Nearly Perfect, Could Use A Software Overhall
585527
Overall not a bad experience, it's relatively easy to set up but the internal software needs a lot of work. I'm running up to date software on my Mac and the software on the HD feels unintuitive and extremely dated. It's also really buggy when dragging the file window around on your screen.
All of that being said, it gets the job done and it's incredibly affordable.
3624886
This is one of those really cool products that's so close to being perfect that its flaws are particularly frustrating.

The software can be finicky, and I had a really difficult time adding new bulbs to an existing set up. The app would try to scan for bulbs repeatedly and not find them, and only after a few attempts would it give me the opportunity to manually add bulbs by serial number. This also didn't work on the first try for me.

It got worse when I ordered another set for the apartment. This means I ended up with one bridge at home, and one bridge at work. The iPhone app now has a really hard time dealing with two separate bridges, and seems like it's often trying to change bulbs at the wrong location. It could just be my set up, and I'm sure that Phillips will release improved software eventually, but it has been pretty frustrating. Particularly for something that is cool enough that I'd like to be using it all the time, those frustrations really add up. It's not quite in the "it just works" category.

Overall, I still like and recommend this; once you get it up and running, it's great and can drastically change your room, mood or even your whole routine.

Additionally, I think people with small businesses stand to benefit from this technology as well; we went from harsh fluorescents to a Hue set-up that we adjust throughout the day, and it's been a great change. I have found little bit of ambiance and character goes a long way toward making everyone feel more at home during meetings or while working on projects.

And hey, it's a great discussion piece, everyone wants to try it out!
436113
One reviewer mentions it works for Mac, and it does. Plug 'n' play - no drivers or software required. However, I really wish I could hard-re-program the buttons. It's a pretty nifty remote with a lot of power, but it could have been perfect. However, I am able to somewhat get around it and program some of the buttons to do some specific things in VLC or iTunes or other media players using BetterTouchTool software.

For example, I can program the arrows and most fast-forward buttons to control different lengths of skips in VLC using BetterTouchTool. You just cannot choose any system wide buttons, e.g. the play button will open iTunes and play Music. Fortunately, VLC does recognize that button and will play/pause. You cannot use any buttons that do system wide things or do not represent a regular keyboard command. Luckily, there are enough buttons on the remote for you to do just about everything you want. In VLC, I use the fast forward rewind buttons for 6 second jump, left/right arrows for 30 second jump, up arrows as 120 second jump, etc. It works great. There really only a few buttons on the remote I cannot program.

Once I figured this workaround using free software, the remote turned out to be nearly perfect. Once I've memorized what buttons do what in what application, it's just about perfect!

Dirt cheap. Definitely worth the purchase. Most bang for buck you'll get in a computer remote, that's for sure. And it's the perfect companion to your new MacBook that damned Apple left you Infrared-less with.
3050422
It works great, but the software that this uses could use some updating and bug fixes.  For example I have reading that where taken in the morning showing up in the evening on the reports.  This is an issue
700107
I wish it had a web interface that didn't require special software for Windows. Otherwise, it does everything it needs to.
415019
This is a nice all-around calculator.  I'm hyper sensitive to the tactile feel of the buttons on a calculator (or keyboard, for that matter).  The mush-buttons of most other desktop calculators in this product's price range drive me nuts.  When you push on these units the button will wobble (drastically!) from side to side as well as move down.  A rough analogy is trying to sit on a large inflated ballon as a kid; you go every which way.  As a consequence, my fingers often slip off the keys and I make errors.  I have an otherwise great Canon calculator that has this flaw, and I never use it.

The Sharp has computer-keyboard-type keys.  Check out the feel on your numeric keypad as you read this: that's how solid the keys feel on the Sharp.  Each key has a mechanism that restricts the key motion to vertical (up and down) only, with virtually no side-to-side mush.  This is the sole reason I bought this unit, and the reason was to replace the Canon.

The printout is a bit light (for both black and red inks), and may be due to old/dried out print pads on my particular unit.  I haven't gotten around (or really needed) to replace them to see if this fixes the problem.

The printer is a bit slow, but practically speaking it's a non-issue.  There is a generous keybout buffer to capture strokes, and, frankly, I like it when I get a bit ahead of the machine and it cranks calculations to catch up with me (yeah, I know; it's weird).  For the record, I've never lost a number yet.

