Optimus Maximus: 113 keys, ready to pre-order
By Ryan Block 
posted May 20th 2007 12:37PM
posted May 20th 2007 12:37PM
posted May 20th 2007 12:37PM
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I so totally want this and have the grand to spare, but there's no way I can justify spending that much for a keyboard when I'm getting a new computer soon. Especially since that computer is a Macbook Pro so it brings its own keyboard, heh.
holy crap, it has an engadget key
sold!
Yeah, we didn't photoshop that or anything! Guess Art likes Engadget!
a single key for 10+ free engadget promo... that is, i've heard it 'ready to pre-order' for at least 3 times ...
Diggin the engadget shortcut key :D
I'm going to assume there will be a gizmodo key in THEIR version of the screenshots - think about it, this company (Art and co) has to try and get its free advertising from somewhere!
Personally I think I'd still love to see them make a more affordable compromise keyboard..... that is, a keyboard with mostly regular keys, but a row of OLED keys for shortcuts, etc.
I think for touch-typists especially, the ability to change the keys isn't that useful, but for macro keys, etc. that might change from app to app, as well as shortcut keys that represent launchers for different apps, etc. it would be really nice.
And it seems like a keyboard like that could be relatively more affordable.
I read somewhere that they are making hybrid keyboards sometime soonish
Now that I think about it, in a year or two, when i actually WOULD be interested in getting one of these, the price will probably be down to at least half, if not a quarter of the current price due to the way tech goes...
Anyhow, I'm REALLY interested and looking forward to reviews of this thing...
They deserve a prize for adding the K-Lock. This would 100% be stolen if anyone saw it without one.
I do feel betrayed however having been told it would be told it was 108 (wasn't it first 112?) keys. But since I can't afford to 'waste' money on this keyboard I will leave my complaints at that. It would also be a great way for people to learn an ABCD layout insaid of this QWERTY layout which was designed to slow you down.
I'd understand if you were advocating the Dvorak layout over the QWERTY, but the ABC? C'mon, you'd end up having to type t's with your ring finger. Also, the claim that QWERTY was designed to slow you down is complete myth. There isn't a shred of substance to it. What actually happened was that the most commonly pressed keys were spread apart so that the near-lying hammers weren't used sequentially. Under the ABC, you'd end up with a whole lot of counter-intuitively placed keys. The only thing it's actually good for is teaching new people how to type.
$1500 for a keyboard that I can't even power from the USB port alone? Sure there's those pretty OLED keys, but I thought they were supposed to have low power draw.
Bleh, it's a good concept still. Hopefully increased production of OLEDs will cause a price drop and allow the Optimus to become more affordable. If the company doesn't go bankrupt, I bet the models will eventually be had for sub $500.
Has anyone here actually preordered one?
Of course not, do you think that people who read engadget.com everyday are rich?
Bill Gates reads Engadget :DD
Judging by the amazing drop in Apple's share price when Engadget published the Leopard/iPhone delay piece last week, I'd say there are some people out there with $1500 to throw around if they chose to!
This keyboard makes NO sense. How can you be an efficient typist if you keep changing the keys around?
Everyone bashes it for the price, but I think its great that such a brilliant concept is finally being put into production. It would be nice to see a lower end model, but as with a lot of things, you start with the expensive flagship model to grab everyones attention, then aim for the mainstream appeal.
Oh, and r.e. power draw, yes a single OLED doesn't draw much power, but throw 113 of them together and it soon adds up. Combine that with the USB hub and SD reader and the 2.5w from your USB port just isn't enough.
With my luck, I'd buy this and not like it, and then have to justify a $1500 keyboard that I don't use...
I already hate that single wire going out of my keyboard, why would I want so many others? bleh. And don't get me started on the price.... unless you have money to throw away...
Does anyone know if there is a way to run this on Ubuntu? On the site it says windows/OS X only, and I'm running feisty fawn.
I'm guessing that when you store layouts (it has a sd slot for layouts) on the keyboard, you might be able to access them from linux. However, I don't think that they have a linux client. Hmm. Yuck!
You can probably run Ubuntu ON it.
hah, I meant to get the hot keys programmed with some sort of software like xp/mac.
