Microsoft adds functionality to an old favourite

By PETER GRIFFIN

Keyboards come and go but basically they never change much. That's fundamentally to do with human nature. Typers are used to putting their fingers in certain places, and even us hunt-and-peck 100-word-per-minute wannabes like the familiarity of the average keyboard's layout, the quick route to the "ctrl-alt-del" combination Microsoft has us using so often.

Yes, there was the radical introduction of the natural keyboard, which split the keyboard in two, and tilted the halves to mould ergonomically to the user's hands. And keyboards have gone wireless, but beyond that, pure physics prevent much more fiddling.

Microsoft has kept that in mind with the Wireless Optical Desktop Elite, an upgrade on the software maker cum hardware designer's previous wireless keyboard models.

The Desktop Elite package includes a standard design keyboard surrounded by an array of new shortcut buttons, and the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer, a re-engineered optical mouse.

The upgraded keyboard has some useful new features. On the left side of the board, a tilting mouse wheel has been embedded, allowing you to scroll through pages of documents or websites, vertically and horizontally. Being left-handed it's in a great position for me. I don't know about you lot from the far right. There are five "programmable" favourites keys, which you can assign commonly used web pages, files or programmes to.

Multimedia keys can be programmed to play, pause or fast forward songs or video, and other buttons can instantly shut you down, launch your web browser, boot you into MSN Messenger or pretty much any other operational function you'd normally do through a menu or with your mouse.

A cushioned, leathery pad now protrudes at the bottom of the keyboard to combat wrist ache.

The mouse itself has undergone an overhaul. Like the embedded mouse wheel, it sports "tilt wheel technology", which allows horizontal scrolling, fast scrolling and toggling between web pages.

A couple of new invisible features offer good improvements: the optical mouse is now more power efficient, Microsoft claiming you should be able to get up to six months from two AA batteries and three AA batteries in the keyboard. Built into the wireless receiver, which plugs into the standard keyboard jack or via USB, are "smart receivers" which detect interference from other devices operating at the same low frequency.

The optical mouse takes two AA batteries but can operate on only one.

The keyboard and mouse are compatible with most versions of Windows and Mac OS X (10.1 and higher).

Microsoft also has a Bluetooth version of its wireless desktop on the market - Microsoft Wireless Transceiver for Bluetooth. It works for both keyboard and mouse, offering a range of up to 30 feet from the computer.

Not that you'd want to be getting that far away, but it enables using the keyboard like a remote control for adjusting the volume of mp3 files that are playing through your PC or pausing a DVD.

Microsoft's keyboard offerings attempt to give computer users another way of accessing the same things.

Obviously, some of the keys are biased towards Microsoft applications, which are widely used. But the concept is refreshing for those who are over their love affair with the mouse and would just rather press a button to make it all happen.

Desktop Elite

$300 (IntelliMouse Explorer sold separately for $150).

Microsoft

Pros: programmable buttons, easy set-up, battery life improvement.

Cons: Features make it chunkier, adding to required desk space.

Rating: 8/10