Hands-on with Optimus Maximus (at last!)
By Paul Miller 
posted Nov 21st 2007 2:58PM
posted Nov 21st 2007 2:58PM
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Wired store in SoHo? Wish I'd known when I was shopping there yesterday. where's it at?
SoHo
houston st between broadway and west broadway
i have always wanted to ask this..Does it have a function key that makes it TRANSFORM ^_^
Did any of you guys notice the side media buttons shots (Yes engadget, I saw the "E" symbol already in the past 10 pictures of your gallery) the one in the bottom left corner appears to say 745 Ave and also appears to have a glowing orange joint burning under-neath it, web link to the local head shop?
Never seen a keyboard with a Kingston lock slot, but then again I ain't never seen no $1,500 keyboard!
The Optimus keyboard is available in retail? IT'S THE SEVENTH SIGN! THE END IS NIGHT!
Ok, I am get two of these, or at least one of them and a regular keyboard. I like the idea of having a separate custom buttons pad (for stuff like photoshop, drawing etc.) in addition to a qwerty keyboard.
I think Apple will buy this whole project with all prototypes and later will sell it under self trademark.
Lebedev is a mac and Apple fanboy - he'll be glad to sell it for them.
Glossy keys? You have got to be kidding me. Smudge-city, amirite?
Exactly what I thought - greasy keys.
Will this confounded thing not die? Optimus Maximus, I curse thee!
Why would I spend $1500 on a keyboard when 99% I spend looking at my monitor?
Precisely my thoughts.
Yea if I were filthy rich this would be a great needless toy. It is freak'n sweet though!
I would be lying if I said I detested this keyboard. I'm like many or you gadget whore would love to get a hand on one of this thing. It's all eye candy and I only use the keyboard like only 10% of the time. I have no doubt if the price is right, this would make a killing gaming keyboard with the nice visual and easier to remember the hotkeys.
The infamous pricing is what is ridiculing this keyboard.
It's useful for people who frequently type in multiple languages as you can change layouts on the fly without having to remember (or guess) which keys are actually what.
It's also useful for other programs like Photoshop (see the Photoshop layout in one of the photos).
It's more than my computer is worth... including all peripherals lol.
The shots are overexposed for the keys - they're that bright eh?
And what's with the button (again) under the youtube button? Looks like a hotlink to pron.
For the price, it had sure as hell BETTER come with a Porn button.
Dudes, you don't understand. You can make ANY key on this keyboard a porn button! You can have a keyboard with 100+ porn buttons if you so desire! ;-) So it definitely doesn't need to "come with the porn button", regardless of its price.
It looks like the front women of TaTu. (But I suppose it could be a porn button)
http://www.yehhu.com/haberdetay.asp?id=1302
I would hotlink the image... but I know better.
Now we know what these guys do between articles! eewww! X-(
The awesome thing is, YOU CAN DELETE THE CAPSLOCK KEY OR ADD EXTRA ONES IF YOU SO DESIRE! HELL, TURN THE SPACE BAR IN TO A CAPS LOCK KEY!!
Who cares about porn buttons? For $1,500 bucks you can have a porn star!
The photos wmay not be the most wonderful but if you look at the video that was posted here previously, or the one over on GizModo just now (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/optimus-video/first-video-of-the-optimus-keyboard-actually-working-and-looking-awesome-325615.php?autoplay=true), you'll see that the keys are pretty bright.
It's link to T.A.t.U site
Will this mean the end of Querty? And I've never seen a keyboard with a kensington lock slot before :-D.
How did you manage to misspell qwerty? all you have to do it hit 6 keys in a row on the top left.
Best. Snarky. Question. Ever.
Maybe he uses Dvorak? Or is just stupid...
Dvorak, you say? That reminds me: http://dvorak.org/blog
"How did you manage to misspell qwerty? all you have to do it hit 6 keys in a row on the top left."
Maybe he's using an Optimus...
No, in Dvorak 'qwerty' would look like this: ',.pyf
The awesome thing is, YOU CAN DELETE THE CAPSLOCK KEY OR ADD EXTRA ONES IF YOU SO DESIRE! HELL, TURN THE SPACE BAR IN TO A CAPS LOCK KEY!!
it means the end of the capslock key for some. but rearranging keys is nothing new, cvt avantstellar keyboard has allowed you to do this since the 1980's when it's production began. you can pick one up for a nice cool $150, plus it comes with programmable macro keys that do not require software like logtech's g-series keyboards.
-I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY (MODEL-M KEYBOARD FANATIC)
http://www.cvtinc.com/products/keyboards/stellar.htm
Colemak typist checking in-- Querty is more natural than qwerty for my fingers, because, one ISP aside, the only letter that follows a q is a u.
