Logitech Cordless Keyboard for Wii
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The Wii remote is great when you want to swing a virtual sword or a virtual tennis racquet, but if you’re trying to browse the Internet on the Wii Internet Channel, laboriously pointing and clicking at letters gets old real fast. Happily, the Wii is designed to work with a standard USB keyboard, but those looking for a keyboard specifically designed for the Wii need look no further than Logitech’s Cordless Keyboard for Wii.
What It Looks Like
Logitech’s keyboard is a small (about a foot by 7 inches), lap-friendly device, and is the same shade of white as the Wii itself. Plug the keyboard’s receiver in a Wii USB port, put batteries in the keyboard and you’re ready to go. (There are buttons on the keyboard and receiver that one would expect to use to set up communication between the devices, but apparently you don’t need them, although I pressed them anyway.)
The design is similar to laptop keyboards, with the number pad and some other keys folded into the alphabet keys. Logitech has also squeezed in a couple of extra keys, such as an “OK” key that is equivalent to using your Wii remote to click an OK button (on a standard keyboard you would press alt+enter) and a Quit key. There are also zoom in, zoom out, forward and back buttons. These are all available on a normal keyboard (as plus, minus, cursor right and cursor left), but Logitech makes their use more apparent.
Pretty Good Overall
Unfortunately Logitech has made a couple of strange design choices. For example, the “OK” key should logically be next to the “enter” key, in the same way that Logitech has put the “quit” key next to “escape,” but instead “OK” is stuck in an out-of-the-way part of the keyboard.
Also, number pad functionality is accessed using a “FN” key that turns letters to number, a standard laptop keyboard method. I am used to using the number pad with my right hand, but because the “FN” key is on the right side of the keyboard, I have to use your left hand instead.
You still need to use the Wii remote for a lot of Internet navigation, but that is simply because the Wii browser does not support all keyboard functionality (such as page up or using the tab key to change form fields).
In spite of a few flaws, Logitech’s Cordless Keyboard for Wii is easier to handle than a conventional keyboard, mainly because of its small size, and does a good job of making browsing the Internet on your Wii easier. But it won’t do you any good at all when it’s time to swing that sword.
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