Cideko wireless media keyboard+mouse combo: All the keys and more

First we had PCs, then we had HTPCs and now we have confused people who are not really sure about what they own. So for those of you who aren’t really sure where you stand on the PC to HTPC spectrum, here’s a keyboard that might help you move closer to the HTPC side. For those who don’t know yet, HTPC stands for Home Theatre PC. That means storing everything in a nice little enclosure with a BIG storage capacity and then leaving the monitor, mouse and keyboard for the TV and the remote. These PCs usually run on something like Windows media center. But then there are other solutions as well.

nifty little handheld thing However, the focus of this article is this nifty and quite literally little wireless keyboard from the quirky designers over at Cideko. This keyboard is really tiny compared to its full sized brethren. It is meant for those people who use their PCs mostly as entertainment hubs and not for things that require a lot of typing. It is small enough to comfortably nestle beside your pillow or on your bedside table. It has all the keys in QWERTY format and has a multitude of the so called multimedia-keys lining the top edge.

As you can see in the picture, there is a D-pad as well. That should make things a lot easier to navigate. But here’s the thing that really makes it nifty – it can be used like a mouse in mid-air! All you have to do to move the pointer on your screen is move the keyboard in thin air! That’s right, you just move it in thin air and the pointer on your screen will move from place to place. Now this is going to attract a lot of people with its novelty factor.

Logitech already has something like this but it is just a mouse. This however is a mouse, keyboard and remote – all in one package! The extra buttons act as the remote. The keyboard interfaces with your computer with a bundled USB dongle. All in all, it just might woo the hard to please hardcore HTPC crowd but we have to wait for more information. The company has not released any details so far (and their main website was down at the time of writing). Pricing and availability will be the major deciding factors as usual.

You gotta admit, the things got potential!