The Phantom Lapboard moves the keyboard and mouse from the desktop to the couch. The keyboard raises off its platform and swivels around to a comfortable angle, and you use the mouse on the platform underneath.
If you buy a Lapboard, I'd recommend getting a different USB mouse, as the one that comes with the Phantom eschews all recent developments in ergonomic design. It's a square slab of plastic. Imagine mousing with a can of sardines. There's a reason PC gamers enjoy mice that are round and form-fitting: When you're clenching something for hours at a time, it helps if the object's designers at least tried to accommodate the shape of your hand.
The Phantom keyboard doesn't fare much better. Very few of the keys are actually available to you at any one time, because once the Lapboard is tilted up on its hinge, with your mouse underneath, most of the keys unreachable -- your hand can only stretch so far. That's fine if you only need W-A-S-D and one or two miscellaneous keys, but if that's the case, why did you bother lugging this contraption out to the couch in the first place?
Lefties like me can swivel the keyboard around and use the mouse with our left hand, but this presents a new problem -- the W-A-S-D keys are now out toward the less-stable end of the raised keyboard. So you'll probably want to reassign your movement keys to O-K-L-semicolon or something.
As I typed, many of the keys felt unresponsive, and some letters didn't show up until I went back and hit them harder. Not exactly a step in the right direction for a wireless gaming device, where a key press could mean the difference between life and humiliation.
I ended up lowering the keyboard all the way down and mousing on my lap, or on the surface of the couch. Which, of course, defeats the entire purpose of having a Phantom.
While our Lapboard mouse arrived DOA, the keyboard was detected instantly on every machine we tried it with, including the PlayStation 3. So after a few days, when you pass the Lapboard along to that nephew or niece you don't particularly like, it won't matter what machine they use.
Wired.com received a review unit of the Lapboard directly from Phantom Entertainment. As of this writing, Wired.com cannot locate an online store that sells either version of the Phantom Lapboard -- Phantom's own store is sold out, and its manufacturing partner, Ione, which will sell the Lapboard as the Gemini-S9, does not seem to be offering it for sale. Phantom says it does not yet know what the shipping date will be for the next batch of orders.
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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Dusdais ashamed of this postSLC, UTRegistered Userregular
edited August 2008
Ha! How incompetent do you have to be to fail at making a decent wireless keyboard on a swivel stand over a period of like four years?
Ha! How incompetent do you have to be to fail at making a decent wireless keyboard on a swivel stand over a period of like four years?
They didn't even design it, some other company did. Phantom just went "Oh shit, something we can attach our name too, phew, it was getting scary there for a second...because our console is never gonna happen".
The Phantom Lapboard moves the keyboard and mouse from the desktop to the couch. The keyboard raises off its platform and swivels around to a comfortable angle, and you use the mouse on the platform underneath.
If you buy a Lapboard, I'd recommend getting a different USB mouse, as the one that comes with the Phantom eschews all recent developments in ergonomic design. It's a square slab of plastic. Imagine mousing with a can of sardines. There's a reason PC gamers enjoy mice that are round and form-fitting: When you're clenching something for hours at a time, it helps if the object's designers at least tried to accommodate the shape of your hand.
The Phantom keyboard doesn't fare much better. Very few of the keys are actually available to you at any one time, because once the Lapboard is tilted up on its hinge, with your mouse underneath, most of the keys unreachable -- your hand can only stretch so far. That's fine if you only need W-A-S-D and one or two miscellaneous keys, but if that's the case, why did you bother lugging this contraption out to the couch in the first place?
Lefties like me can swivel the keyboard around and use the mouse with our left hand, but this presents a new problem -- the W-A-S-D keys are now out toward the less-stable end of the raised keyboard. So you'll probably want to reassign your movement keys to O-K-L-semicolon or something.
As I typed, many of the keys felt unresponsive, and some letters didn't show up until I went back and hit them harder. Not exactly a step in the right direction for a wireless gaming device, where a key press could mean the difference between life and humiliation.
I ended up lowering the keyboard all the way down and mousing on my lap, or on the surface of the couch. Which, of course, defeats the entire purpose of having a Phantom.
While our Lapboard mouse arrived DOA, the keyboard was detected instantly on every machine we tried it with, including the PlayStation 3. So after a few days, when you pass the Lapboard along to that nephew or niece you don't particularly like, it won't matter what machine they use.
Wired.com received a review unit of the Lapboard directly from Phantom Entertainment. As of this writing, Wired.com cannot locate an online store that sells either version of the Phantom Lapboard -- Phantom's own store is sold out, and its manufacturing partner, Ione, which will sell the Lapboard as the Gemini-S9, does not seem to be offering it for sale. Phantom says it does not yet know what the shipping date will be for the next batch of orders.
That last part is the best thing ever. Gone faster than a CIA front with a blown cover. Let's hear it for the scam that won't quit.
Posts
The phantom- The console not just the lap keyboard. Or...
Nintendo makes a hentai game for the states.
Peach + Zelda + Samus + Birdo orgy.
You know you want it.
fixed. More: Spore? Molyneux game that delivers all promises?
Capcom decides to stop making Megaman games and give some new IPs a chance?
Stalker, obviously.
People are so ADD
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
"Holy shit someone actually bought one! Haha, sucker!"
*dismantles entire company and skips town*
Microsoft buys Nintendo?
Nelson: "Ha-ha!"
http://www.amazon.com/Maxi-Aids-Posture-Rite-Lap-Desk/dp/B00012JWWE
The verdict: it sucks.
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/08/review-phantom.html#more
Oh, fun P.S. to the review:
Seriously, I haven't seen anything about DNF anywhere. Are you just yanking my chain?
They didn't even design it, some other company did. Phantom just went "Oh shit, something we can attach our name too, phew, it was getting scary there for a second...because our console is never gonna happen".
That last part is the best thing ever. Gone faster than a CIA front with a blown cover. Let's hear it for the scam that won't quit.