Unveiled along with the Premiere, the TiVo Slide Bluetooth QWERTY remote ($90) is finally ready for its close up and now shipping. Of course, the primary selling point and key differentiator is the well concealed QWERTY keyboard to facilitate text entry as Search and other broadband apps become regular elements of our daily television viewing experiences. It’s a whole lot more elegant and effective than my keyboard hack.
I found the slide mechanism smooth and snappy, with the individual keys having good tactile feel and clickability. My only real complaint with the form is related to TiVo’s shortening of the traditional peanut — resulting in some button size and spacing compromises. Probably not a deal breaker for most, but it could take some getting used to.
Another potential issue for a subset of owners is the limited USB port count (2) found on Series3, TiVoHD, and Premiere hardware. Because Bluetooth isn’t directly integrated into these TiVo models, a small USB BT dongle comes bundled with the TiVo Slide. So if you connect both a SDV Tuning Adapter and wireless adapter via USB, as we do with our bedroom TiVo, you’ll need to pick up a powered USB hub for Slide usage.
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