Logitech's diNovo Edge gets Mac-friendly

Logitech's diNovo Edge has always been one of the sexiest Bluetooth keyboards around, with its circular-scrolling trackpad, orange-backlit keys, and slick dock / charging cradle, but Apple fans have been left out of the party -- until now. Yep, there's finally a Mac version of the Edge. Apart from some new OS X-centric key labels and driver software (sadly, it's the same iffy Logitech Control Center that ships with the company's mice), there's not much new here -- but the lower $159 price tag is certainly welcome. Should be shipping soon, we're told.

[JOSE @ Aug 6th 2008 4:13AM]

no number keypad no sale!!

[Shinigami @ Aug 6th 2008 4:29AM]

Can be purchased separately :)

[ahdok @ Aug 6th 2008 5:39AM]

If I'm buing a large keyboard for my mac a numpad is kind of important...

[Andrew @ Aug 6th 2008 9:29AM]

Okay? Then don't buy this. Plenty of the rest of us don't need a "large" keyboard for our Mac, and the lack of num pad isn't a big deal.

That's not the place of this keyboard. This keyboard is designed to be used as an MCE type keyboard, which is why it has the built in trackpad.

[fuzi @ Aug 6th 2008 10:16AM]

i just want a replacement wireless keyboard for my macbook pro, and this will do perfectly. these dinovos have such a nice feel to them.

[Bobby D @ Aug 6th 2008 4:14AM]

Greatest. Keyboard. Ever.

[who? @ Aug 6th 2008 4:37AM]

Why?

[Nytrojen @ Aug 6th 2008 4:55AM]

who?

[Bobby D @ Aug 6th 2008 5:01AM]

Why? I love the fit and finish. I love the touchpad. I love the slick looks. I love the bluetooth. I love the way it types. I prefer to not have the numberpad because it makes the keyboard too wide. I love the small footprint. Did I mention that I love the touchpad? Its just soo usable, you have this thing on your lap, you have you computer hooked up to your HDTV, you're good to go. The scrolling feature is also very nice. Did I mention I love the slick appearance?

[reid_sartin @ Aug 6th 2008 4:05PM]

Yes. You speak the truth. I've been using this keyboard since it came out -- the initial price was off-putting, but I immediately loved it. Nice feel to the low-low laptop-style keys ... the touchpad is certainly adequate (the round style is innovative) -- but the finish and profile make it the perfect HTPC keyboard. You're happy to have it on a coffee table or couch. No number pad, but it's not an office-oriented keyboard. I paired mine up with the Logitech MX Air Mouse and media-center PC on a 40-inch LCD TV. Awesome.

[Shinigami @ Aug 6th 2008 6:54AM]

Say... is that sarcasm? Cuz I don't get whats funny.

[Bobby D @ Aug 6th 2008 7:21AM]

No, its not sarcasm... Not supposed to be funny. Its just a good keyboard and they asked why I liked it...

[Frank Furter @ Aug 6th 2008 9:04AM]

This. Style. Of. Replying. Is. Old. And. Boring.

Like. This. Keyboard.

[ynohtna @ Aug 6th 2008 10:43AM]

Really?

We have to talk, I have one and I have nothing but frustration with the touchpad!

[shamrock593 @ Aug 6th 2008 4:19AM]

Shame they didn't change it to white or aluminum.

[Mobius_1 @ Aug 6th 2008 5:47AM]

Oh no they can't do that, apparently Steve Jobs patented Aluminium and White

[Andrew @ Aug 6th 2008 9:30AM]

Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Shunnabunich @ Aug 6th 2008 10:51AM]

Can't blame him for learning from the whole "look and feel" fiasco, eh? :P

[Mike Desjardins @ Aug 6th 2008 4:20AM]

And still I yearn for a nice looking, bluetooth, *ergonomic* keyboard with a Mac layout.

[Daniel Frantzen @ Aug 6th 2008 4:25AM]

I own one of these, and my father, my mother and another friend of mine has one aswell! We all run it on Windows Xp or Vista, and all I can say is that this is by far the worst keyboard I've ever used in my 20 years with computers... sure, it looks good, but it looses connection alot, like 10-20 times a day! Not sure how it will work on a mac though.

[who? @ Aug 6th 2008 4:40AM]

Do you all live together? That could explain the connection issues.

[happy_penguin @ Aug 6th 2008 8:03AM]

Why does it seem that nobody on the internets knows the difference between lose and loose?

[Frank Furter @ Aug 6th 2008 9:07AM]

@happy_penguin - LOL - you just made my day. I used to vigorously go after these slower-learners, but it's so rampant I finally gave up. It was loosing proposition.

