I am a new fan of yours and I have to say watching your show has inspired me. I am on the crusade to build the ultimate HTPC, the only thing I dislike about my current build is simply the functionality of the wireless keyboard and optical mouse interface I have to use in order to still use my HTPC like well...a PC. Sitting on the couch or on the bed is not the best place for a wireless keyboard and optical mouse however for the past few years I have just lived with it. Until recently I saw a review on X-play and the reviewer talked about using the XBox 360 controller on the PC to game with. I got excited, took my wireless 360 controller and googled for hours how I could use this brilliantly ergonomic device on my PC. I finally discovered that with a XBOX wireless adapter for the PC and the wireless 360 controller driver from microsoft I could play any game on my PC. But along the way, I found something else...I could use my 360 controller as a mouse. Using programs like Xpadder I could actually map the buttons and joysticks of really any controller to my PC with amazing comfort and speed. Now my HTPC dose not need a wireless optical mouse and I have discovered just how much better it is to watch TV or movies and not need a flat surface immediately in front of me. I Discovered a new freedom...until...I had to type something into my PC. Then I got the idea to use the amazing 360 chatpad which attaches directly onto the controller. It is a full qwerty keyboard, backlit, with enough functioning keys to have 104 map-able functions that is easy to hold, and type on no matter what environment one is in (especially when compared to a full wireless keyboard). Now I thought my prayers had been answered and I could have the ultimate HTPC experience: typing an email, alt-tabing, changing a song, opening a PC game, toggling a game profile and going to town all on my HTPC right on my couch without ever having to change the device in my hand. Much to my chagrin, the chatpad doesn't work with the official microsoft driver...I did some research and found that there was a driver contest in the works for a chatpad to be used on the PC as a keyboard just as I wanted...only problem is that the driver only works for a wired 360 controller...to plug anything in would negate much of the freedom I want on my HTPC...Worst yet is that there is only one man working on the wireless driver and with little talk that he is even working on it anymore and even fewer updates. After watching your show one day I thought, rather than waiting for the problem to be fixed from a driver stand point...If you could mod a 360 wireless chatpad into a wireless keyboard that could send input to the PC via a USB receiver while the chatpad is attached into the controller. My idea is that a IR or RF signal could be sent from the bottom of the chatpad in place of the microphone jack, that way the chatpad could act just like a real keyboard and the necessity of a wireless chatpad driver would go out the window. Please take on my challenge Ben Heck, not just for me, but for all the nerds that have been dreaming of this fusion of elegance and ergonomics with their PC for years now.
