Review:

What most people who are making the leap into Home Theater PC’s (HTPC) crave is a nice cordless mouse and keyboard to control their HTPC from the comfort of their couch or recliner. Gyration has manufactured a solution.

I received the Ultra GT Mouse and Keyboard combination for review from Gyration. The box was sturdy and the products were well packaged for protection. I opted for the compact keyboard suite as I figured this would be better suited for HTPC applications where keyboard entry is not as intensive. Because the Keyboard is compact, it does not have a numeric keypad. The full size keyboard should be considered for those of you who need a numeric keypad.

The Compact Keyboard is roughly the size of a laptop keyboard - without the screen of course. It is very lightweight and the keys have a very nice feel to them. The Keyboard also offers various hotkeys at the top for instant access to various functions (e.g. E-Mail, Internet, Volume, etc). The hotkeys are also programmable so custom applications are a cinch. Although I typically use an ergonomic (split) keyboard, the Gyration Keyboard was very easy and comfortable to use.



The Keyboard requires four AAA batteries to operate. Unfortunately there is no “low battery” warning provided – which resulted in my only complaint about the Keyboard. I used the Keyboard until it finally stopped responding. The batteries were dead. When I opened the battery compartment to change the batteries, the batteries which had been provided had leaked a small amount of battery acid. I am not certain whether this was due to the quality of the batteries or drain from the Keyboard. Thankfully once the batteries were changed the Keyboard worked fine and I have not had a problem since. Hopefully in future models a low battery warning can be integrated into the Keyboard..

The most amazing aspect of the suite is the Ultra GT mouse. This optical mouse can be used on any surface, but more incredibly, it can also be used in the air. That’s right – in the air.

The Ultra GT Mouse contains tiny gyroscopes that detect natural hand movements and translate them into precise on-screen mouse control. When I first saw this product at CES I thought it was pretty cool. After testing it out for a while, I was truly amazed. No longer was I tethered to anything; not a computer; not a desk; not even a flat surface!

The Ultra GT Mouse was extremely easy to control. While using on a flat surface, it can be used like any regular mouse. If you pick it up, however, it can be used in the air. By holding the mouse essentially like a gun and depressing the trigger with your index finger, the Ultra GT Mouse transforms into motion sensing mode. The faster the movement of your wrist, the faster the mouse moves on-screen. By releasing the trigger the mouse movement can be stopped completely (useful for selecting items).



I found the Ultra GT Mouse extremely simple to use and it allowed for precise movement as well as selections. The mouse itself has a left and right button as well as a scroll wheel that can also be depressed. The only deficiency I noted was in using the scroll function. At times the web browser did not scroll while I was scrolling the wheel. The errors were few and far between however and regular usage was not affected in the slightest.



The Ultra GT Mouse and Compact Keyboard are rated for use up to 30 feet. Because they operate on an RF signal, line of sight is not necessary. I was able to easily use the Ultra GT Mouse and Compact Keyboard twenty feet away from my PC through various walls with no loss of performance. For those of you with extremely large Home Theaters (or offices), Gyration also offers a professional optical mouse that offers a whopping 100 foot range! Gyration also offers a Media Center Remote designed to make controlling your Windows XP Media Center PC a breeze.

Setup of both the Keyboard and the Ultra GT Mouse was a snap. The Ultra GT Mouse comes with a built in battery in its base. A separate battery clip can be used which will accept AAA batteries. Unless you are traveling, I do not believe this will be necessary as I found the life of the rechargeable battery to be very good. A full day’s usage is easily had with no noticeable loss of performance.

The Ultra GT Mouse I reviewed had a built in rechargeable batter that needed a lengthy initial charge in the desktop charger. While waiting I set up the Compact Keyboard. Setup required merely inserting the small RF Receiver into an open USB port on my computer. With Microsoft XP Professional the Receiver was noticed automatically. I then had to “teach” the Receiver and Keyboard to talk to each other with the “learn” button on each device. With those simple steps I was up and running.



Because the Receiver is plugged into the USB port, my regular mouse and keyboard were still entirely functional and could be used in conjunction with the Gyration products.

The next day I had to teach the newly charged Ultra GT Mouse to communicate with the Receiver. This too only required pressing two buttons – one on the Ultra GT Mouse and one on the Receiver. I did note that after teaching the Ultra GT Mouse, the Keyboard was no longer functional so I ended up having to “teach” them both at the same time. After teaching the Keyboard and Ultra GT Mouse how to communicate with the Receiver at the same time, they worked without a hiccup.

The Suite comes with GyroTools Media Control Software which can be used to customize the installation and assign commands to in-air gestures. For example, if you would like to turn the volume up on your HTPC you could program the Ultra GT Mouse to tell your HTPC to “volume up” when you gesture up with the mouse. Very cool! While use of the Installation disk and GyroTools is not absolutely necessary on a Windows XP Professional machine, I did test the Suite on a Windows 98 machine, which required installation of the drivers on the provided disk.

All in all the Gyration Ultra GT Mouse and Compact Keyboard were extremely easy to setup and use. Those of you looking for a great product for your HTPC will want to check out Gyration’s products at http://www.gyration.com.

Features:

• Use mouse on the desk or in the air
• 30-ft range for ultimate freedom
• Rechargeable mouse with desktop charger
• Small, ultra-light keyboard with 15 hotkeys
• GyroTools Media Control Software