That said, I have no clue what layout he's using.
www.colemak.com
...and I love my backspace key where your 'OOPS I HIT THE CAPSLOCK AGAIN' key is.
Damn, why are the shift keys not in line with the surrounding keys? That empty gap where the right shift key is supposed to fill up is where I keep my left left small finger for walking in fps games.
Dear Engadget,
Faster shutter speed.
Sincerely,
Harish
Amen!
the engadget button seems awfully close to the lesbian(?) button...
lol
ALL THE THINGS SHE SAID DUR DUR DUR DUR
1500$ for a keyboard???
Were they smoking something when they came up with this price, because if they weren’t they have reason to start.
It is in no way marketed to the average consumer (or even the pro gamer) who spends $6-$100 on a keyboard.
That's like saying: "Holy crap! The viper is $85,000!! What were they smoking when they came up with that price!!!"
The viper comes with loose women, this gets you laughed at by those women.
@Ty
Well, seeing as how I can't afford either, where does that leave me?
Now, you see... that's where you're wrong.
Admittedly, geek women are less frequent than the loose ones, but if you find, and you have a keyboard like this, she's yours.
She'll be wanting to play with your 'Space Bar' all the time!
@insertAlias..
Are you actualy defending the price of this keybpard?
a laptop is worth that and more. m8 that's a keyboard may I remind you.
Did I mention its a keyboard and do you know what a keyboard does?
please dont ever compare the cost of any car to a computer keyboard, lets keep it real.
What I'm saying is that this is a very rich person's toy or that it is worth it to someone that absolutely has to have this feature. (Kinda like the viper compared to any average car.)
I don't think that it's a super fair price or that it's useful to the average person, but that many oled screens are going to cost a lot.
The price is spot-on for this project. Immense amounts of R&D, custom OLED tooling, and a small production line. This is not a keyboard for Jo-bob in Illinois who is playing Call of Duty on a $899 Dell. This is for an audio producer working on a $120,000 rack-mounted rig, or a video production studio needing to work on three different editing platforms (all with their own set of shortcut key commands).
$1,500 is a worthy price for something that can increase productivity when working between multiple products and platforms. And on rigs that cost more than most people's cars. Going back to the metaphor of the car (which you so outrightly denied being reasonable), this is like buying a $1500 set of tires for your $80,000 car. Your original tires worked well and did their job, but these new tires are more efficient and more articulate.
Please, don't be confused and compare this to a laptop. Yes, a laptop has more functionality, but this keyboard is an accessory to a workstation scenario. The increase in productivity and ease of switching between platforms while using this keyboard will pay for itself in short time in a production setting.
@Tom.
You made some good points so I will stand down on this one as long as you don't attempt to market this as the jesus keyboard and want eveyone to have one. however if you attempt to market as the jesus keyboard then I will have to LOL at it, you and the price, for this is no keyboard for the end user.
I will hold you to this "This is for an audio producer working on a $120,000 rack-mounted rig, or a video production studio needing"
MMM, this would bbe great for World of Warcraft - imagine each key mapped to an ability or spell or a macro and change the key to the icon of that ability or spell. Coundowns for cooldowns right on top. Also for healing you could have the key show a percentage of health of a party member and allow to heal them with a keypress with different spells used with modifier keys.
I'll be more than happy to direct you to the local rehab center bro.
http://www.engadget.com/gallery/hands-on-with-optimus-maximus-at-last/501576/
haha, check out the integrated pr0n button. These guys thought of everything.
Now its worth $$$$.
The xps one one wouud've been a hella of a lot better if it got this keyboard.
That could be the biggest game of whack-a-mole ever!!!!
genius!
The keeping it really Fake version: Megatron Minimus
http://uk.gizmodo.com/colorkeyboardkids-thumb.jpg
am I missing something. there is no button thats looks like pron, or is everyone refering to the button with the two girls, if so you all should know thats TaTu, the Russian singers.
TaTu was porn enough for me
Personally, I'm digging the Mac shortcut key icons.
I've yet to see hands in these hand-on ;)
Do the keys allow for animation? THAT would be amazing! Imagine having them animate in sync to make a bigger picture! Wait, maybe you could take recordings and convert them to show on the keyboard!! This is DUMB. Get a touchscreen monitor and use it as a keyboard. No, get 5 touchscreen monitors and use ALL of them as keyboards for the same price!
People like you are going to make the world of ergonomics and touch-typing go to a hellish pit to make room for your sleek, but horridly depressing, touch-sensitive keyboards.
Print a picture of a keyboard out. Put it on a table. Pretend to type. Yes, that's what it will be like in your perfect world. Kill me now, please.
I'm in the city this week, so I think i'll head over to SoHo to check it out.
