So we just got our hands on the underground gadget hit of the
fall,
then spring,
then summer,
then fall again -- the Art Lebedev Optimus mini three. Considered the trial run of the true Optimus keyboard, this little sucker features three "interactive" OLED keys, which act not only as animated informational widgets but also as contextual keys depending on which application you're in. It definitely worked as advertised, but we're afraid the mini three's not quite all it's cracked up to be. Read on, and we'll tell ya why, with plenty of eye candy in between.
Nothing like the feeling of a fresh unboxing.
So the first thing is that USB cable. Man, it's just one of those clear, cheap-o looking cables that really offsets the aesthetics of the very well designed unit. Kind of a bummer, but hey, it's just a cable, right? (We still kind of wish this were battery powered an used Bluetooth, but gadget nerds can dream, can they not?)
Looks like our unit came fresh from the factory because it had dust and gunk all over it. Still, can't deny the sexiness, can you?
Ok, so, it didn't have Mac drivers (that we were able to find), which was kind of a bummer. We installed the Windows drivers on one of our PCs; it was fast and painless.
Unfortunately, this thing isn't a native USB device. No, buried deep within that husk resides a USB to serial converter. While this shouldn't make a lick of difference to the average user, approving the driver was one extra step, and knowing our 2006 machine once again had some serial going on made it a little less enchanting.
As you can probably tell by now, the screen isn't easy to photograph. We're not sure if this is because of that serial conversion or what, but the OLEDs appeared to be refreshed with regular scanlines, like a CRT monitor (hence that visual effect). Since you can't see the image in its entirety, we can tell you that the above Outlook icons were crisp and fresh, although the screens weren't really as bright as we might have hoped.
Another shot, yay scanlines.
So now we're in IE, huzzah. Looks like you can set your own icon sets and animations for the mini three, so once these things make it into the hands of fans, we're sure to see tons of widget sets pop up. Which is a good thing, surely, since you're not paying $160 to get some contextual keys just for IE and Outlook and a couple clock widgets. Unfortunately, our biggest complaint with the mini three was the tactility of the keys -- or the lack thereof. Those beautiful acrylic tops, they look so clikkity clakkity; sorry, no, they're mushier than we'd expected and a bit wobbly on the stroke, making them a lot less satisfying to touch than they are to look at. Still, we've got high hopes that future mini threes will have nicer keys, Mac drivers, and the tactility needed to really set the Optimus up for world domination, from Russia with love.
posted Aug 28th 2006 2:21PM
$160 for three keys...
How much is the full keyboard gonna be?
When you say they were mushy to the touch/click/whatever, what do you mean? How different could they be from normal keys?
Disapointing, especially after all the hype.
Nice review and nice reference to "Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom". Thanks, Ryan!
Looks really sweet :)
I can't wait for the keyboard, but I'm unlikely to buy one likely because of the price tag it will bring...
Wow... scanlines? You have to be kidding me. Sad to see such a hyped product fail. Especially at $160.
I have a feeling the optimus will never come to production if everyone else is as dissapointed in the mini as you guys were.
No price tag was ever released. However, if I recall correctly, it was stated that the cost to make each keyboard would be around $600. That is their cost to make, so your cost to own would be about double that.
well, not so exciting review but i'm still in love with this piece and will order one as soon as the price drops to $100, or sub $100.
I do hate to mention it, but you can rid yourself of scanlines by setting a longer shutter speed. Yeah, I know, it's a niggling little detail and only a uptight professional photographer would notice. Other than that, it's a very nice concept and we can only hope that design revisions answer the shortcomings you mentioned.
I'd buy it for 100$. Anyway, it looks very nice, and I don't know why you didn't like the cable. I think transparent cable looks better. Oh, and as I already thought, the black Optimus looks better than the silver one.
Hey, at least they got the ball rolling with the idea. Now some other hotshot company is gonna come in and do something better with a brighter display and greater oled life,.. oh, and native USB.
You can avoid the scanlines by using a slower shutterspeed. Looks kinda neat but $160... nah. Also I might be showing my ignorance here but what does this mean 'knowing our 2006 machine once again had some serial going on ' USB is Universal Serial Bus isn't it...
Try to take your pictures with slower shutterspeed, might help.
well.. you can build a "101key" keyborad for $5300..
hahaha..
Damian - He was saying that he was disappointed that inside such a smooth looking device there was an antiquated piece of technology.
I might be wrong – but I don’t think the latest versions of OSX support USB to serial converters, though I could be wrong. That could be a big problem if that is how this device really works. It would also explain the slow frame rate (isn’t it only a few FPS?) because of the bandwidth bottleneck.
This might be a nicely designed device in terms of aesthetic – but it doesn’t seem to be well engineered.
I"m still waiting for the one I ordered back in Feb...
I"m still waiting for the one I ordered back in Feb...
I wish Apple would buy them.
They have such good ideas, but so poorly executed...
The picture on those displays might look better if you took the protective plastic film off of them first :-)
Extrapolating that out, a full keyboard should cost $5,600. That's slightly more than my original estimate ($2000 or so), but still sounds about right.
I remember in the original discussion someone saying "Wow! That keyboard is awesome! I'd pay up to like $150 for one!"
They did.
Look at the tabs in the first pictures from the plastic film.
Then, look at the rest of them.
It appears as if the film was taken off already.
And they still look terrible.
Go figure.
Price wise, I would rather get the Chumby and set up a bunch of buttons on it, even if it is less sleek.
Awesom-o. You're right. Just looks that bad I guess.
