In my field, over 50% of presentations are delivered using formats and programs different from Powerpoint. With the manufacturers of presenters usually limiting their product description to a claim that their presenter allows for a problem-loss navigation within Powerpoint, the selection of a suitable presenter can become daunting. Different keycodes, associated with the buttons of a presenter, can achieve the same results within Powerpoint while producing no action whatsoever within other presentation programs. Since manufacturers are not explicit regarding what keycodes are produced, purchasing of a presenter becomes a pointless gamble. Surprisingly, simple 'PageDown' and 'PageUp' or 'ArrowUp' and 'ArrowDown' are often not the choices.
While Windows may be the dominant system in my field, other systems are common. In a meeting, a variety of systems and presentation programs may be used and, for the sake of streamlining the meeting, a presenter should be interchangeable between different speakers.
Under these circumstances, the Interlink Jade presenter with 4 programmable buttons, mouse function, bright green pointer, supposedly working with Windows and Apple, looked attractive. In practice, the presenter turned out to be indeed superior in some of its aspects, compared to other presenters in the market, but then also turned out to have some significant limitations as well. Thus, 4 buttons are programmable, using software that can be pulled from the manufacturer's site. The programming can be done only under Windows. There are several preset combinations to choose from and, in addition, you can assign keys to the buttons from a pull-down menu. The keys can be chosen with modifiers, such as 'ctrl' or 'alt'. However, only one key with a possible modifier can be assigned to a button, i.e. you cannot assign 'ABCD' to a button, but you can 'ctrl-A'. The Window key is also included as a modifier. Unfortunately, your combinations cannot be stored on the disk for future recalls such as when quickly switching between programs. As you exit the setup program, your chosen assignments are downloaded onto the presenter's receiver and become active on that receiver after a while. The receiver can be then moved between different computers and remembers the assignments. The presenter-receiver combination works also on Linux, at least the 2 flavors thereof that have been tried. When a presenter button is pressed for a long time, the keycode programmed for the button is not reemitted. Thus, if you program 'Up' under a button, you need to press the button over and over to move over several lines.
Two navigation buttons of the presenter, for moving forward and backward between slides under Powerpoint, have no effect under some programs and cannot be reprogrammed. The mouse functions are genuinely useful. I.e. you can actually move cursor across the screen and click on an item in a menus. It is relatively easy to avoid confusion between the navigation, mouse and programmable buttons.
At its maximal brightness, the green pointer is well visible. However, if the voltage for the 2 batteries falls under 2.8 V, the pointer begins to exhibit a warm-up time. This is rather annoying as standard alkaline batteries may fall below that voltage after getting exhausted by just 20%. In fact, battery manufacturers claim battery capacity assuming the battery to be usable as long as its voltage is above 0.8 V, corresponding to 1.6 V for 2 batteries. The lower the voltage, the longer the initial warm-up time. The presenter may be, in fact, used with NiMH or NiCd batteries, but the pointer needs to be kept on for about 2 min for the beam to light up. After the diode apparently warms up, the beam lights up right away during subsequent uses of the pointer during the talk. In any case, the unregulated pointer is a shame in a device that lists for $199.
The presenter lacks an on-off switch, which means that the batteries will get drained when the pointer button gets depressed in storage or transport. I solved that by slipping a piece of cloth into the battery compartment for transport, blocking battery contact. Opening and closing the battery cover, though, will break it eventually. The presenter comes without a pouch and the receiver cannot be stored inside the presenter. I found that the traditional Korean pencil pouch has about a right size to accommodate the presenter, receiver and a couple of batteries.
The presenter is a bit bulky, but its other deficiencies, mentioned above, are more serious. I am keeping mine, because the benefits outweigh for me the deficiencies. However, if you want a usable mouse function and do not care about programmable buttons, because you stick with Powerpoint, go with a somewhat similar Keyspan Presentation Remote Pro that has an on-off switch and stores its receiver within the unit.
Pros:
4 programmable buttons
usable mouse functions
bright green pointer
works with Windows, Apple and Linux computers
Cons:
2 nonprogrammable navigation buttons tied to Powerpoint
programmable only under Windows
lack of power on/off switch
lack of pouch and of storage of receiver inside the presenter
warm-up time for the pointer
(14 customers reviews)
Customers Rating=4.0 / 5.0
More Detail For SMK Link VP4910 RemotePoint Jade Presentation Remote
- Green laser pointer
- 150 Foot Wireless Range
- Full 360 Degree Mouse
- Auto RF 64K Unique Addresses
- 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น