[Andrew @ Aug 6th 2008 9:34AM]

Yes, if you're looking at the back of your computer, of course it would have a loose connection. It's bluetooth!

But really, it's definitely an interference issue of some kind for you. I know that I use mine in my living room and if I sit too far away it cuts out a lot and you have to turn it off and back on. If I use it closer though, it never has any connectivity problem. Look to see how much interference you have in the house. Bluetooth uses 2.4 GHz, so other bluetooth devices, wireless networks, even microwaves can all cause interference.

Also, I assume you've tried the simple basics, but just to check anyway, have you tried pushing the learn buttons on the keyboard and receiver to relearn? That should make it hop to a different channel I'd assume in the process which could help your problems.

[absurdio @ Aug 7th 2008 4:29PM]

Also, if this is the worst keyboard ever made, why do you and your friends and relations all keep buying it? How does that happen? Does your family really have a thing for shitty hardware?

[Daniel Frantzen @ Aug 8th 2008 3:57PM]

About me writing the word wrong there's a simple explanation! I'm from Norway, I live in Norway, and English is not my first language. Not everyone on the internet are from America.

As for why we all bought the same keyboards? Well, we all bought them at the same time! Didn't know they sucked after we had tried them. Also we live in separate houses, so the keyboards themselves should not be the cause if the interference. I've tried ruling out most of the interference sources I could think of, but it didn't change anything.

I have paired the bluetooth-dongle and the keyboard a lot of times as well to check if that was the problem. I sit about 1-1.5meters from the bluetooth dongle, so that should really be within the range of the sender.

Hope this explains a bit more what I tried to say... I really like the keyboards the times they actually work, but the connection-issues are getting tiresome.

[Shinigami @ Aug 6th 2008 4:28AM]

Logitech! How about making it wallet-friendly? Like dropping 90% off the price :)

[Laron @ Aug 6th 2008 5:17AM]

As a side note, I've been using the "PC version" of this keyboard with my macbook pro (connected to sharp LCD) for quite awhile now. It works great in both OSX and Vista thru bootcamp.

I guess the only downside of having the PC version is the special shortcut feature buttons can't be used, (i guess that's why there is a mac version now) but if that doesn't bother you it works fine.

[Kelmon @ Aug 6th 2008 5:22AM]

"sadly, it's the same iffy Logitech Control Center that ships with the company's mice"

That's putting things lightly. The LCC drivers are absolutely terrible and have been responsible for kernel panics on my MacBook Pro. Given this I use a 3rd party mouse driver (SteerMouse) that does the job and doesn't crash my computer. I'm not sure if there are alternative drivers that will run this keyboard but, if not, I would advocate against buying it simply because the Logitech drivers are so bad on the Mac. This is a considerable shame because their hardware is very nice and other companies (*cough*Microsoft*cough*) seem quite able to bang out reasonable drivers.

[Will @ Aug 6th 2008 6:28AM]

Very true. LCC is terrible, terrible software. Hell, it's virtually malware. Second the Steermouse rec, or USB Overdrive. Or Kensington, heh.

[jollyllama @ Aug 6th 2008 1:38PM]

Yep, one of the worst things you can do to a mac is install LLC. Drivers are optional for mice on macs (you don't get full support for funny scripts that the manufacturer may have written, but the system prefs will let you work that out yourself), so I'm using a Logitech mouse right now without drivers, but before I removed them they were nothing but trouble. Luckily I caught wind of that before I did my Leopard install, that was terrible for a lot of people. If the drivers are not optional for this (they shouldn't be required for a class-compliant device) I'd recommend strongly against buying it unless Logitech fixes this glaring problem.

[Bad Beaver @ Aug 6th 2008 5:55AM]

If you are ready lay down 160 bucks for something glossy that you will paw about all day long, especially when it is made by Logitech, you clearly deserve no better.

[crescentmage @ Aug 6th 2008 9:53AM]

Amazon has the Windows diNovo Edge for $84.99 after rebate. I was considering picking up the Mediaboard Pro PS3 bluetooth keyboard for my HT PC, but after rebate the diNovo is about the same price.

[Judd @ Aug 6th 2008 6:37AM]

And here I thought my windows version was working just fine with my iMac. Guess I was wrong.

I'm sorry but this is just a marketing ploy. The windows key works as the apple key (command) automatically. As for the price I paid less than half of that at Best Buy about a year ago and with how long these have been out in at least some form I don't see why Logitech is keeping the price up as high as they are.

Just my two cents though.

