Two New Bluetooth Gadgets Brief Review

So for the past month, I’ve got two new gadgets both use the Bluetooth technology.

First is a SONY Tablet keyboard. The keyboard is designed solely for Android, it doesn’t have the F keys (F1-F12) as the traditional keyboards. Instead it includes the Android functions keys such as property, search, Home, Back, app switching… This design is pretty questionable as if Android evolves to make those keys obsolete, the entire keyboard will be obsolete as well. The exclusion of F keys make it so hard to use as a PC keyboard. Design side, as with most SONY products, it’s pretty attractive. It’s pretty thin overall except the battery compartment, 2 AA batteries are required to operate this thing. The front is made of a shiny plastic frame which is very easy to attract dust. The size of the keyboard is a little on the large scale, well I was hoping it would match the size of a 10” tablet, but instead it is at least as large as the keyboards on those 12” laptops. Function wise, I was able to pair it with webOS (Touchpad), iOS (New ipad), and PlayBook, but not with the Cyangen modded ICS… Currently my main use for the keyboard is to pair it with my PS3, which is not a bad batch considering I only need to use a keyboard sparingly, also no need for the F keys.

 

Next we have the Canon Calculator Mouse. It’s a mouse foremost, but it also includes a calculator pad that you can either use it as a regular calculator or a keypad for those laptops without the dedicated numeric keypads. The build quality is very decent on this mouse. But unfortunately the ergonomics is too terrible with its flat surface. Also with so many keys on top, it makes the palm very awkward position to grab the mouse. There is an lock button to prevent accidently hitting the keys though. Paring with the mouse is not too hard, I’ve tried it on a SONY and a Samsung laptop, and of course my PlayBook. All worked without problem.