Phantom Lapboard now on sale, suckers rejoice

At this point we're pretty certain Phantom's shady, vaporous history is warning enough to anyone thinking about giving cash to the company, but the risk-takers out there might want to take note: Phantom's oft-delayed Lapboard is now available for purchase. Of course, there's no ship date listed and -- true to Phantom form -- the site's SSL certificate is a little shady, but come on, you know you want to pony up your credit card number and let us know what happens.

[Thanks, Ray Z.]

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 15th 2007 10:21PM]

I'm sure with a little tweaking you can make a Splitfish work on your PC.

[Jesse S Posted Dec 16th 2007 12:40AM]

Can you? I've always wanted a FragFX, but I don't have a PC. :(

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 15th 2007 10:28PM]

another thing I noticed is they mention nothing about it not even being available when clicking through the "buy" area.

scumbags

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 15th 2007 10:48PM]

I must be the only person that thinks the Phantom lapboard is actually a good idea.

Having a wireless laptop on your lap while you type is no problem but using a mouse is a pain in the ass because you have to find a surface.
its just awkward to use a conventional KB&M on the lap, and I'm not going to settle for a crappy air mouse. An air mouse can't do $#!# for me when I'm trying to play twitch shooters on the PC.

The tilted keyboard only seems unnatural to those who haven't actually though about how it would operate. The tilt would actually be more ergonomic than having it flat on your lap and, hence, more comfortable.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to find my flame shield... since there are a lot of users here who follow the heard and bash what ever tech is popular to bash.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 15th 2007 11:11PM]

how is a keyboard with one side several centimetres higher than the other more ergonomic?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 16th 2007 12:02AM]

Its more ergonomic because the wrist doesn't have to be turned flat out, as they do with conventional keyboards. If you look at good quality ergonomic keyboards you'll noticed that they are raised in the center between where each hand is placed and from that peak it slopes slightly until the edges. The slope looks really extreme on the Phantom board because the whole board is tilted to one side to accommodate the mouse underneath, but if you are playing a shooter you wouldn't be using that other, highly raised, side of the keyboard.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 15th 2007 10:51PM]

Just to reiterate Spinfusor's comment - this is old old old news. They've been accepting (pre)orders for over a year. And still not a single review or comment confirming anyone has ever actually received one. Stay far, far away...

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 16th 2007 12:16AM]

Okay, I've actually had one of these in my hands.

I was in a focus group a couple years ago, about a "mysterious, unlabled game system" and they brought out a Phantom. I could see that the concept as a whole was doomed, but the lapboard thing was Brilliant. No, really.
Don't think of typing emails or surfing with it, but as a keyboard-and-mouse gaming peripheral, it rocks. .., really. I spent most of the rest of the focus group with the thing, turning all around and taking a couple of rough measurements, to make one of my own.
Even said to the moderator, and the guys behind the one-way mirror that they should develop the lapboard and forget about the console.
Still..., $129?!? It ain't THAT groovy.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 16th 2007 7:42PM]

It's not really new to have people with impressions on it, anyone at E3 that went into their booth was subjected to trying it out along with their service.

It wasn't anything worth commenting about then and it certainly still isn't. The keyboard was stock in design (not low-profile at all) and the mouse pad felt like it was short-changing me given the low DPI they were using.

[Ash R Posted Dec 16th 2007 8:03PM]

what happened to the good old stable table and gaffertape :)

sort of like Jo's idea but you have the beanbag cusiony thing to support the keyboard "table" :)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 17th 2007 10:40AM]

If everything else doesn't scream scam enough, check out this website....

https://www.myuspostbox.com/home.php?lang=eng

It's a mail forwarding company that operates out of, (wait for it....)

222 Grace Church St Suite 302
Port Chester, N.Y. 10573

So why would a real company use a mail forwarding service?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 17th 2007 12:40PM]

If we all pooled our money together I think we could buy this company. At the current stock price wouldn't it only be like $10,000. The patent for the lapboard is at least worth that much. Anyone else in? I bet the patent only has another couple of years left though.