EFO HTPC Remote

anyone know anything about these?

If they swap the mousepad for a touchscreen where you can place shortcuts like a button that's named Movies with the shortcut "ctrl+shift+m" and put one of those trackballs on it I'd buy it, but this is nothing more then a cheap version of the Logitech mini-keyboard thingy.

the logitech mini is $150.... crazy price. I'd be interested if this worked, but for what it should do, price seems unreal--it seems like it would probably be garbage.

It's also here: http:// www. whamberry.com/buy_now.php. I might get one next week. (can't post links yet)

$40 shipped is the best price I've seen. I'd bite at $25.

This is the closest thing yet to a proper HTPC remote. The price is reasonable (unlike the Dinovo mini), and it has almost everything you need.

What's still missing - and this is a deal-breaker - is the standard 5-way directional pad that all media center frontends use for 90% of their functions. Yes, you can use the touchpad to navigate WMC or XBMC, but directionals are much faster and more "couch friendly".

Still waiting for somebody to get this right. If anybody is looking to make a real HTPC remote, I have three designs in my head (expensive, cheap, and very cheap) that would absolutely demolish all other options. You can have the designs for free in exchange for one of the finished products

I agree with you Candre. Maybe we should find a Chinese vendor to have something done about this.

Sadly, most Chinese manufacturers aren't looking to innovate. They're only interested in copying existing designs. It's going to take somebody with a bit of money and vision to get a real HTPC remote made.

I ordered this - coming in a week - I saw it a few months ago online but passed for the Brando Multi-Touch wireless keyboard (i love airmouse on the iphone - but wanted something that I could also access bios with and multiple partitions on boot up). The multi-touch is nice but a little to big - I have a one year old - so I have to put it on a shelf - with the EFO I could put it in the back ledge of the couch (or even in my lap it is so small)

looking forward to it

Not only price - but I think this will be better than the logitech mini (other than looks and feel obviously) because of the nice touch pad - the mini has a clunky joystick like pad that I heard takes getting used to - and even after that it is hard to move around and drag and drop - also I hate bluetooth wireless keyboards as alot of times on my old one it would stop responding and I had to reset - what scared me with the mini is that you cannot just push a button to reset but I heard you have to take out the battery - that would drive me up a wall

Actually - I think that one of the best HTPC remotes out there is using an ipod touch with the airmouse app - problem is this is $200 - plus you need to be logged in to use it - but a multi-touch like this plus a qwerty keyboard and ability to go into bios and through log in screen I think would be the ultimate - I would pay $200 for something like this

Anybody else get one of these?? I wish it had a trackball instead of touch pad.

Any reviews fro users??

it must be so awesome they can't put it down to review it. or it exploded due to excessive awesomeness.

I see it being sold on ebay and it has all 100% feedback. I also found out I cant use chatpad on my 360 controller when plugged into pc unless of course I run my 360 at the same time and use another program to send the message through the 30 to the computer/... WTF kidding lol. I tried with some limited success using a bluetooth dongle and ps3 wireless controller with some mod program to emulate a mouse and I was able to map the buttons to any keys from the keyboard but once I tried to go strictly bluetooth no usb cable it was hit or miss. I literally wasted two days worth researching it via youtube vids and googling the hell out of everything and I am convinced that as of today there is no good way to use the wireless controller with 64bit vista. When it was wired directly to computer it worked great!!! Someday. I have a good wirless keyboard with trackball but I like the idea of something small as well when watching a movie and what not. My Harmony one is not very good at navigating the computer at all. I really wish they would replace the center ok button with a trackball I would be all over that. I thought about itouch but I hate texting on that touchpad, I fat finger everything lol and I dont have fat fingers... The coolness factor is appealing but the cost is high $200 plus.. So I am going to jump on the EFO, two weeks to get it from east asia, going to use it for awhile and post a short summary of my experience if nobody does by then.

