A4Tech IP-Talky Keyboard KIP-800 - keyboard

I was browsing the net the other day in search of ways of spending my heard earned cash and came across this little jewel.
Thought it be a bit of a novelty and looked good on the pictures so decided that I would take my chances and spend the £23 that was required.


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Unpacked it today when it arrived at work and boy I couldn't wait till my lunch break to unpack it.

To tell ...
...box as the phone on the picture on the website (www.aria.co.uk) looks like proper size phone but this one looks like its midget cousin.
I suppose it was my fault not calculating in my head that for a phone to fit in the breadth of a KB it must be as broad (or wide, depending on how you look) as the KB. Daft me there...

Looking at the box and I noticed that the KB has two 3.5mm jacks on the side in order to connect a pair of ... more

I was browsing the net the other day in search of ways of spending my heard earned cash and came across this little jewel.
Thought it be a bit of a novelty and looked good on the pictures so decided that I would take my chances and spend the £23 that was required.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Unpacked it today when it arrived at work and boy I couldn't wait till my lunch break to unpack it.

To tell the truth I was slightly disillusioned when I opened the box as the phone on the picture on the website (www.aria.co.uk) looks like proper size phone but this one looks like its midget cousin.
I suppose it was my fault not calculating in my head that for a phone to fit in the breadth of a KB it must be as broad (or wide, depending on how you look) as the KB. Daft me there...

Looking at the box and I noticed that the KB has two 3.5mm jacks on the side in order to connect a pair of headphones and microphone should you wish. When I saw that I thought to myself: -Ohhh b******** this is going to connect via USB and via the phono jacks for the sound so a lot of clutter I thought.
Like most of the time I was wrong. This little baby has only one USB and it essentially installs a sound card via USB that takes over the PCI one installed on my computer.

USING IT

It is a bit odd to get used to the way it actually works. Do not get me wrong it works straight away after plugging the USB in and open Skype/MSN/Yahoo what ever you like and will work a treat but what bugged me was that the Windows sounds would come through the inbuilt speaker (that doubles as a ringer speaker) so tried to play a song which to my horror played through the tiny speaker in my KB. Now noticing that there is a switch labelled Spkr and IP I thought that by switching it to Spkr you would would give control back to the sound card on the PCI slot. This does and doesn't work which is a bit of a nuisance.

FIXING IT

Whatever you do just don't read the manual. It is a useless at the AKASA disk encasing I reviewed a few weeks back. There is "Engrish" galore. I mean I love gadgets and I know some are cheap as made in China or Taiwan but for God's sake employ someone that can speak English to write the damn manual. I am sure you can afford it considering that these products sell like lollypops in a school playground.
I have actually given up on the switch and worked it out on the sounds settings to use the USB Sound Card (aka KB with Phone) for voice (phone calls and windows alerts which includes the ring) and the PCI card I have as defaults for sound (music, games). This works a treat because while you watching a film you don't get MSN scaring you to death with a deafening ping while you have the amp at full blast.
Your could by all means use the jacks on the KB to connect your external speakers (I have an amp connected to my sound card and it sounds alright of the KB) but the last thing I want is more clutter on my desk so in short NO. The jacks are fine only if you want to put headphones so you don't annoy the neighbours while playing Call of Duty 2 at 3:00AM (not that I do it of course). The inclusion of a mic jack though seems kind of pointless as the whole idea of getting this KB was that should I need a mic to talk on MSN/Skype I can use the phone attached to it. Not whinging why is there but I would have no use for it as yet (I might be wrong).

USING IT PART DEUX

The KB itself though is a treat. Is nice and slim almost a laptop KB feel but also keys are big enough to accommodate my paws comfortably and the design is ergonomic enough for me to find and excuse of cramped wrists so I don't do any work. Guess I shot myself in the foot there.
There are a few hot keys with all the usual suspects for the media player controls and a wheel for the volume that to be fair doesn't do much.
The other hotkeys placed on the right just above the num pad include a back and forward for the internet pages, a stop button (which I think is pointless), refresh, internet (brings whatever your default browser is for you), search (this I found handy), favourites and email. I would have really loved a calculator hotkey as I always found it handy but life isn't fair.

OVERALL

Now that we defined that it is useful I have to tell you that it looks good. It is plastic but it looks like is made of titanium (because of the colour) and have some bits of shiny plastic which makes it look great. It is thin and sits nice and tidily on the desk. It is my main KB for my PC at home now and is there to stay. 

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