[teddie @ Aug 6th 2008 7:26AM]

Um, I have one of these keyboards (PC version) that I've been using with my Mac MIni since it came out with no logitech drivers at all. everything works fine (except every restrt it wants to pair the mouse and the keyboard again) - fortunately I just put the mini to sleep.

and btw, I love it and it never loses connection.

[Judd @ Aug 6th 2008 2:17PM]

Yeah I was being sarcastic with the comment about it not working. I've been using mine for a while now and it's a great keyboard. I'm just saying that I think that Logitech needs to provide some worthy software to even start to justify their price point on this one.

[Bryan @ Aug 6th 2008 7:59AM]

I've used the PC version on my Mac Pro since Christmas.
My gf at the time picked it up for me. It was only $150 at the time- I woulda figured it hit $100 by now. Amazing keyboard and well worth the cost.

[André @ Aug 6th 2008 7:54AM]

Somehow I think most people will keep the aluminum Apple keyboard. That is by far the best keyboard I've had (the Apple keyboard that is).

I also had the old Logitech diNovo (the original with the BT mouse) but can't say I have tried this new version of it.

[sr1329 @ Aug 6th 2008 12:06PM]

Yeah, I don't know why anyone should bother making products for you freaks. The Apple stuff is always best for you morons. Stick with your stupid keyboard and one button mouse.

[André @ Aug 6th 2008 3:53PM]

Thanks for your non-biased opinion.

[xValentine @ Aug 6th 2008 9:07AM]

That's Bruce Wayne's Keyboard!

[Jon @ Aug 6th 2008 9:29AM]

Uh, is this new hardware, or only a driver? If its just a driver, will it be available online for the "windows" version of the keyboard?

I got this keyboard about a month ago, and now i use my macbook as a media center with it. Sometimes the mouse controll gets laggy, but a hard reset of the keyboard fixes the problem. Cool thing about the macbook is you can get a 1080p display in native resolution if you boot up with the macbook lid closed and a VGA cable hooked up to your TV. The keyboard holds a charge forever, and can wake the macbook from sleep. But as noted earlier, it needs to re-pair after a reboot.

[bcarney @ Aug 6th 2008 10:04AM]

Is there a Mac keyboard that "feels" like the venerable IBM Thinkpad keyboard from days of yore? I have the USB Thinkpad keyboard, but it's missing the Windows key, so it's pretty much unusable on the Mac.

[Bob @ Aug 6th 2008 10:15AM]

I've been using this keyboard on the mac for a long time and it works fine, so I'm not sure with this "update" is. I guess just some key labels and a cheaper price. The great thing about OS X is you can remap the keys per keyboard, so I can have the correct keymapping on the logitech without messing up my laptop keyboard.

[Vcize @ Aug 6th 2008 10:16AM]

I picked one up recently when it was $70 after rebate. It's just as sexy as it looks in the pictures with its thin black gloss and orange glow, but it's just not very functional.

I picked up an x-gene IR keyboard with a trackball and it was a thousand times more comfortable to use. The diNovo puts the trackpad and mouse buttons on the same side of the keyboard so you have to hold it with both hands on the same side or set it down, whereas the x-gene replicates the mouse buttons in several places (including the face of the keyboard and the top of the keyboard) so you can click no matter how you're holding the keyboard, including when you hold it with just one hand.

[rei @ Aug 6th 2008 3:25PM]

Logitech is awful for this. They did this exact same thing for the S510/S530 keyboard sets when there's no reason they couldn't have written two sets of drivers. Microsoft Hardware support is superior in this regard with OSX support for all of their peripherals though they are guilty of selling a "Mac" specific keyboard set recently.

I have no doubt Logitech will change very little other than the hotkeys to shill their "Mac" version.

Logitech also is shitty at writing their drivers with things like UberOptions (Windows) and ControllerMate and SteerMouse (both for OSX) having to fix their failings. If I recall, their drivers were implemented through Unsanity Haxies and could have wrecked your Mac if you kept the drivers loaded in a Tiger (or was it Leopard?) upgrade a while back.

[samhain.knight @ Aug 7th 2008 11:38AM]

haha Mac... that's cute....

[roach @ Aug 6th 2008 4:50PM]

Apple users get hand me down components.

[Big John @ Aug 6th 2008 5:06PM]

Logitech's drivers are awful. So awful, I never bothered installing them for my mouse. The reviews all over the place are hugely negative. I recommend USB Overdrive (http://www.usboverdrive.com/USBOverdrive/News.html) for drivers instead of the crappy LCC solution.

[absurdio @ Aug 7th 2008 4:47PM]

Is the keyboard backlit? I mean, are the keys, themselves backlit? Or does it just have a lot of blinking lights here and there?