Optimus Maximus shows his design chops

Notice anything peculiar about that QWERTY? No, it's not a ClipArt frenzy. Rather, each key has been replaced with a specific Photoshop function. That's the magic of the Optimus Maximus. Oh sure, any designer worth his salt has already mastered the Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N, but a single key press (instead of three) sure sounds nice. Worth $1,536? Doubtful, but what if Artimus threw in a children's layout too? Russian, Japanese? We know, it's a hard sell.

Gallery: Optimus Maximus shows his design chops

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[Thanks, Shannin]

[Chris @ Nov 16th 2007 8:02AM]

Is Logitech sleeping on this? I bet Optimus hasn't trademarked this technology, because they simply don't have the cash to do so. Otherwise the Optimus Maximus would be out ages ago against a reasonable price don't you think so?

So f*ck them.. if Logitech of Microsoft snatches their idea and come out with a rival I'll be the first one in line to buy one. I think $125-150 is a reasonable price for a standard model, which has preset lay-outs. But I'll bet you they'll make a 'pro' version on which you can 'buy' new layouts. Hmm.. I'll stop, giving ideas away overhere.

[Karl @ Nov 16th 2007 8:54AM]

It hardly matters if you give away your ideas, you'd never be able to protect them anyway since you apparently don't know the difference between a trademark and a patent ;-)

[Ken @ Nov 16th 2007 9:32AM]

At $125-$150 that would mean each OLED screen would have to be produced for less than a penny.

If I email you my home address would ship me some of that crack you're smoking?

[David @ Nov 16th 2007 11:08AM]

Penny? Guess who's smoking crack, at least during math class...

[Ireland @ Nov 16th 2007 11:15AM]

Ken, I think you'll find you meant less than $1 each, not one penny.

[tekdroid @ Nov 16th 2007 7:53AM]

so the keys themselves are flattish and not curved slightly. I don't like that. This is without going into the fact that I don't buy a keyboard without feeling the keys first.

I hope it comes with a 10 year warranty with guaranteed next day replacement for that price, and a 14-day refund in case sanity prevails.

[dj-kenpo @ Nov 16th 2007 7:56AM]

worth 1500? perhaps.

it's not like photoshop is free. or cheap.

if you're using it at work that is. why not have work buy you one of these as well? I know I'll be bugging them. hey whie I'm working on that 400k website, can you guys get me a 1.5k keyboard? "no, that would blow the budget".

[John Doe @ Nov 16th 2007 9:49AM]

Yea... that's why I use GIMP and Inkscape instead of Photoshop and Illustrator.

Free software FTW!

[Jesse S @ Nov 16th 2007 1:53PM]

John, Gimp et al. are USELESS compared to Photoshop et al.

[Bernhard @ Nov 16th 2007 8:04AM]

DVORAK?

[clozeone @ Nov 16th 2007 8:18AM]

There's an engadget key in the japanese layout, did you see that?

[Bernhard @ Nov 16th 2007 8:20AM]

Well if you can only change the hotkeys, whats the point...

[Jesse S @ Nov 16th 2007 1:55PM]

Dvorak isn't an acronym, it's a name. You don't capitalize it.

[Lane @ Nov 16th 2007 5:22PM]

@ Jesse S
It is also the first few letters in a keyboard layout.

[dudeInAmerica @ Nov 16th 2007 8:19AM]

Neat? Yes, worth the price of a few laptops? No.

Does anyone still *look at a keyboard when typing?

[Mike @ Nov 16th 2007 9:03AM]

Anyone notice the button right under the YouTube one in the third picture? What is is THAT?

[wlp @ Nov 16th 2007 9:12AM]

I am not sure, but I sure want to press it!

[rainygrass @ Nov 16th 2007 8:31AM]

$1500 is the price for every single key screen can play a different movie by themselves.

btw, how many people's really looking at their keyboards when they're using the computer

[wireless.nemo @ Nov 16th 2007 8:46AM]

Something tells me that if this was an Apple product, regardless of cost... you guys would be touting it as the best invention ever.

[Nick @ Nov 16th 2007 9:02AM]

I'm waiting for the gold plated version

[PJK @ Nov 16th 2007 9:08AM]

Its not cheap, it may not be practical, but it is very cool. If I had that kind of money to throwaway I would love one of these even though I have no idea what I would use it for. Isn't that the essence of a gadget, hi-tech, interesting and cool but perhaps not the most sensible use of your money.