If anyone's interested, the information on the store's location is here : http://www.wired.com/promo/wiredstore/location.html
60 Greene St.
New York, NY 10012
When the Oxy Clean guy starts selling these at 3am for the low price of $19.99 I'm all over it.
I can't wait until this is standard fare on all computers. Brilliant!
What do you think? Another ten years & these things will be about $60?
You mean about 2-3 months right?
@joey:
I'm still waiting for my $100 SSD drives. Those came out a while ago, too. The tech world moves fast, but not THAT fast. 5-10 years sounds like a good estimate to me.
Gizmodo had it first.
Fail.
Is that a picture of t.A.T.u. under the youtube key?
Yes, it is ;)
I'd never want a keyboard that would make me cry if I split coffee on it.
Dearest Engadget...
I really enjoy all of the great stuff you guys have on here, but...
Can you PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEEEEASE learn how to take a decent picture??? I could do better than this with a basic point-and-shoot when I was 13. Especially using a decent camera, which I'm sure all your staff have, it's not hard to get a good picture, even in less-than-perfect conditions. Take a photography class, buy a photography book, or hell, just Google it... Learn about aperture and shutter speed and ISO levels and maybe even the rule of thirds. It's NOT hard to do... You guys all strike me as so smart, especially when it comes to technology... It really shouldn't be hard to come away from something like this with a decent set of pictures. It's too easy a problem to fix to continue bringing us photos that are out of focus, badly angled, washed out, or just all-around poorly composed. Get a D80 with a macro lens and an 18-135mm lens and you'll be set to take awesome pictures of anything; or just use a pocket digicam and adjust some settings correctly. Just please, try a little harder with the pictures... sometimes they can make or break a presentation.
This wouldn't just be good for Photoshop. Any pro app would have happy fun time with this one. Especially if any modifier key changes the image on the fly with no lag time. Think of the benefits with PT, Logic, Avid, FC, any decent CAD app...It's very practical.
inkscape, the GIMP, blender, rosegarden, cinelerra... oh yes.
...but then we have to make icons for everything...
You know, it would be sweet to replace all the Fx keys with different compositing effects in compiz fusion... ok, yeah. That's what I'd do with this. I can never remember where those keys are.
Gee, it looks like a.... keyboard.
This has a 4-5 year lifespan...
That's dumb
Ok, Optimus Maximus is out, now where is my Duke Nukem Forever ?
Well, the quickest way to get that would be to buy the trademarks, and scrap together a team of blender ninjas to build it on top of crystal space.
..or you know, ioq3 would work too.
I can just see something very similar to this ending up in mcdonalds and other fast-food joints in the not-too-distant future.
The real question is does Duke Nuken Forever come bundled with it?
No seriously. I was expecting them to launch together the day after hell freezes over. Has anyone checked the packaging?
I'm gonna be the first to say it (surprisingly enough):
It looks cheap.
hot damn that's a sweet keyboard
i'll even pay $200 for it
Ok, I am get two of these, or at least one of them and a regular keyboard. I like the idea of having a separate custom buttons pad (for stuff like photoshop, drawing etc.) in addition to a qwerty keyboard.
Why is it not plugged into anything but power? (excluding the 2 antitheft devices) Is it running in "demo" mode?
Ummm, from right to left I see power, antitheft, and USB. It's plugged into something.
I can't wait to see some screensaver-like animations which goes through whole keyboard! I.E. When you lock your workstation, some waves start going from left to right and others. Mmmh...
If I remember correctly, there was a bandwidth bottleneck somewhere that prevented that on the scale of every key simultaneously.
I don't know how the USB spec writers keep pinning maximum clock speeds on the protocols and still expect it to be used for anything serious. Your monitor, tell me what connector does it use? It should be USB, and would if it could do something simpe, like, say, scaling up.
So yeah, I'm pretty sure USB screwed it over. Sorry.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/hands-on-with-optimus-maximus-at-last/501576/
Is there like Japanese porn on the key next to the clock/alarm.
Sweet feature, watching porn on your keyboard ^^
What a rip off. $1500 for a keyboard of OLED keys. Is it that expensive?? I'd be tempted if it was $200 but that's all i'd spend on a keyboard.
I really don't get what's so cool about these keyboards. Yes, it's visually appealing to watch the keys change, and have the different operations be displayed on the keyboard depending on the current program, etc. But really, this doesn't seem appealing to anyone - regular users will never spend this much on a keyboard, and power users who use keyboard shortcuts and all the magic that this keyboard visualizes already know all the shortcuts, and don't look at their keyboard anyways! Am I missing something?
It's gorgeous. I want one.
For the buzz-kills who whine about the price, remember that the original Apple LaserWriter was a cool $10k when it was introduced. Laser printers are, what, 75 bucks now?
This IS the future, and it WILL get cheaper...