Optimus Maximus shipments begin
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Feb 21st 2008 4:24PM
posted Feb 21st 2008 4:24PM
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5 people are going to be thrilled!
yay for those 5 people! +1 ME! huzzah!
*this is me pretending to have the OM with stickers on my keyboard*
Yay!
Make that 6! (NOT)
I'm okay to wait a couple of years before this things affordable.
I think the DROOLing one is this concept: the Optimus Tactus!!!
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/
I guess I will have to pre-order in four years and then wait another three for it to ship.
meh, unless he's going to somehow design that Tactus to have tactile feedback, I think it'll suck. Look cool but suck. A few years ago, I was so excited to get my touchscreen remote control for my TV...and then I used it for a couple months. It sucks not having buttons you can feel.
just as I was ready to purchase the maximus...there is something new and better that comes out. Damn, no christmas for my son.
is this keyboard a gladiator?
Ahh, the MacBook Air of the keyboard world - way overpriced and severely underpowered.
But it has strong aesthetics so people will buy it.
how is a keyboard 'underpowered' ? all it needs to do is type?
Not exactly. No one is doubting the practicality (or awesomeness) of having a keyboard that will transform to whatever application you need it. The price is just insane. If this thing was 200 bucks, a lot of people would buy it.
Exactly. It's a sweet idea but the thing not only looks cheap, it's also light years away from being practical given it's obnoxious price tag.
no this saitek keyboard I'm typing on is very under powered if you can phrase it that way, it's keys broke very fast, low keystroke life.
Not LCD, OLED
why want to buy OLD technologies? i though whole purpose to engadgement was for to bring new.
hasn't improved much since your last post I see
ok.. this has got to be some bored 12 year old kid doing a Borat impersonation
Looks like a literal Babel Fish translation or something. Might want to cut him some slack since it looks like he's actually trying to contribute rather than flaming or just fanboi-ing. I can't write in any other languages - just a thought.
How LAME!!!! it's a keyboard fools!!!
Faslane
I heard it ships with a Duke Nukem Forever playable demo!!!
Does anyone actually get their rocks off on this? Seriously. I'll give you the iPhone, Wii, or whatever just because you're a fan of the latest from your favorite company...but what is with the excitement over a keyboard? Am I missing the functional greatest of this device?
I suspect that you are in fact missing the functional greatness of this device. It has the ability to map nearly unlimited functions to individual keys, and have custom images show up on each screen (key). This could have some powerful applications for graphic professionals, photoshop gurus, etc.
Unfortunately these will all be bought by the same folks that happily paid up for the SSD MacBook Air, and the keys will be reprogrammed to collectively display Steve Jobs' face...
I wonder if would have been less expensive to just make a 6"x18" touch screen?
This is really the Segway of keyboards.
They sure took their time, in the mean time Saddam has been hung,North Korea has acquired weapons of mass destruction, Castro has stepped down and the US has had fun playing Duck Hunt with missiles and satellites.
Duke Nuken F0 EvA still missing in action.
"They said you was hung."
"They was right."
Loban: I has a spelling problem. Can you borrow me $1500 becuz that keyboard R SO exPeNsiVe.
Oh, for...
Homeboy, that was a Blazing Saddles quote.
Remember? Sheriff Bart visits his old friends on the work crew...?
honestly, this thing would be a blast for games, such as having the spray be the image, etc...
and i could have a daft punk button.
Seemingly great idea at a ridiculous price point. Besides, most of the time most of the keys would not change. A much cheaper approach would be to replace the numeric keypad on a conventional keyboard with a similarly configurable LCD touch screen that could provide a number of softkeys based on context. You could probably sell something like that for $100 today without requiring exotic tech. I would probably buy one, too.
For it's intended market it's quite useful to have all the keys reimagable.
photoshop/autocad and many other programs use or can use key command shortcuts instead of typing for input.
for example, z selects zoom, p selects pan, and so on for a TON of keys... You just can't replace it with a few hot keys.
I checked these out in person at CES and they were very cool, but a little too glossy, looks cheap and shows fingerprints like an iphone... Also it was quite heavy and got rather warm.
Even for normal typing it's rather cool to have lower case letters on the keyboard then have them go uppercase.
What I don't care about is color. The PSU is kind of a issue too.
Give us a e-ink 4-grey high resolution display on every key with some soft glow/backlight options and for $300 or less and I'm so in.
But that's the thing, I doubt we will be able to have an affordable keyboard with displays on every key in the foreseeable future, regardless of the technology employed. There are simply too many display controllers and complex wiring involved to make this a cheap proposition anytime soon.
Do all the keys have OLED as originally planned? (Livejournal blocked by proxy - go figure)
Is it true that in addition to the Duke Nukem Forever playable demo it ships with the Guns-n-Roses Chinese Democracy album?
Yup. Then Axl Rose comes over and programs the keyboard for you. It then riots and beats the shit out of you twice a week without warning.