Only thing keeping it from 5 stars is the light printout (my Canon had a gorgeous solid purple in a beautiful font; the Sharp output is somewhat faded, with a pedestrian font.  Again, this may be my particular print rollers, see above).  I'm also hyper-sensitized to these things; they might not bother you at all.

Great machine overall.  I'd buy another in a heartbeat if this one failed.

- Paul Fredrick
1297594
The Logitech Harmony keyboard is as much about the software as it is about the hardware.
As for the hardware, I really like the keyboard's rubberized grip (over the entire surface) and its surprisingly responsive touch pad.

It handled my fairly complex setup, such as a now-discontinued Emotiva pre-amp, an uncommon device available only online. I was amazed at how the Logitech system knew so much about every device.
For example, the Harmony knows that, due to the old hardware it uses, the Emotiva works best when connected devices (the projector, Blu-ray player) start up after it has warmed up.
Example 2: The projector has a blank-screen power save mode and the Harmony somehow knows about it. I can assign a button to it, optionally combined with other buttons.
Example 3: My projector requires that you press the "Off" button twice. The Harmony knows to do just that.
It even knows that the projector's HDMI2 port supports MHL, but not the HDMI1 port. I didn't even know that!

The Harmony hub has quite a talent for getting a signal to every nook and cranny of the room. Even without using the signal repeaters, included in the box, it is able to turn everything off and on. Most of my devices use infrared, so the signal must be strong enough to bounce all over the place. Whatever they did, it works.

The setup software is very, very powerful. Configure a button or button combination (e.g. ctrl+1) to do anything your devices' remotes can do, in any order, and for as many devices as you want. This is called an "activity."
I set up a simple activity to start my pre-amp, wait 8 seconds, then start the nVidia Shield & projector. Another activity does the same, but for the FireTV rather than the Shield, but the remote is smart enough to only turn off unused devices when you switch between the two.

The software to set this all up works on Windows PC, iPhone 5 or later, and Android. Unfortunately, they don't have a Windows Phone version yet.
With all its power comes some complexity. The software is generally well set up, but moving between the right menus can be unintuitive. I hope they will improve the design over time just as they update for new equipment over time.

It took over an hour to get everything set up just the way I like it. Once it's set up though, you never have to worry about it again, and it is so nice to never have to touch the other remote controls again. I even stopped using the nVidia Shield remote, which cost $50 extra in addition to the Shield itself, though its game pad would still be best for controlling video games.

I did notice that when I change the keyboard's batteries, I have to un-pair and re-pair the keyboard as a bluetooth device with the nVidia shield, so -1 egg. Additionally, sometimes it would press "Power off" too quickly for my projector, so I had to increase the delay between automatic button presses. It's great that I can actually increase that delay, but it was unfortunate that I had to.
It seems a little harsh to take an egg for such minor issues, but 5 eggs should be for systems that work perfectly.
Given Logitech's reputation, I am sure they will resolve both problems as new updates are released.
1037017
First things first; this product requires Microsoft Office software to work; version 2003 or above.  The scanner software will not install if you do not have Office.

The packaging and product are top-notch quality.  Everything is well-organized, and the "Quick Start Guide" actually has enough useful information to get up to speed with this product, instead of a few pictures with arrows.

The scanner itself is lightweight, and sturdy.  It has a "PDF" and a "SCAN" button, and an LED on indicator.  It comes with a calibration sheet, and a dry and wet cleaning sheet.  The wet cleaning sheet is used if you accidently scan something gummy or gunky.

The install program adds a toolbar to Office applications; each one has specific features depending on the application.  For Outlook, if you have a "New Contact" form open, the toolbar will expect that you will be scanning in a business card, which worked generally well.  It guessed the company name, person name, title fairly well.  The OCR software did not handle "Fancy" fonts very well.  An image of the business card is placed in the contact information for easy reference.

For Word, it worked pretty well.  If you choose Text only, no layout at all, except maybe some spacing, is retained.  Choosing Full Document places each block of text in a separate text box, which can make editing the document somewhat tedious.  For a directory listing in a table, it imported the text perfectly into a table format.

