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Using The Gyration Media Center Remote With Linux

Posted by timothy on from the make-it-so-wirelessly dept.

Bruce Perens writes "The Gyration Media Center Remote is a radio keyboard and mouse with 100-foot range. The mouse uses an accelerometer rather than a mouse wheel, and thus has the unique feature that you can make mouse gestures in the air. The mouse should be perfect for a public speaker who wants to move around during a speech, without giving up control of his laptop. It would also make a nifty remote for a Linux PVR user, since it has VCR controls and channel and volume buttons. But does it work with Linux?" Bruce Perens tried it out and says the answer is a qualified Yes.

4 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Price qualifies for a big NO by Kosi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    $ 180.- is very overpriced for a cordless keyboard and mouse, even with this fancy mouse-in-the-air.

    1. Re:Price qualifies for a big NO by DHR · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Funny, I have mine packaged up to be RMA'd right now because half the keys don't work.

  2. Good hardware by Pieroxy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While I like the remote and keyboard a lot, there are two major issues for me to be the ultimate wireless combo for my media center:

    1. They don't release it in Europe and don't plan to. RF norms are different over here...
    2. There are no numbers, which means no keypad onto the remote. Painful if you want to switch from channel 1 to channel 74...

    But otherwise, I've seen these at work and they are awsome. You can use the remote/mouse either as a regular optical mouse, or you can press a bice button and you can use it by just moving it in the air. After a 2 min practice, it's very usable.

    I'd like one so much......

    --
    Write boring code, not shiny code!
  3. Re:Computers, BAH by zogger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    dislclaimer-I work at technocrat, but I joined there first from the stated reason, to have a more mature forum (ie, less bogus trolling posts and whatnot) than ..well, here for instance..

    With that said, you'll find across the net at news places that allow commentary, it's frequently the case that original sources of the news get very little in the way of comments to their articles, yet at the large sites like slashdot that aggregate and repost, that they get quite a few. It's a normal occurrence and not just limited to technocrat. Each fills a niche in a way, and choice is good. I'll give you another example, exactly similar as it was written by Bruce. He wrote a very long and quite decent piece on soiftware patents, etc, that was published at Technocrat.net, but it was rejected at Slashdot. Personally, I don't see why, as it was easily better than quite a few of the articles posted here on any given day. So, realistically, I have no idea how many people actually saw it. If people only or primarily look at Slashdot, they miss quite a lot of tech news. So sites like Technocrat.net serve a purpose, even if people merely add it to their RSS feeds and click over for things they are interested in. As large as Slashdot is, it can't cover everything.