We knew it was too good to be true. The
Optimus mini three keypad, which
was due out this week, has apparently been delayed until August 15th, due to "additions and improvements," including bumping the button life to 100,000 presses, increasing OLED lifetime to 8,000 hours and adding a brightness control. Art Lebedev Studio has also apparently chosen to switch contract manufacturers, and will be producing the long-awaited device in Taiwan instead of China. So, what do loyal customers get for their patience? Something of a discount, since they were able to pre-order the mini three for $100. Lebedev is still accepting pre-orders for $120, but the price is expected to go up to $160 -- a pretty hefty bump for a product that, so far, exists only in mockups. Still, we're itching to see this one get real, so we hope this delay is just the usual hiccup for a new manufacturer creating an unusual product, and that we'll be able to check one of these out before the end of the summer.
[Thanks, Len]
posted May 17th 2006 1:45PM
what is it and whats it for???? It looks like an MP3 player or summin
Should be a cute paperweight.
But... I just want a nice quality keyboard, backlit and oled or e-paper key tops... is that too much to ask? They could still include their 3 buttons on it somewhere.
8,000 hours = 333 days
Guess they want you to buy a new one every year.
Did you see Optimus Keyboard? :) http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
So after you pressed a button 100,000 times it just dies?
The first person who comes up with a good use for this thing wins... ehm... wins a free search on google!
No seriously, what is it good for? For $160 you can buy a full 15" TFT screen.
I have a good use for this... WHACK A MOLE!! But you can only do it 10,000 times.
Stupid. Waste. Of. Money.
O ok i see what it is thats really neat and everything except it doesnt last very long in one game of Oblivion id have the keyboard done with they need to work on it more but its chill if u got the dough i like that new logitech one with the LCD on the top its cheaper too
http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/14/optimus-wireless-keyboard-wears-its-functions-on-its-keys/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_keyboard
Apparently most of you don't know what the full optimus keyboard is. This is basically just a three key set of that, albeit overpriced.
And no, it won't die on the exact 100,000th press. I hope you were being sarcastic. Manufacturers are required to give an average lifetime.
Does it play Doom?
While I was excited about the prospects when I saw the full keyboard. The 8,000 hours is a bit of a disapointment.
This 3-button thing is a pointless waste of money. What does this mean? I can create three shortcuts to commonly used programs or tasks - provided I have this thing plugged in and on my desk next to my keyboard?
The keyboard is sweet. But this 3-button thing is a solution looking for a problem.
8000 hours = under one year (if left on constantly).
Is that Tatu on the now playing screen? Techno-pervs!
Oh, I know/knew of the vaporware/prototype Optimus (didn't that stuff pop up like a year ago?)... I want a real one ;) (is it out and I've completely missed it?)
#14, there is an endless amount of possibilities that you can use, it's not just 3 buttons, hit the shift key and presto the 3 buttons change to 3 different buttons, etc etc. Not that I'd buy one but just trying to set the facts straight.
In every post about this device, from the original keyboard on, I've said it was vaporware. I still stand by that assessment.
Also, everyone who originally saw the keyboard and said "wow! I'd pay, like, $100 for that!" - you look even dumber now than you did then. There's no way an actual keboard will sell for less than $700-1000. And as for this thing, when it's eventually released it will end up about as popular as that Griffin Powermate - cool, but overpriced and not very useful for most pepole.
How about buttons being labeled
"CTRL", "ALT" and "DEL"
- or -
"ANY KEY", "ANY KEY", "ANY KEY" ? :)
#4 - yeah 333 days of runtime. You wouldn't need one every year. I'm guessing everybody sleeps at least two or three hours a night. But for regular people, it would only be on when it was being used, and when they slept or left it, the thing would shut off. If you can stay awake to keep your computer active for 333 days, i'll give up computing. o.0
Well there is nothing technically impossible about this device or even the full keybaoard; the problem is the price point. When I investigated the technical challenge of building a similar (monochrome LCD based) system a few years ago, my conclusion that even a very large run of tens of thousands of keyboards wouldn't be enough to drop the price below $1000 per keyboard. As even more concrete evidence, there are actually several industrial control comanies that make such display-in-key systems and they have comprable price points.
There is no real problem in making the optimus keyboard, but making it reliable enough to function for several years as someone's keyboard would result in a device costing five to ten thousand dollars. There are probably people out there prepared to spend that kind of money but probably not enough to make a good business case for producing them.