For Excel, it is feast or famine.  Scanning in normal mode, you get famine--just an image pasted into the spreadsheet. In "Neat Sheet" (spreadsheet template) mode, it is wonderful for scanning in receipts, bills, etc. It will scan the receipt, and it has a built-in list of dozens of layouts for common items, such as car rentals, utilities, airlines, grocery stores, and much more.  It also handles unrecognized receipts quite well, usually picking out the total, tax, date, store, and payment type such as MasterCard or cash.  I had to smooth out a particularly wrinkled receipt, but other than that it was very slick.  It then places a new row in the spreadsheet for each receipt, with columns for Company, expense category, etc.

For all applications, my chief annoyance is that you need to make any option settings before you start the scan; such as Image Only, Text Only, or Full Document, and whether to save as an attachment or imbed in the document.

Also, you need to have a Word/Excel/Powerpoint document, either an existing one or a blank one, open, in order to use the "SCAN" button on the scanner.

On the plus side, the software installed easily, and doesn't use much memory; less than 100 MB when active.  It takes from 15 to 30 seconds to scan a page, and another 15 to 30 seconds to process/OCR the page.

The OCR works quite well for standard fonts.  I scanned in a page containing 4-up page layouts and the OCR was quite accurate even on the tiny text.

The PDF feature works pretty well.  The PDF document appears as the scanned image, but you can select the text (including any text in illustrations) and copy/paste the text.  The only drawback is there could be typos from OCR errors in the copied text.  You can also do searches on the text. You are given the opportunity for PDFs to scan several pages into one document.

The storage pouch is very nice, but doesn't have much room in it for the USB cable.
4213869
I received this cassette converter at no cost in order to test and review it. It's essentially a Walkman with a USB connection to input to your computer. Overall it works great, but the software, though very good , is not as easy to use as I hoped.

PROS:
*Great way to preserve memories
* Works
* Has a headphone port so it can be used as a stand-alone cassette player
* Comes with a mini-USB card, headphones (very cheap), and a CD with a pdf manual and a version of Audacity audio software
* Connecting to the computer was easy
* Recording quality was good enough, although not amazing
* The Audacity software is an amazing program once you figure it out

CONS:
* Software was difficult to install and set up for mp3 files, and it can be a bit overwhelming to use (see below)
* The buttons on the door are kind of cheap and feel a little flimsy

SOFTWARE TIPS:
* I downloaded Audacity from a reputable internet site instead of the included CD, to make sure I had the latest version and avoid possible viruses
* After you install Audacity you need to install LAME (an MP3 encoder) to set this up to create MP3 files.
* Go to "Preferences," "Libraries," and "MP3 Library" to make sure it has located the LAME encoder

RECORDING TIPS:
* Make sure the volume dial on the cassette unit is all the way up before recording. The cassette volume determines the volume of the imported digital file.
* When you are recording, make sure it is not on "Loop" mode. Otherwise it will record side A then continue recording the same side A over and over again until you manually stop it.
765451
Design: 5 star
Ease of use: 5 stars
Free updates; 5 stars
Overall value: 5 stars
4412244
In spite of the fine features of this product, these are things I would like to see corrected:

Among the awesome number of images are some reproductions of botanical prints and fine paintings such as seascapes and still-lifes.  The images cannot be blown up enough for quarter-fold-card fronts without loosing sharpness.

The thumbnail sketch in the "My Projects" screen can have a different name than the image file, which might happen when you rename the thumbnail.  And when you delete any thumbnail, you do not delete its file.

The "My Projects" screen seems a bit glitchy -- it set up two sections for quarter-fold cards and two for posters, interspersed them, and left long blank spaces when I tried to reorganize the screen.  I would like to be able to edit this screen.

When saving projects, I cannot find a way to change the default path to put them in a folder of my preference.

Conclusion:  great program, biggest problem, IMO, is the lack of sharpness of some of the best images.
149121
I wish the software was a little more user friendly but overall this is a solid product for the price.
4389279
First, let me begin by saying that this product deserves a 5 star but I am giving it a 4 because of the software.

The hardware to me is perfect, just the right size, material used is top notch, design (the keyboard, the kick-stand, the way it resembles the surface pro's excellent design and cutting the right-corners to bring the price down to a reasonable level) is fantastic.

