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Charles Moore Reviews The Logitech Cordless Elite Duo Keyboard And Optical Mouse Combo
I won’t hold you suspense; this keyboard/mouse duo from Logitech is wonderful. I’m blown away by how, well, nice it is, and how well it works. 
If you’ve ever been up close and personal with a Mercedes or BMW, these Logitech units are like that. Top quality materials; superb fit and finish; and smoooooth action on all the switches and buttons, which in this case are many. It has to be the Swiss engineering and quality control, because the keyboard is made in Thailand, and the mouse and receiver in China. Styling wise, the analogy holds. My test unit in black and silver reminds me of the instrument panel of the German car -- a combination of sensuous, organic curves and functional layout. 
The Zero-Degree Tilt keyboard and its detachable palm rest have a low-slung profile, with the alphanumeric and primary control keys in a near flat orientation, rather than the more common, but ergonomically inferior upward rake from spacebar to F-keys. Speaking of which, there are only 12 so designated, with the keys that would customarily be designated F-13 through F-15 labeled for PC-esque functions like PrtScr/SysRq; Scroll Lock; and PauseBreak. However, they still work like F-13 through F-15 in the Mac OS. Before you can use the advanced features of the Cordless Elite Duo, it is necessary to install the Logitech Control Center for Macintosh OS X software. The installer will check for the OS version and will not install the Logitech Control Center if your Macintosh is not running Mac OS X version 10.1.2 or higher. The Logitech Control Center (LCC) supports Mac OS X and allows you to take full advantage of your Logitech keyboard, mouse 
With the LCC and your Logitech keyboard, you can: You can also use the LCC with your Logitech mouse or trackball to: The installation will automatically configure the preferences for the user who launched the installer so that the LCC is activated every time he logs in. If there are other users on the computer, they will need to open the Logitech Control Center to activate it in their own account. Each user will have his or her own settings, as the preferences are saved in each user’s preference folder. If, at any point, the software is reinstalled in one user’s account, it will not affect other user accounts. In Mac OS X, scrolling is managed by each application. New, well-written, applications will receive and handle the wheel information and scroll accordingly. Applications that were designed for Mac OS 8.x/9.x may not offer wheel scrolling functionality. You can completely disable any button or key by simply assigning it to the special “Nothing” action. Using a key or button assigned to “Nothing” will have no effect. To disable any button or key: 1. Launch the System Preferences. Pressing F12 will eject the CD. You can also configure any other programmable key to do it. When the Mac is in sleep mode, the receiver of a cordless keyboard checks for any activity in three second intervals. If the Power Key has been used, it will take an additional second to implement the action, which means there may be a four second delay before the action is executed. Open the Logitech Control Center and right click on the keyboard icon to select between a Macintosh or Windows keyboard layout. Indeed, this keyboard is designed to support PCs first, which means that the modifier keys are PC-labeled as well; i.e.: Command is “Alt,” and Option has a Windows logo. I didn’t find that any problem to deal with, because these keys are in the customary positions, and the OS X driver and programming software works flawlessly. More on that in a moment. 
The mouse bundled with this combo is Logitech’s Cordless MouseMan Optical mouse, which I like a lot better than the Apple optical mouse that came with the G4 Cube I owned for a while last year. Apple’s mouse looks spectacular, but has only one button and I didn’t like the feel of it especially. It seemed stiff and sluggish. The Logitech mouse, by contrast, has a very lively and smooth feel, even though in weight it is substantially heavier than the Apple Mouse. The default setting for is for extremely fast cursor response which takes some getting used to, but has a lot to recommend it with today’s higher-resolution screens. You can get the cursor where you want it pronto. Switching back to my regular mouse felt very slow and ponderous after just a few hours on the Logitech. I should note that you can slow the mouse response down in the Preferences. 
The Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical has three buttons plus a scroll wheel. Two of the buttons are where you would expect them to be, while the third is down on the left hand side of the mouse, intended to be activated by your thumb. All three can be programmed. I find it helpful to program the right button for click and hold, which helps mitigate the issue I have with OS X not supporting simultaneous click and drag input from two pointing devices. It’s not a 100% satisfactory substitute to my standard mode of clicking with a foot mouse while dragging with a hand device, but it’s a lot less stressful on my hands and arms that holding the mouse button down. Speaking of ergonomic issues, the Cordless Elite is not an “ergonomic” keyboard per se, although it is among the most comfortable conventional keyboard layout boards I have ever used. However, there is a companion product with a split, ergonomic configuration called the Cordless Comfort Duo, which sells at the same price as the Elite Duo ($99.95). 
Rounding out the Logitech Cordless Duo lineup are two lower-priced and fewer-featured ‘boards, the Cordless Duo Navigator at $79.95, and the Cordless Duo Access at $54.95. 