This is a conversation piece for the bleeding edge of geek gadgetry. If any of you don't understand "why", then you really should be browsing a different blog.
#20, what about modding it ino your computer case and let it display your processor temp and when you press it you'll more detailed info (case temp, hdd temp fanspeeds etc) the second button could show switch mp3 you're playing and when you press it winamp (or any other player) will pop up. last button: hipe pr0n =]
If you like it...just wait a little longer and catch it at dollar store.
I believe the 8000 hours is because it uses an OEL display... and they don't have very long lifespans however I believe they are cheaper to produce than lcd's and easier to implement (I think they're typically smaller, therefore easier to put in a button). I've never seen one burn out, although I don't think they've been around long enough for us to see lots of them failing. Which reminds me... I don't know about home stereos, but there are alot of car stereos out there that have OEL displays. I believe the alpine I just bought has one (they call it something different though that made me question if it was a true OEL display). I suppose this is ok for a car b/c if you multiply the 8000 hour life of the display by a speed of 60 miles that?s something like 480k miles and its rare that a car lasts that long. But I guess that's the reason oel displays haven't really made a big appearance in household electronics.
I wish it had 5 buttons. That would be perfect for what I need. When using Serato Scratch Live(look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about), you can go up/down your music list and ctrl+left or ctrl+right to set digital audio files on the virtual decks. Right now I'm stuck using the laptop keyboard to do that. A small keyboard I could run right over to my mixer would be great.
Uh, is it my imagination, or does this whole Optimus keyboard pre-ordering thing have major scam/sham written all over it?
Robert, For scratchlive, check out xkeys (www.xkeys.com). I have a set that I use with virtualdj They have a small 16 button "stick" version that would fit nicely on a 19" mixer I think... not sure about a scratch mixer.
#27: You can buy compact keyboards, or if you're feeling industrious, just take a keyboard apart and wire your own buttons to the terminals that record keystrokes. People have been doing it for years to make MP3 boxes and stuff.
This is realy nice. It's too expensive but this is the way to a realy keyboard with OLEDs. This is the future. I predict that it won't sell enormously well but it's important that a company take this first step. About the pirce I just have to say that I don't think they are trying to make alot of money of thise device, I think it's just very expensive to produce. I realy can't wait for the reviews of things cool thing when it hits the market :)
Art Lebedev is a quack in russia. unlike American Ad Agencies, in russia Ad Agencies are a bit strange. Usually, the guy on top has somewhat of a celebrity following. Like Art Lebedev. So when the Agency(Art's agency is called "Design.ru") does an ad for let's say, Samsung(coincidently Russia's national brand until the end of this year, This award is given every two years to any brand domestic or foreign) Design.ru will post their ad on its page. And sadly that page becomes the ad. it's like "Samsung is doing so good, they can afford Design.ru"
Anyways, Design.ru has designed many things other than Optimus keyboard, and let me tell you this. None of it will see the light of day.
take XOX for example
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/xox/
This is a wonderful notebook designed by Art Lebedev. There were so much hipe in 2002 about this computer. It never shipped. just like the Colorshift line of everyday houseware
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/colorshift/
But the rub is this. We are right now talking about his studio. This for lebedev is mission accomplished. They are a ad/design studio. they come up with photoshop designs that are strictly conceptual. nothing more.
take a look at this car stereo.
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/radiotehnika/ar-50/car_audio/
it's never been made. not a single one. NONE OF HIS DESIGNS MAKE IT.
anyone read "homozapiens?" this guy should be the lead character in that book.
oh ya, his studio's page is;
www.design.ru
Not the first time a delay has arisen from trying to go with a Chinese manufacturer and ending up scrapping the plan because quality couldn't be met and then turning to Taiwan to meet a super short development time with higher quality. Glad to see they woke up.
Honestly, this is the dumbest product. I would buy it if it cost maybe 20 bucks. Its one thing if this was an entire keyboard, but for three keys??? at 160 bucks just isn't worth it. I would love to get the names of those that buy this product because they clearly have more money than they should and are probably easy to rip off.
This is a scam, a sham, a publicity stunt, a fake.
Even though everyone knows how Russia has totally established itself as a high-tech center of industry.
go fuck yourself
Lebedev is #1 figure in design not only in Russia but also half of Europe