The software has a lot of potential, people should really give Windows 8 a chance, but it is not yet there.  I am an advance user, software being my main line of work, so I can get around Windows 8's quirks, other users (especially those coming from iOS) may get lost.  Windows is trying to move forward with modern UI design yet they are still trying hard to support legacy Windows software, and that's were the disconnect is, it could be confusing sometimes.  That being said, the software has improved a lot since Windows 8 first came out.

I have no doubt the software will improve in the coming months, Windows 10 has a lot of potential.  This make the Surface 3 a potentially great tablet , hardware design is already great (sure the processor could be better, more ram but the longer battery life and fanless design makes up for it)  the software is good now but could potentially be great.

Manage your expectations and for sure you will love the Surface 3 as much as I do.
3064694
A pretty good mouse on the surface. Responds well, fits my hand nicely, and does exactly what I need it to do. Even the software works well, especially compared to the abomination that is Logitech's gaming software.

My only complaints are minor: Firstly, the mouse will on rare occasion lose the signal with its charging base/receiver, and the mouse won't move for a few seconds. Only happened a few times though, and bumping the charging dock was enough to fix it. Secondly, I have the option selected in the software that the mouse's lights should turn off when my monitor does, so that the lights it emits don't keep me up at night when I put it on charge. It strobes to indicate how charged it is, which is informative, but at night in a dark room gets a bit obnoxious. However, this option does nothing, and I can't find a way to turn them off without unplugging the dock... which negates the point of charging it while I sleep! I've taken to covering it with a towel when I go to sleep, which works, but feels kinda silly.
2637917
Cocktail Audio has created some excellent features in the Pro X-100 with an improvement over my Cocktail Audio X-40 in the identification of music titles and artwork, although it still requires a great deal of user assistance instead of doing the job automatically over the internet with Gracenote or a similar service. This remains a flaw that has made my purchase of the Pro X-100 disappointing.  That said, there are several other critical areas that seriously require improvement.  The device operates on an array of different apps that must be installed and then have little, if any instruction on their use, or otherwise don't work well, since they are not tailored specifically to the Pro X-100's operational design.  This adds complexity to it's use far beyond what should be simple, easy and enjoyable process to store, display and deliver high-quality music to an audio system.  The unit has the capacity to do the job well if Cocktail Audio developers would expend more effort on examining the user interface and ease-of-use issues.  These issues are a serious obstacle to the enjoyment of what otherwise could be an excellent and very useful product.  I have raised these issues previously with an email direct to Cocktail Audio, but did not receive a reply or indication of interest in anything that I said.  These are pricey components, and therefore should work as expected.  It is my hope that Cocktail will rise to the challenge of becoming a strong competitor in the ample space that exists in the market for a high-quality music server that includes all of the best features and capacity...and, very importantly, is easy to use.
1077226
Olympus recorders are very User Friendly.  Largely intuitive as to how to utilize.  How great!
  This unit would be perfect, 5 stars, but for the lack of a couple of features important to me.  (I mostly use it to record live music.)
  1.  The built-in speaker, Playback, sound-Quality is a letdown.  Maybe if it was bigger, as in their DP-10 model, that would be one way to solve.
  Meanwhile, you can use headphones.  Thereby, the sound improves to excellent.
  2.  The other input jack on top is there, to provide for an Alternate microphone.  So, one could record a higher quality signal (although no major complaints about what're built-in).  The problem with changing to an outside mic is that you thereby Lose Stereo imaging.
  Your built-in stereo mics would be by-passed for a Mono mic.  That's all the unit's receptacle will accommodate.
  Otherwise, the WS-821 is excellent, including as to an USB plug for copying data into computer; 500 hour recording capacity; and speed variation playback (without affecting pitch!)
  Its compactness is a marvel, too.  Battery life (one AAA) is workably sufficient.  Display screen is alright.
  And, many more features may be accessed, e.g. variations in recording quality, recording onset promptness, etc., all depending upon your particular needs.
4695422
Oh, but for the little things this would be a perfect accoutrement for a living room PC.  Nice size and weight, great feel, awesome battery life (couple of weeks per charge when used for an hour or so per day).  I only wish that it showed  representations of finger touches on screen rather than a mouse pointer!  Let me use this as if it were the proxy for a multi-touch screen and I'd be in heaven.  Unfortunately, I'm left feeling like I'm using the best trackpad that I can buy.  Good, almost great, but not perfect.