Eleksen's fabric keyboard / UMPC case in the wild

The fabric keyboard gurus over at Eleksen are apparently moving forward with its colorful fabric keyboard / UMPC case hybrid, which would add another clever offering to its already sleek Bluetooth and bendable options. While we the knew the company was eying opportunities to bring the vivid peripheral to market one way or another, it appears that Glen Evans of PocketPC Solutions has had the pleasure of testing out a working prototype of the aforementioned accessory with his very own TabletKiosk eo. His seemingly positive remarks suggested that it produces "an audible click when a key is pressed, and that it's very usable on a daily basis," which admittedly might not be all that long given the meager battery life in most UMPCs. While we're still not sure if Eleksen is looking to pump these out under its own name or offload the task to a willing OEM, be sure to click on for another shot of the cloth-based keyboard in its electric green glory.

[LittleJoe @ Oct 30th 2006 8:22AM]

Very cool. One of those "why didnt i think of that?" ideas.

[bigjohnfamagoosta @ Oct 30th 2006 9:44AM]

Genius!

[ugo @ Oct 30th 2006 10:17AM]

uno schifo totale, un`idea da dementi.

[Angelo @ Oct 30th 2006 10:42AM]

Still waiting for the holographic keyboard. Then i'll be impressed. NO storage space and a cool interface. Now we're talking technology advances.

[Angelo @ Oct 30th 2006 10:46AM]

well, i guess my wait is over...

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Holographic-Keyboard-20314.shtml

[blackcoffeenosugar @ Oct 30th 2006 12:24PM]

One question: Is this keyboard/case waterproof/machine-washable? This is a very important factor as all keyboards collect dirt easily.

[opti @ Oct 31st 2006 4:05PM]

Totally hear ya, blackcoffee... It looks like some sort of neoprene, which gets dirty very quickly, esp with all the oil and grime on our fingers. I'm not sure if I'd believe it would survive a wash/spin/dry cycle.

[Eleksen @ Nov 9th 2006 10:36AM]

The keyboard can be made to be water and stain resistant using standard textile treatments making it easier to wipe clean than a mechanical keyboard.

This is a concept design that we sell on to accessories and computer manufacturers to customise with different textiles and designs.

[Dave Maiden @ Jan 9th 2007 4:17AM]

When can we expect this to be released to the public?