did not work as described
December 2, 2008
I thought this product would fix my problem of wanting to control our laptop from 60ft away, but it did not work. There was on occasional connection after waiving it around and walking about the room, but it is useless to us as it does not work with any consistency.
works as advertised
November 23, 2008
It works quickly and functions correctly. All the controls work correctly. The range is good. It is nice to have one of these that does what it says.
Great product!
November 18, 2008
I use this all the time and I love it. easy to use, plug and play.
The mouse curser function is pretty much useless, but I don't really need it for giving presentations.
If you own an iphone, there are programs out that let you use your iphone to control keynote and power point presentations. You might want to look into that as well.
No Keynote driver
November 8, 2008
I run both PowerPoint and Keynote presentations. When I purchased this device, both the manufacturer's website and the box indicated that this remote could start Keynote presentations (Mac)with the F5 button by installing a driver. However, one is not included in the box or on the website. When I contact the company, it was indicated that there is no driver and there are no plans to have one in the near future. This puts this little device on equal footing with many of the cheaper presentation remotes.
Awesome for the Macbook! Worth TWICE the price!
November 1, 2008
I'm a professional keynote speaker, and while I generally try to stay away from using Powerpoint/Keynote in my presentations (these days, people seem to turn into zombies as soon as a those PowerPoint slides pop up!), sometimes one must them.
I'm facilitating a 2-day conference this week and need to show some video clips and such, so I'll be using my Macbook and Keynote. I just received the keyspan presentation remote pro. At first glance, it's AWESOME! Here's what I like about it:
1. Great ergonomics. This unit feels very solid in my hand. I hate, hate, HATE cheap-feeling electronics.
2. The usb dongle slides into the main remote control for storage.
3. Setup was fantastically easy! This unit is truly plug-and-play. I fired up my Macbook, plugged in the usb dongle, launched Keynote and .... it worked! Just like that. No software to download, install or any other such nonsense.
At first glance, this thing looks like it is easily worth 2x the price.
I'll update this review after my test run this week at the conference.
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Post-Conference Update
Okay ... I just walked this thing through several days of intensive presenting. I'm pleased to say that it worked like a champ!
I used several different laptops (all Mac), and the unit was recognized by every laptop. The range on this unit is wonderful. I could wander around the large conference room (I'm a very interactive speaker ... I like to engage my audience) and switch slides at will.
The volume control worked like a charm for those times I had video clips embedded in my presentation.
The size of the unit was great for simply slipping into my pocket in-between speeches ... ready to go again when the time for the next speech arrived. (The conference center I was at had another brand of remote ... it was bigger and shaped like a keyhole ... which wasn't as comfortable in my pant's pocket.)
Finally, once they saw it, several of the tech guys at the conference center wanted to play with the remote ... they said it was better than the ones the conference center had.
Only two things presented themselves as issues for me:
1. The forward/reverse slide control on the side of the unit feels 'backwards' for me ... that is, when I wanted to proceed to the next slide, I usually found myself back on the preceeding slide. It's probably a quirk unique to me, readily resolved by simply only using the forward/reverse buttons on the face of the unit.
2. The laser pointed seemed a bit dim or 'watery' from various places around the room. I used the laser pointer once or twice, then stopped using it, as it felt more distracting than helpful. I'll be curious to try out the laser pointer under other lighting conditions.
All in all, I would still highly recommend this unit! :-)