Curious, The OLED lifetime was "bumped" up to 8000hours. If you do the math, the OLED displays are only good for ~1 year of continuous use.
I personally have my computer on 24 hours a day.. I can see this peripheral failing due to overuse of the display in less than a year -- mostly because the manufactures ratings are usually quite a stretch!
Do the math yourself: 24hours a day * 365 days in one year... Simple = 8760hrs worth of display time (obviously assuming worst case). Hopefully the displays have some sort of powersaving mode or something...
Forget this overhyped noise and get yourself an Ergodex. I did and I love the thing to bits!
Billy Mays could sell these for $19.99 on late night TV and I'd still be hard-pressed to pick up the phone.
Jim - I would expect this device to have some sort of idle timeout functionality built in soon if not already. If the system has been idle for x number of minutes/hours (configurable somewhere within the software for the device) have the displays on the keys "turn off" until activity is detected.
this would be great if it werked with the ps3, imagine having the stats of say a racing game or socom like game right there at ur 'fingertips'. who cares about touching it, I hated my keyboard the first time i touched it, now I wouldn't use another. especially since I'd have to re-rearrange the keys to spell my name and address. confusing for others to use. I want it and may just have to get it soon as it makes it to market. oh and btw to take pictures of it without the lines scrolling through, try either a different angle or set ur digi cams to 60hz flickerless, that should do the trick.
God help anyone trying to order its soon to be evil younger brother, the pesimus.
Of course the full-size keyboard won't cost $6000!
The buttons on the Optimus mini three are way larger than the ones on the real Optimus.
Whenever you photograph a TV or other monitor that scans at 60hz you'll need to slow the shutter speed down on your camera. It looks as if you shot it at 1/250 of a second or faster. Shoot it at 1/60 of a second or slower and it should look fine.
-End of basics of photography lesson.
Dean
About time! Well its a first gen product, and it looks to have first gen problems. But they are moving in the right direction.
Um, so this was an interesting review except for the fact that it didn't explain what the heck this dang thing does? So... what does this thing actually DO? It looks to me like it displays the weather and time? but with the screens as buttons, but why are they buttons? I don't get it.
re: OLED lifetime
You have to remember that "lifetime" measurements of OLEDs usually refer to the time until it is half as bright as it was when it was new. It's not as if it just goes black when its lifetime is up.
You also need to keep in mind the exact definition when comparing plasma TV's vs. LCDs. (For plasmas, it's usually time until half brightness; for LCDs, it's usually time until the backlight burns out.)
Nice toys. To take pictures of screens, use a longer exposure, the trouble is your shutter speed is too fast and keeps freezing the times when the screen isn't on.
$160? I guess we'll just have to wait until Logitech buys them out...
At this point, this thing is stupid.
Indeed, the screens need to be much brighter, the technology needs to be updated, the stupid cord needs to go (Bluetooth and batteries ONLY please!), and the price needs to come WAY down. And I agree that the buttons will need to be updated... mushy? Please! Forget this thing!
I'd tell anyone, if you want this type of functionality, save yourself some money, go to www.griffintechnology.com and buy yourself a PowerMate. No display and it too, has a USB cord, but it's very cool, built well, looks great, has a good feel and tactile response, it's much cheaper ($45 USD), and extremely flexible.
Disappointing to hear about this. The performance makes me wonder about the pricing, and the pricing makes me wonder about the feasibility of that dream of a full keyboard.
@ #3: Sklegg
...fall, then spring, then summer, then fall again...
would be
...ga-ul, bom, yeo-reum, geu-ri-go ga-ul da-shi han beon.
or something to that effect. My korean grammar isn't perfect, but I know the seasons.
Cheers.
Anyone ever play Frets on Fire?
http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/uv/fretsonfire/
That "keyboard" would be the perfect controller for it if it had 5 buttons.
This is stupid. You can buy spare cell-phone screens with embedded controllers from Das Interwebs, wire them up, and serial them to your computer for 1/4 the price. Add some switches, a milled aluminium case, and a HOOKER, and you still got out cheaper with a shiny new venereal disease in the process!
Someone is smoking some serious dope if they think this piece of junk is worth $160.
This is just like Snakes on a Plane but keyboard flavoured.
everyone keeps mentioning all of these shortcomings but but forget that this is the first time this has been attempted so it is obviously going to have some things that might not have come out exactly as the user has wanted this historically true with almost every first run product im sure as forward the product into version 2 and three improvements will be made and im sure that some of these flaws will be corrected for the full key board and as time goes the cost of producing parts will drop as will the price of the final products this product is a great step forward and has is showing great promise for future products from this company and cant wait to see the full keyboard
What are with all these people requesting bluetooth and batteries? As if the technology didn't cost enough, we want to add the space-age functionality of reduced latency and battery changing to it! NO! Keep your grubby stupid ideas away from my peripherals, for the love of god! I can't stand you people. *dies*
CTRL + ALT + DEL
Damn it, why doesn't anyone put their hands in the picture when using an optimus keyboard. I want to see a size-reference!
The price is outrageous but the product would be so amazing to own!
(I will definately be purchasing a full keyboard)
I would love to see one in person...
mycampusguide.com
Looks sweet. Can't wait for the Mac support, so we can crack it open and do what we do...
Whoever said they wished Apple bought this company or technology.. screw that. Apple will just make them cost $300 for the 3 key set. Apple sucks. The iPod sucks.
I would never buy this 3 key crap. It was a waste to even make outside of making it for review samples so people could tell them what to improve upon.