For $1500, those better be buckling spring key actions or at the very least mechanical. I wouldn't pay more than $50 for a craptastic silicone nipple action, no matter how cool the key caps were.
lol products like this allow me to justify buying two iPhones :) one to use and the other to be locked away in it's casing for my mini museum like i do with my iPods.
It is bad for teaching people how to type actually. If they learn on an abc, they will be worthless on qwerty/dvorak/whatever. This is why I never switch to dvorak - it would never be practical when I have to use a system not my own (such as at work) since I would hardly be able to type on the universal qwerty standard.
That's what he meant by slowing you down. What Sholes thought was the most commonly-used letters were placed on opposite sides of the keyboard to make the mechanical locking of the hammers less likely.
And no keyboard layout is counter-intuitive if that's all you know. Had you been trained to type on an ABC layout, you would have thought that QWERTY was absolute nonsense.
Nope, I checked. It's still an Engadget key, even on Gizmodo.
Damn, they've scaled the OLED's down so that they don't cover the whole key.
Looked cooler in the concept art... but then, so does everything.
With a bit of luck, and the influx of some money for the initial runs, we'll see cheaper boards with improved screens in the future.
Fingers crossed.
It's a cool keyboard, but I think I'd rather pay my mortgage. :)
Why in the holy name of God would I want a $1500 keyboard?
I think it's great eye candy but I can't understand why the design paid absolutely no attention to ergonomics. It seems to me the kinds of asymmetrical curves ergonomics demands of a keyboard would play quite well with this visual keyboard. Instead of organic goodness, we get rectangular generica.
Besides, I heard the rectangle, like the circle, has already been patented by another company ... :).
Art should totally load up a kindergarden style layout... instead of A have an apple... Instead of a B have a boat and so on.
This is an engineering failure, plain and simple. The moral of this story is that there is a vast difference between being able to technically pull something off and being able to produce and market an affordable piece of gear. There are a great many things that are waiting in the wings if only they get cheaper (electric cars for instance). But you need to be innovative to come up with ways to deliver them to the masses.
Nice! They finally labeled the "Any Key" that I keep hearing about. I always wondered what key that was.
if someone paid this much for a keyboard i doubt they would let their kids gets their grubby fingers over it
Well, there are obviously some short-comings here, like the price... but this is looking pretty cool for a first generation product. Hopefully there will be enough people with 1.5k burning a hole in their pocket to fund futher development.
Perhaps a future iteration will have those "full screen" keys like the original concept art.
Yes I do. The keyboard was designed to seperate keys which could jam (Q+U) is a common example. Typewritters were also prone to breaking and if you see a fast typer you will often notice that they hit hte keys harder then someone who is typing slowly. Thus they wanted to reduce the chance of damage on typewritter so they put most of the keys on the left side. Your left hand is generaly slower and weaker which means that you have a hard time typing fast. You'll notice that e,t,s,r,a are all on the left side and are of the most used keys. Notice also that the most used volels are on the left (a+e).
I don't have any love of ABC, but I didn't know of any others off the top of my head that have also been claimed to be more efficent.
This cost way too much... Not worth it imo.
Why does the gallery say 103 keys?
look at the space bar and any of the larger than standard key, they look crap, for that money they could do alot better. the original concept design a couple of years back was beautiful this is a piece of crap
Damn, this is one of those expensive things you can't just download through torrent =(
Interesting. 1500 dollars for LCD keyboard? It's THE only peripheral you are not supposed to look at while using.
so is this officially not vapourware any more? I want to see them stick this somewhere where the rays don't trace before I hand over any money.
It'll let you put a backspace key on the numeric keypad. That's worth something to me, though maybe not $1,500.
You mean you don't use the delete key?
You don't lose your Qwerty skills as long as you use them a little while you're learning Dvorak. I have a Dvorak keyboard (from Unicomp) on my Mac at home that I type about 90wpm on. I was about a 70wpm typer before I learned Dvorak and that went up to about 80wpm after.
I can switch seamlessly between both layouts without thinking. What I _can't_ do is type Dvorak on a Qwerty board or vice-versa. Can't type on labeless keyboards, either, ends up being a mishmash of both Qwerty and Dvorak.
But trust me, it's worth it.
hope the ship them to stores, than just internet...i really want to see it before i spend ANY amount of money on it
It's about damn time...
now I just need to save up $1500... sigh