the notebooks. I did sometimes use the digital copies for review, since they're a bit more consolidated than several notebooks of paper, but I ended up abandoning it after 3-4 years of use simply because I ran out of ink and didn't have a refill on hand. It's annoying to recopy notes that are taken with a different pen.

If you're considering a livescribe, note that they do require special paper like the Logitech io. The notebooks I had to buy were significantly more expensive than standard paper, although not that much of a total cost. However, it also limits your organization: if you want a seperate section for every class, you're going to have to carry around several notepads.

Describing Android as a F/OSS project is a bit of a stretch. It's a proprietary system that Google bought, half-heartedly opened, and then mostly closed again. One proprietary software company creating a crappy clone of another proprietary software company's product. Not exactly uncommon...

Android hardware vendors seem to think Google has magically changed the licensing on linux, and that they can safely ignore source requests.

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Revue/Need-source-code-for-Revue/m-p/685370#M9988

And so far, they are getting away with it. Google apparently can say "fuck you" to the entire open source community, and nobody will do anything about it. I guess Steve Jobs really was ahead of his time!

And if you closely examine your keyboard you may notice that the keys on that are also slightly elevated.

Not always. I'll admit that this keyboard is definitely harder for touch-typing from a cold start, but I've just gotten too used to the minimal movement and relative quiet of laptop keys.

The more significant concern should be how complicated the device is. The Logitech Revue has the hallmarks of being rushed to market by a furiously masterbating manager in the corner of an office somewhere, refusing to listen to anything anyone is saying.

Just look at the Revue website and find anywhere mentioning how simple or easy the device is to use, no just a very daunting picture of a gargantuan remote that is some nerd's wet dream.

A lot of effort has been put into the product launch, the Logitech website is larger than any other product they ship and it also extends onto the support side. It is nice to see that they have a series of support videos until you actually view one. Oh dear. I'm wincing at these poor actors having to drive through an overly technical and obtuse script which spends far too much time discussing "HDMI capable AV systems" and optional components which only serve to make it look more complicated than it needs to be.

The more significant concern should be how complicated the device is. The Logitech Revue has the hallmarks of being rushed to market by a furiously masterbating manager in the corner of an office somewhere, refusing to listen to anything anyone is saying.

Just look at the Revue website and find anywhere mentioning how simple or easy the device is to use, no just a very daunting picture of a gargantuan remote that is some nerd's wet dream.

A lot of effort has been put into the product launch, the Logitech website is larger than any other product they ship and it also extends onto the support side. It is nice to see that they have a series of support videos until you actually view one. Oh dear. I'm wincing at these poor actors having to drive through an overly technical and obtuse script which spends far too much time discussing "HDMI capable AV systems" and optional components which only serve to make it look more complicated than it needs to be.

I so need to get a PS3 wheel. Sadly my ps2 one will not work.

A Logitech G27 can be had for $195 shipped with coupon code gdby2009M. Well worth the money (and a really good deal on that particular wheel).

What about the Logitech Comfort Lapdesk? My wife has one of these things and with a laptop sitting on it none of the heat even touches your body.

So her testicles are safe, then?

What about the Logitech Comfort Lapdesk? My wife has one of these things and with a laptop sitting on it none of the heat even touches your body.

Looks like they are.

Then again, at least over here in Europe they give 3 or 5 years of warranty on their mice, so even if you do mess it up playing too much D3 they'll just give you a new one.

On the other hand, that kind of service leads rabid fanboys like yours truly to buy all their other stuff as well, so I guess in a way it works ;-)

who is out there asking to add ANOTHER device to their living room and explain to everyone how to change the tv input source?

Why explain to everyone how to change the TV input source, when you can just buy a good universal remote that does the switching for you.
I love mine, my friends love theirs, and I've even set my parents up with one.
Hit "Watch TV" to watch TV, "Play DVD" to play a DVD, or "Listen to Radio" if you want to do that.
The remote remembers last-state of your appliances, and turns the appropriate ones on and off so that you only have on what you need. It then resets all of your inputs correctly (TV, Receiver, etc) to pipe your audio/video according to your setup.
The hardest part about using one was teaching my parents not to manually turn on/off the TV anymore, as the remote wouldn't then know the "last state". There's a help-button, though that will step-by-step attempt each operation and ask you to confirm when everythings working, in case you have luddites messing with things.

Certainly as a leftie I've never once had a problem or felt disadvantaged when using any kind of computing device, ever...

Apparently you've never tried to use one of these...
http://www.ink2print.com/gbu0-prodshow/ergo_500.html
or these...
http://www.expansys.com/zoompic.aspx?i=160630
or these...
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=224053
or these...
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/mice/devices/5845
or these...
http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169418900/categoryId.35208800

Try using any of those left-handed ranges from impossible to an exercise in discomfort and frustration. The two keypads are completely unusable. The joystick is uncomfortable, and most of the buttons are awkward to reach. The mice are also uncomfortable and all the 'thumb' buttons are effectively impossible to use well.

