Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000

Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000

First thing’s first. What’s up with the name? I thought cyborg names were a distant past of the age of magnetic drives and flashing LED lights. Intel could have continued their 80×86 naming scheme, which would have been up to about 801186 by now, but they went down the Pentium path because they didn’t want their CPUs to sound like a model of vacuum cleaners. Product names should definitely come without the list of keywords associated with the product, and even less so, a 4-digit number. I also smell a lawsuit coming up.

Second thing. The design rocks. I’m a big fan of laptop-styled keyboard because the keys are not extruded as much, so you don’t have to push your fingers all the way. I have weak fingers OK? Also, they’re super quiet, so you can touch type without waking up the neighbours. The thin form-factor is also very stylish, but it looks as easy to break as a wafer.

The price? Who knows. Knowing this is aimed towards Media Center users and technology enthusiasts, it’ll cost probably more than it should. But this would work well as a “Vista package” for the enthusiasts, a set of launch products including Vista Ultimate, Office 2007, keyboard and mouse and probably some nifty merchandising. I don’t know, just throwing an idea out there.

Update: The retail price is US$249.95. That’s going to cost the same as a gallon of petrol by the time it ships. Review sample anyone? 😛

19 insightful thoughts

  1. Ouuuuuch. $250. Thats more than the combined cost of every keyboard and mouse in my household (3 computers).

  2. $250USD? Woah. By the time it comes on sale here in Australia, it’ll probably retail for at least $350 to $400 AUD.

    I like the new (LifeCam NX-6000) webcam though.

  3. That is pretty ridiculous. Although I guess you do get a million gizmos with it.

    What is the difference between this and the cheaper version – is there a wired version? Its not particularly clear if there even is a cheaper one, although I assume the cheaper one has the black keys – the expensive one has the grey styling. Also, do I get the option to have the keyboard without the mouse?

  4. Well, the chances of a lawsuit are pretty slim, mainly due to the chief reason Intel changed its product names – numbers cannot be copyrighted. back then AMD happily produced processors named 386 and 486 and intel couldn’t do squat about it, so they changed it into Pentium.

    What can be copyrighted, in theory, are the words “Wireless Desktop”.. and I think (though I’m not sure) MS had those FIRST, so if anything the lawsuit can come in the other direction .

  5. @Froog: I’m not talking about Intel when I mentioned lawsuit. Follow the link I had on “lawsuit”.

  6. I know you meant Creative. You obviously didn’t read what I typed well enough to understand.

    The fact that creative has a product called “Wireless desktop 8000”, doesn’t mean creative has any copyright on it, unless they copyrighted “Wireless Desktop” first, and I don’t believe they did.

    The “8000” part of it cannot be copyrighted at all, because numbers can’t be copyrighted.

    Thus, the chances of Creative suing MS for this are slim to nothing.

    Am I clear enough now ?

  7. When you can buy a “real” PC for USD 250.00, MS is selling an optional gizmo to support that PC for the same price. Does it make any sense at all? Microsoft knows that we the consumers are “darn idiots!”

    Enjoy who wishes to….

  8. Ok, here it is, FEBRUARY 2007 and I still can’t find this product on any website or in any store to purchase. Yes, I am going to get it and Yess I will pay the 250 for it. I am also a fan of the the laptop keyboard style. In fact, I might buy 2, one for my home computer and one for work. If it works out ok.

    Anyone find it yet????

    Thanks

  9. OK, guess what, i did a little more digging, Amazon.com has it. But they want $299 for it and they say “Coming Soon”. Wow, a $50 markup on it.

  10. Ok, I am finding some places on the web for it, but, still not at MS or other sites I use like Pricegrabber.com. The 7000 is out on pricegrabber: http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=29009777/zip_code=14225/, however, not the 8000. Froogle seems to have found it, but look at the prices. I thought it was suppose to be 250.00. Some of these places are asking 300 for it. http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=wireless+entertainment+desktop+8000&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

  11. Update: The product has been discontinued by Microsoft, although at the time of this writing they still have the product information page and “links to buy” up– but if you call them they will tell you they can’t service the item. i know because I bought one and it was defective. Ambient backlighting and proximity sensor were hosed. But they did send me a complete refund, including shipping. If that happened to you, get in touch with Microsoft Product Returns.

  12. Update: i have had the media keyboard for about a year and all of a sudden the mouse packed it in by way of battery running flat during holidays and basically not coming back on line afterwards.
    My problem was that the keyboard was bought in Finland (scandik) and place of warranty return was Sydney where the model was not marketed.
    However, they told me to return it and put in a note regarding the scandik keyboard and 4 weeks later i had a replacement keyboard & mouse and the old keyboard in the same package.
    Im in love with the product and am looking for a replacement when this particular model dies, but the problem is not the keyboard, its the mouse that more than usually shits it self and the problem is that you cannot cross match these components, so i had to change the buttons over from the old one to the new one.
    Only a couple did not match but i can live with that.

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