Well I received this EFO remote a week after putting in the order through their website. And I used it for a day and then went and bought a wireless 360 receiver for my computer so I could use my 360 controller instead.
The efo remote is very light, too light IMO. It feels cheap, the keys are flat almost level with remote case and feel cheap when pressed. I was hoping the keyboard would be more like my motorola Q keys (rounded and solid feel when pressed). The touchpad is not very good, you can't double tap it to select links or icons. Which means you can't just use one hand very easliy to navigate around.. I was thinking I could just rest it on the arm of the couch and move and click using touchpad, but nope! The thing sleeps after 3min of no use, so you have to constantly wake it. Range was good never had a problem in that regard. It is truly plug and play. All in all I don't think it is a very good solution for a htpc remote. I am using my 360 controlller now as a mouse and using xpadder have mapped out the buttons, sticks and dpad to do the functions I need to navigate windows and basically playback my media. It really works well. The 360 chatpad will not work on the pc!! That sucks but I figured that going in. If it did work it would be perfect IMO. So to summarize EFO two thumbs down, 360 controller for media playback two thumbs up! It is really a good option if your looking to use a controller for mouse functions.

Why didn't you post your review sooner? LOL...... I just ordered one of these last weekend, I read a few reviews that sounded good. I know it is cheap, in price and quality, but what I read was that it worked good. I really like my gyro remote with keyboard but I hate having to grab the keyboard to type something so I was hoping this would be a all in one for my HTPC. So now I am bummed............Brian

You might like it I just didn't think it was all that great. I would have preferred paying more money and having a better product. I took the gamble because it had all 100% feedback on ebay.... Need a wireless trackball and a querty keyboard the size of a blackberry and it would be money.

any new comments or updated feedback on this unit?

I'm still on the fence.......

It's ok, cheap, cheap feeling. I give it a two out of five stars. You don't get much for only $40. For $50 I have a Gyration air music wireless remote and keyboard. I really like this except when you need to type something, and have to grab a bigger keyboard. I am going to use both of these together, use the remote for everyday use, and use the EFO for typing the few things you need to do on a HTPC............

Maybe you should patent it.

The designs I came up with are probably too obvious to patent. I'd be happy if just one remote manufacturer would stop being lazy and complacent and make one already. Logitech pumps out a new Harmony every six months or so, and they're all exactly the same. Just once it would be nice if they put a little thought and effort into it.

thanks for the update zr600,

I never saw that gyration remote before, quite nice looking. On their site it says it "has limited functionality with Windows 7", not sure how limited.

so the EFO is a cheap remote, in both cost and feel. I guess my quest continues......

I have win 7 and have had no issues. I don't play with it a ton, but the wife and kid have no problem using it everyday with the HTPC. I canceled direct tv and handed them the HTPC and new remote, no problems at all......

$50?? Where?

There was a rebate that gave you $50 back. Some on here even found it on sale for $90 and then got $50 back. Not sure if it is still on or not..........

I'm using one of these with Windows 7 Ultimate, and am having a problem with keys repeatedly transmitting to the PC (as if they were being held down). This usually happens after the PC has been resumed from S3 sleep mode.

For example, if I power up the PC from S3 sleep mode, switch on the Efo Remote Keyboard, then press the letter "B", it continuously transmits the letter B. If I click the Windows Start button the command line fills up with the letter "b". If I open Notepad it also fills up with the same letter. The only way to stop this is to disconnect the Efo USB receiver and re-connect it.

If I put the PC into sleep mode when the problem occurs, then wake it again, the letter continues to repeat, even if I have not switched on the Efo Keyboard.

Does anyone have any idea how to address this? My motherboard is an Asus M4A785D-M PRO AM3 Motherboard (AMD Athlon II X2 240E Dual Core CPU ).

itm2 - I noticed same thing on mine and its very annoying. It didn't happen before, but started recently happening. Also happens after sleep. I'm going to as ebay seller about this and see if it can be fixed.

So i emailed ebay seller and got this as a response:
Hi Alex,
Thanks for your report. I think your problem is when you go to sleep mode and then wake up and using. This is a Windows 7 known issue.

There have a lot of suggestion from users like :

1. stop using hibernation by simply disable this feature.
2. after the computer wake up, simply unplug the USB dongle and re-plug in again.

This is how our customers normally do until Microsoft with the new patch to resolve this issue.

Hope it can answer your question.

If you really think that it is useless of this keyboard, you can send back to us and let us know the tracking no. Hence after receive the goods and we will refund to your paypal acocunt. (definitely, we are not prefer your refund because I think that this keyboard is very useful to you after you use it for a while as what all our customers normally feeling.).


Pretty crappy solution since it takes away from the usefulness of the keyboard. Hopefully Microsoft will release a fix for this issue.

I wonder if Lenovo keyboard/trackball has same problem.

I was wondering whether anyone had any news about a fix or a workaround for this problem yet???