There are some ok left-handed friendly options available...
I use a Fang keypad, which is ambidextrous
http://www.amazon.ca/ZGP-1000-Fang-USB-Gamepad-Keypad/dp/B000FRW8KS

Cheap ambi-mice are plentiful, but getting a good gaming/laser mouse is hard. Ambidextrous options are pretty limited and have fewer features, and ergo-left are non-existent. I enjoyed my ambidextrous razer copperhead, but after it died I haven't found a good replacement yet. I see razer has a left-handed ergo deathadder...that must be fairly new... I'll definitely be looking into it.

As for joysticks... Saitek used to make a pretty decent ambi/convertible flightstick... but I'm currently looking for a new stick, and can't find anything that looks decent right now. Flightsims are out of fashion for the last decade and there isn't much available that isn't either super cheap and basic or super ergo-right-only.

Unless you look for a generic unshaped mouse/trackball. You're out of luck.

I was forced to learn to use a right handed trackball, since I wanted a shaped one. It was easier to learn to use my right hand than try to find a left handed or one of the crappy ambidextrous ones.

Logitech out of all their trackballs, only makes one that is ambidextrous, and it's crap.

Logitech couldn't manage to sell the "iFeel" mouse, back in 2000 which does make you "feel" the underlying objects on desktop. I have one, hardware still works. They are a huge name in input devices with a huge prestige. People still didn't buy the idea.

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/172/1183 -->press release.

Who came up with this electrocute user idea? Doesn't Toshiba guys have anything else to do like, make use of the freaking Cell chip they invested billions in?

However, I wish the interface itself was better. The times I'd die for a purely continuous analogue middle wheel, instead of the 'step-by-step' wheel that's forced upon us.

They have this. The logitech g500 mouse has a small button below the scroll wheel that changes between the two you refer to. It really is nice to have. I didn't even think I wanted it but now I absolutely love the feature.

http://www.logitech.com/de-de/search?q=joystick Just about everything you could want.

At 20 bucks for a turnkey version, why bother?

Why not just get something like the Logitech DiNovo Mini? Its a bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo that fits in the palm of your hand. Logitech only supports it on Windows, but its recognized on the Mac and should work as a keyboard/mouse on Linux as well. I've not tried it with Linux as none of my boxes have bluetooth...

iirc, it can act as a display, as the UI shown on it is basically a windows program.

but yes, it may have been more useful if it was a strip across the top, like say the logitech G15:
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/gaming/mice_keyboard_combos/devices/3498

to bad samsung never exported this:
http://www.umpcportal.com/products/Samsung/SPH-P9200

On, Off, Automatic:
http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Webcams/QuickCam-Pro-9000-LED-Control/m-p/186301

... a real study would be to take say a real racing wheel device, hook it up to a decent game with semi-real driving characteristics and see if it improves one's driving ability.

What about people using logitech's G25?

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/wheels/devices/131&cl=gb,en

Looking for something like this?

Logitech Harmony 1100

I've never actually used that one, but I have one of the base models and like it a lot, even if the programming software is intolerably slow. Only have to use it once anyway.

users will notice only nominal battery-life improvements for long-range or continuous data communication

No power saving for mice unfortunately.

I'm not sure why blue tooth mice are not more popular, with most companies going with their own propitiatory, battery guzzling shit for wireless. Logitech, that means you!

For crying out loud, this is the century of the fruit bat! Why can't we have a single remote control for channel surfing.

You can
You don't even need one as good as that though, you can buy Universal Remotes at most dollar-stores and convenience stores nowadays.

Would be awesome if I could use it as a glorified tv remote. If it could be used in place of this remote then I would look at buying one.

Clits have been deprecated because they wear out. They just can't take any abuse whatosever and you're always having to buy replacement covers for them. The glidepad, on the other hand, is only hard on your fingerprint, and those are a liability anyway. :)

I've actually done a bit of point and click gaming with a glidepad, it's not too bad. A FPS, on the other hand, is basically a gigantic fail. If not a mouse, I need a trackball for that. I had the original marble, whose ergonomics better suited my bear paws, but the trackman wheel is pretty amazing. I've used mine resting on my leg while sitting on the couch, and it's quite workable in that configuration. Don't put it on the seat next to you though, you'll fuck up your wrist.

Does the distro work with your printer without any complicated installation procedures?
Does the distro work with your audio hardware without any complicated installation procedures?
Does the distro switch between all the resolutions supported by your video hardware?
Does the distro have a reasonably good package installation mechanism?
Does the distro support your applications without special package installation requirements?

It's questions like this that scare Joe Sixpack away from Linux. If all the major distributions were sold at BestBuy and Joe Sixpack walked in and wanted to buy Linux, he'd have no idea which one to get. KDE vs GNOME? If he wants to buy a Logitech Keyboard and mouse, I doubt he'll see SuSE/Ubuntu/Fedora on the back of the box for the Logitech Compact Keyboard Pro, which btw is a pretty generic $29 USB keyboard. It might work, but atleast Joe Sixpack that it'll work with winXP/Vista/7 because it'll say it on the box.