Call me a complete nut case but I still use one of these (IBM Model M)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_Keyboard
IMHO the best keyboard ever made...
You're a nutcase
As do I. My Model M is from March 1988...it's almost as old as I am...lol.
Amazing keyboard. If I could have one that had the same tactility/size without the insane clicking I'd buy it. But then again the clicking is amazing.
I use a similar model with an early Dell logo on it. Picked it up at a tag sale for $5, and I find that I type more quickly/accurately on it than any other keyboard that's come through here.
-avi
Well... guess you can change from qwerty to dvorak in seconds w/o getting a new set of keyboards... or different languages?
but personally, i never use the 'special' keys, or individual programmable keys on my keyboard... that's what my mouse is there for... to click on things...
Great. Just when I finally had the hang of typing blind, I'll have to start looking at my keyboard all over again.
It's just a matter of time before the first 'christmas light' hack comes along and turns this keyboard into a twinkling finger decoration. Hunt and peck has never looked so good.
Just give me a multituch monitor I can type on at a fraction of the cost please :)
So have I missed the deal with these?
It is a regular keyboard with OLED keys (some of which are customizable)? and it sells for over a grand?
What is so great about it? what a stupid idea... who cares? it is a frikin Keyboard!
one coffee spill and you are out $1K...
No thankyou - terrible idea
FAILURE
Its a wonderful idea. Price point is not an issue as its one of its kind. As the market for such keyboard develops, more mainstream players will replicate the functionality and competition will drive the price lower.
it's not over a grand. Its 500 bucks
Cool concept - I can see using the customizable keys to make the whole keyboard spell out any number of naughty words to start passer-bys - but to fork out more money for a keyboard that your next two years of car insurance? Unless you're using it for a professional application (video editors, etc), I can't see how anyone who isn't exceptionally well off could justify this.
Holy beezlebub's pointy tail, that thing is expensive!
Why the fuck would I care? So I can have pretty, tiny pictures on a my keys? That's marginal at best!
Stop talking about your penis.
The only people that would actually have to look at their keyboards while using them are certainly not in the market for something like this. It may be useful as a learning tool when you're just starting off with a piece of software and want to learn all the hotkeys, but beyond that, when it quickly becomes second nature, it's just fluff.
It's like those 'gaming keyboards' that have a small digital display at the top telling you things like ammo counts. Who seriously looks at their keyboard for things like that?
And as far as the comment about Photoshop users and the like making use of this keyboard, that's just as unlikely. If someone is actually using something like that professionally, they aren't sitting around staring at the keyboard for their hotkeys, they already have them memorized. I animate in Maya all day long and I sure as hell don't waste any time searching for what key to press every time I need to move something and set a key, nor would I want to get used to some obscure key setup that I couldn't migrate from one area to another without lugging a keyboard around and installing/setting up all the software for it again. You'd have to get two just so you have the same setup at both work and home.
When's Sharper Image gonna start selling this keyboard.
In six years, all computers will be voice input or using multi-touch for everything.
Uh, Sharper Image just filed for bankruptcy protection. I don't even think they'll be around in six years. RIP Ionic Breeze...
I always see the black picture posted. Didn't they change to the color to a less-than-desirable white?
I'm pretty sure they're available in both black and white - but the black is always shown for the reason you mentioned (fugly).
The thing is that I think this or something close to it will become common place on all keyboards some day. The price is just too steep to for us mortals. I would pay twice as much for a regular keyboard to have the oled keys, but that would be no more than $200 for the perfect keyboard.
Win a free foot in your ass by commenting spam at engadget
$500??? meh. I'll wait for the Chinese come out with a Optimos Maximos for $5.
Minus the price tag, this thing is 10x more awesome than what any of our fingers are hitting.
Plus for a keyboard this programmable its a godsend, esp being able to have certain sets for apps.
Its about time someone updated the damn keyboard, thank you Optimus. Hell I was expecting this to be the norm by now...
What in the world is everyone here complaining about? A company made a product, they charged a fee for this product. The general public is outraged by this fee. Guess what? This is a part of their Economics. These boards are capital-intensive to create. Charging a high price insures limited quantity demand. Do you think Lebedev Studios plain doesn't like you, and that's why they price this so high, to keep you from affording it? Stop complaining that a totally cool product is expensive, it's supposed to be as part of their economic model.
The comments from people saying they'd buy it if it was $200 are crazy. Of course you'd buy it, it's totally cool. I'd buy it too, I bet thousands of people would buy one. They don't keep the price high cause they're stupid, it's cause it costs money to make, and if quantity demand went up higher they wouldn't be able to produce the amount of units they need too.
woops. Never mind. Its 500 for 1 key as a screen. 1500 for all keys. I WANT ALL KEYS. IN 1 YEAR I'LL BE ABLE TO GET A JOB AND BUY THIS! YEAH!
the only problem with 1 year is that there will probably be something new by then. fuk