The cordless keyboard and mouse units interface via encrypted radio frequencies with a common receiver unit that can connect to either a USB port on a Mac or PC, or a PS/2 port on a PC using a provided adapter. The receiver can be placed anywhere within 6 ft. of the input devices, and does not need to be in line of sight, unlike the infrared remote devices. The mouse requires two AA alkaline batteries, and the keyboard four AA cells. Battery life for the keyboard is estimated at 6-12 months, and at two to three months for the mouse. I’m inclined to think that for most of us, a cordless keyboard is a bit superfluous. I mean, if you’re going far enough from your computer for a cord to reach, you probably can’t see the monitor. However, a cordless mice are quite cool. Since the mouse’s function is to move, and the cord is much more of an aggravation than with a keyboard. Aside from its feel and action, I detested the absurdly short cord on my erstwhile Cube’s Apple Optical Mouse. And if you have a wireless receiver hooked up for a cordless mouse, might as well make the most of it for the keyboard as well and keep another USB port open. Cordless keyboards do make it a simple matter to clear your desk surface when your not typing or otherwise using the computer. Reader Bob Ketcham also notes this cordless Keyboard and Mouse combination advantage: “I routinely use three computers at this desk – a portable company provided PC, my G4 tower and a G3 tower (the family’s server). Losing two wired keyboard and mouse connections helps the clutter substantially. I’m now looking for a good KVM to get down to just one wireless keyboard.” The Logitech Cordless Elite enables you to do a lot more than just type. Besides the standard 104-Key layout, the keyboard has a constellation of other input options. At the top center of the board is a multimedia console, with six dedicated keys and a volume wheel for controlling Web and multimedia activity. Four of the keys are fast forward, rewind, play, and stop. I found that it worked great with iTunes. At the upper right-hand corner of the Cordless Elite keyboard are five more keys that can be used to toggle iTouch navigation, Email, Shopping, Search, and My Homepage functions. Over on the left are four more buttons labeled Finance, My Sites, Community, and Families (but you can custom program any of these buttons to do a wide variety of things using the Logitech Preferences pane), plus a Suspend key for restarts and shutdowns. 
On the extreme left hand side of the Elite keyboard is the iNav console, with a second scroll wheel in addition to the one on the Cordless MouseMan Optical, so you can scroll with either hand, plus toggle button controls with two more programmable buttons. Since the Cordless Elite Duo is only officially supported by OS x on the Mac, I was curious to see whether it would work with OS 9 for users like myself who dual boot. I’m happy to report that basic keyboard and mouse functions do work in OS 9, although the programming software of course doesn’t. With the keyboard, all of the alphanumeric keys, the F-keys, and standard navigation and modifier keys work, although the Control and Option key positions are reversed -- i.e.: The Alt becomes the Option key and the key with the Windows logo becomes the Control key. On the mouse, all of the buttons revert to a single click and the scroll wheel doesn’t work on either device. However, overall I found that the Cordless Duo will be quite usable for occasional boots into OS 9, with no seed to switch to a different keyboard. The Cordless Mouse Man Optical is one of the heaviest mice I’ve ever used, but its action is silky smooth and positive, and the impression is one of substantial solidity and refinement rather than ponderousness. The mouse is just slightly larger than average size, and its contours fit my hand nicely. One annoyance I discovered with the Logitech Cordless Elite Duo is that sometimes my Pismo PowerBook will refuse to stay asleep with the wireless receiver plugged in. The ‘Book goes to sleep for a few seconds, and then spontaneously wakes up again. Unplugging the receiver restored normalcy. Bob Ketcham, who has used his Logitech cordless duo (the Cordless Freedom Optical) longer than I've had my test unit, has noted a couple of issues: "I am having a problem with my 733 G4 Digital Audio losing track of the mouse and keyboard connection. Roughly once a day, both the keyboard and mouse stop responding. The cure is to unplug the wireless receiver from the USB hub and reconnect it. The mouse and keyboard immediately begin to respond. Unfortunately, I have to crawl under my desk to do this. ItÕs an irritation. I suspect it is a Jaguar related problem. I did not experience it at all prior to the 10.2 upgrade." Bob also says: "You can get interference when two sets of these are placed in close proximity. IÕve moved my son or daughterÕs iMac to my desk on occasion for upgrades. When they sit down and start typing away in AIM, it interferes with my mouse and keystrokes -- stuttering mouse and lost keystrokes... "In spite of these few considerations and annoyances, I love the Cordless Freedom Optical Keyboard and Mouse combination." Another issue, or perhaps non-issue, but worth mentioning, and I don't know whether it's in any way related to what Bob described, since I'm running OS 10.1.4, is that after my initial test drive of the Cordless Elite Duo, I set it aside for a few days and went back to my usual input devices, since I'm stil working mainly in OS 9. While putting the finishing touches on this review, I needed to double check a few points and get another screenshot, so I plugged the receiver back in and sat down with the Logitech mouse and keyboard. The mouse worked fine, but the keyboard wouldn’t respond. Wondering if it might be a bad battery, I pulled the four AA cells out. They checked OK on a voltmeter, but I replaced them anyway and tried again. Still no joy. I finally read though the installation instructions again, and discovered that there are “Connect” buttons on the top of the receiver unit and the bottom of the keyboard and mouse, and was instructed to press these if either input device refused to work. This I did, and was rewarded with restored keyboard function. When in doubt..... RTFM (Read The Fine Manual) That little panic aside, I have no hesitation in giving the Logitech Cordless Elite Duo a full five-A Applelinks rating. This is a honey of a product and a very decent price, with a five year warranty.
System requirements For Internet and email functionality For multimedia control For more information, visit: Appendix Cordless Elite Duo features: iTouch features • Nine customizable iTouch keys for one-touch access to favorite web sites and applications Cordless MouseMan Optical Features • No cord to limit your movement or clutter your desk.
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