It's a shame that while all the different distros are good for Linux as a whole, the fact that there are so many distros makes it tough for the avg user to get into it. I consider myself pretty linux savy and the above list of questions makes me start to get nervous. Linux and hardware, it should just work.

The dirt issue seems much worse with normal scroll mice.

So far, I've been pretty lucky with my Logitech cordless Trackman Wheel regardless of my alimentary habits. That product gets an endorsement from me: it seems to be impossible to break.

However, I do like the look of the FTIR mouse (the last mentioned in TFA). The Microsoft Surface thingy looks kind of neat in its native form, but it would get old quickly with a screen covered in greasy fingerprints. This mouse option looks like it might be a cooler alternative. I hope nobody has thought to patent it yet...

Other websites have dumb, half-friendly URLs, where they add the backend technology inside the URL, such as "http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/" (what's with the "index.cfm" in the URL?). If they fix that problem, all the links pointing to the current URL will break. If they ever change technology, it's also going to break the links from other websites.

Did you try? In fact http://www.logitech.com/mice_pointers/ transparently redirects to the other page. OTOH, bizarrely, http://www.logitech.com/keyboards/ doesn't work.

Other websites have dumb, half-friendly URLs, where they add the backend technology inside the URL, such as "http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/" (what's with the "index.cfm" in the URL?). If they fix that problem, all the links pointing to the current URL will break. If they ever change technology, it's also going to break the links from other websites.

Did you try? In fact http://www.logitech.com/mice_pointers/ transparently redirects to the other page. OTOH, bizarrely, http://www.logitech.com/keyboards/ doesn't work.

Other websites have dumb, half-friendly URLs, where they add the backend technology inside the URL, such as "http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/" (what's with the "index.cfm" in the URL?). If they fix that problem, all the links pointing to the current URL will break. If they ever change technology, it's also going to break the links from other websites.

There's no reason why Logitech couldn't issue HTTP 301 redirects from http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/ to a newer, friendlier URL.

I have the Boom and it works great. It also comes up with server software that runs on Linux or Windows so you can serve your music. You can read more details on the Logitech website.

However, I would love to have this kind of system in my living room (either just for the tv, or the computer thats connected to tv screen).

You can try something like this.

I use that with my Media PC and it works well.

Theres still a few problems though. For one, mouse is an incredibly precise input device - you can pretty easily move it along same pixel axis, or get it precisely to a specific pixel. It's hard to do that with your fingers because the area they touch is a large one, it's not easy to just move your finger by one pixel and your hand tend to shake a little bit too. If you look at the video, you see everything in the interface is quite big and even a few small windows take lots of place.

Other problem is that now your both hands lay on the wide touch area and you dont have a keyboard. If you put them side to side, you'll only have one hand on the touch area and dont get the full power of it. Moving hands between them all the time is inefficient. Typing on the touch area gives no feedback and again takes your hands of the "mouse".

It would also be quite impossible to play FPS or other kinds of games with this type of setup.

So no, I still dont see touch interfaces replacing the usual keyboard+mouse combo anytime soon. However, I would love to have this kind of system in my living room (either just for the tv, or the computer thats connected to tv screen). It's clumsy to have keyboard or mouse in living (at the moment I have MX Air -mouse, which is okayish), but this would be perfect for such job. Not for a desktop pc replacement though.

Seems strange that they would put the screens above the keyboard.

Actually, when done correctly it works good. Myself I have Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard, which has 320x240 color LCD on the top of keyboard. Now I dont play much, but I find the keyboard really nice with its extra buttons that you can use for macros etc (and I get teh nerdy "command center" feel ;)

The main thing I use it for is the cpu/ram meters. I know I could get it on the screen aswell, but I dont like that as I tend to run everything on fullscreen.. browser, visual studio, irc and just alt-tab between them. That is why desktop widgets dont work, because I never see them. On the other hand always-on-top widgets would be in the way all the time. But when its running on the lcd screen on keyboard that I dont all the time use for something else, its nice.

Another thing that I frequently use with the LCD is the YouTube player. When people paste some youtube link, I copy it to clipboard and instead of opening new browser tab and bringing it on top of the screen, it starts playing on the lcd screen. That way I can watch the video without actually putting all my concentration on it.

The screen is also great for providing all kinds of information from various programs, like chat windows, irc, rss reader, music player, stats or healthbars and so on in games. On an interesting note, someone even developed a counter-strike hack that used the lcd screen to display its menu and a radar. That way there wasn't any hack related menus etc on the actual screen, so screenshots didn't catch it.

However it looks like you would be looking at that laptop's screens from 45 or higher angle, which cant be that nice. Maybe they could had added another surface between screen and keyboard so that it would be angled better. But like the article says, its just a prototype to show off intel's experiements, and not likely a product.

Extra small screens can be really useful. It's a great place to show information or content that would get in the way if it was on your actual monitor. Having second monitor on side usually tends to go into other purposes and isn't usually on the view as good as lcd on top of your keyboard.