[anonymous @ Nov 16th 2007 9:15AM]

It's a photo of TaTu

[Ken @ Nov 16th 2007 9:33AM]

replace "penny" with "dollar"

[steve.bruno @ Nov 16th 2007 9:45AM]

I can't wait until it's released and someone plasters Chuck Norris' face to a key that formats the hard drive.

[Chase @ Nov 16th 2007 11:13AM]

Hmm... I got a better idea... Why not make a keyboard that is practically an multi-touch LCD screen, throw some transparent textured keys on top of it. And let apple sell it for $300, rather than $1500.

[Matt @ Nov 16th 2007 1:23PM]

Yeah, I had the same thought. This is a complicated solution to a non-existent problem. Apple tends to release simple solutions to non-existent problems and they always sell.

[Jesse S @ Nov 16th 2007 2:11PM]

Apple tends to release overpriced, ugly, and non-intuitive solutions to non-existent problems, but it's hordes of zealots buy up whatever they do. Eg., the iPhone. Useless as a PDA, and it has terrible sound (thus voice) quality.

[TVGenius @ Nov 16th 2007 11:23AM]

I'm sorry, but by the time you're good enough at whatever you're doing on the computer that you have the financial means to buy something like this, you're not even looking at the keyboard while you're switching tools anymore. You're using one hand to do it while you use your tablet with the other (Well, for graphic design at least. I don't find where a tablet makes Final Cut Pro any easier)

[Dimomark @ Nov 16th 2007 12:54PM]

Look, I'm all in favor of driving engadget page views and helping you guys reach the ridiculous 150K revenue a month goal, but AT LEAST can you throw a measly link off to Art Lebedev's site? I mean seriously, that's what A HREF was created for and I'm too lazy to search for it on Google... Luv Ya!

[AbqH1V @ Nov 16th 2007 4:57PM]

Your to lazy to search for it on google, yet you found the time to write this comment, log in to your e-mail account, open the activation e-mail, and activate your comment? I think you might want to reconsider how you spend your time on the internet...

I bet if you were the one writing this article you wouldn't have included one link, right? It's my best guess that you would have been to lazy to do so... so you might want to reconsider dogging on our faithful friends over at engadget!

[Dimomark @ Nov 16th 2007 5:03PM]

H1Visa,

Ahh but in all your intarweb lovefest, your argument fails to notice that by posting my comment I may actually be investing in the overall improvement of content on this site. But thank you for documenting all the hard "work" I did to get my point across - well done govna.

So I've reconsidered my original position, and no, I don't want to change it. Nor, do I have the inclination of getting into "not-another-internet-fight" with you. Cheerio!

[Z @ Nov 16th 2007 2:26PM]

Will it blend?

[AbqH1V @ Nov 16th 2007 3:03PM]

What would be cool is if they keys could change their characters for each program you open up. For example if you go into AIM, or Word a QWERTY style appears; but if you open Photoshop, this design pops up. That would make this thing actually usable, and sweet ass.

[Shannin @ Nov 16th 2007 4:17PM]

that is exactly what happens.

i just want to know what happened to that cheaper then a "good mobile phone" price.
i was interested in getting one. ill wait until they cover R&D and they they update alittle i guess

[AbqH1V @ Nov 16th 2007 4:46PM]

Ah, the description on this page made it seem like it was going to be stuck that way. Guess I should have looked further into the links provided. I'm interested also, but like you said, an update/upgrade and a reduction of the price would probably be in our best interest. I also wounder how much extra energy it consumes (it's probably not practical to slap this thing into a laptop, but I'd love to see that happen someday as well.) While I'm dreaming I'd love to be able to personalize the heck out of this and be able create my own keys and icons. *sigh* such is life.

[Shannin @ Nov 16th 2007 5:33PM]

you couldnt plug it into a laptop if you were on the go even if you wanted to

had two plugs:
USB
wall outlet (well you could get a converter if you were near a DC outlet)

[Andrew Stuart @ Nov 17th 2007 2:05AM]

If you look at the arrangement of the buttons, it's only replacing the key letters with the shortcut functions that those keys already perform (s for clone stamp, q for quick mask, TAB to toggle panels, etc...)

So it wouldn't save you any keystrokes in the long run, but it would definitely help you remember (or not have to remember) shortcuts.

I wonder if the displays update to reflect when you press the combinations of control/command, alt/option, and shift...