After
hacking away on Art Lebedev's utterly gorgeous Optimus Maximus for a few days, we
came away both awed and disappointed. For as beautiful and functional as this beast is, we still felt that actually typing on it -- you know, its primary purpose -- left a lot to be desired. Still, it's hard to deny the ingenuity in the OLED-stuffed 'board, but with such a lofty price tag and even loftier expectations, we can't imagine all of the lucky
early adopters being a hundred percent satisfied. For those that laid out for this exquisite piece of kit, how on Earth could revision two be better? Want a few more keys to play around with? Could it stand to lose some of that clicky tactility? Or will it really only be worth the coin once it bags your lunch, irons your shirt and chauffeurs you to work? Do tell.
Price?
Amen on the price. Also, perhaps a version with a normal keyboard and just user editable screens for the short cut keys, since I don't need it ALL to have a screen
actually, there are three versions I believe.
there is one with just the shortcut keys, one with i think 60 or so keys......and the more well known version that has all of the keys with oleds...
Price and the keys must be as mushy at just right mushiness.
You can buy one with just the spacebar as a screen and buy separate keys for whatever keys you want to have screens as well. I'd buy the basic one then a few keys for things like W,A,S,D and other common gaming keys.
ditto on price. it would be nice to see this at the level he previously stated (around "the cost of a good cell phone" - last time i checked, even my iphone wasn't $1500). it is a disposable item for me... i go through keyboards once a year, and this would be a tremendous waste. if it hit the $200-300 range, i would buy.
Once you change the price, i'll tap that.
Microdot, if you would just get yourself The One True Keyboard--an IBM Model M (http://www.clickykeyboards.com)--you wouldn't have to replace it every year. The M is so solid that you could beat someone to death with it, put it back down on your desk, and resume typing. It also makes that beeeeeeautiful Selectric clickety-clack as you type, and drives your cubicle-mates to drink.
Aah, I love my Model Ms, and you can have them when you pry them out of my cold, dead fingers.
So how would I improve the Optimus? Why, I'd put buckling spring mechanisms under each key so it wouldn't feel like you're typing on Cream of Wheat. What the heck--the thing already costs an arm and a leg anyway.
Exactly =D
what he said.
its 1000% too expensive for a start, for me > $80 is splashing out on a keyboard...
Also wouldnt a cheapo OLED / LCD panel beneath a plexi keyboard be equally cool / functional? surely it could be done with fiber optics quite easily also...
Yes, it would be nice if they made it more affordable...Other than that, it's pretty freakin amazing.
Well I would make it more expensive.
But will it blend?
duh, I'd make it like, at least twice as big.
what is this, a keyboard for ants?
IT HAS TO BE AT LEAST...... 3 TIMES THIS SIZE!
What is this?! A keyboard for ants?!
bobs, beat you to it by
less than 60 seconds
< 60 didnt show up
make it a 3d hologram with a static touch {no glasses}.
I'd buy a wacom cintiq before ever even thinking about getting this thing.
Perhaps it should just type what I am thinking...
A YTMND button is in order.
Every time i see this, I do a facepalm.
I don't give a shit about how much of a mac fanboy you are. Little shits like you give mac users and mac fans (hence the lack of "boy" in "fanboy", btw I am a male) bad names. Your types are the little shits who embarrass us.
How about you do some mac users a favor and shut your damn mouth.
perhaps he was being sarcastic.
I'd hook it to a nuclear weapon.
Ummm....
i wouldnt feel safe drilling holes in a nuclear warhead just to hang my fancy keyboard on it
I'd hook it up to my weapon.
I'd hang it on Jake Dunn's (from Crysis) face.
i'd make the qwerty / numpad portion of the keyboard static and just make the function keys dynamic as well as add anothe row to the key bank on the left side.
IE make it more affordable. chaning the qwerty keys doesn't seem that useful
www.colemak.com
Any dvorak user could tell you qwerty needs to go die. Qwerty is the windows of keyboard layouts.
Dvorak is like metric time.
Other than the price:
I guess maybe have the software easier to use? I don't own one (obviously), but ive seen videos of the software used, and it looks... not confusing, since I am able to use it (You want confusing? try Logic pro), but more smooth.
Oh yeah Mushrooshi. Cause you didn't just do a damn good job all on your own of making yourself look bad....
oh yeah and make it ergonomic for christ sake. i haven't used a flat keyboard in almost a decade
Ergonomic keyboards suck. Seriously...
Perhaps if you're typing non-stop for hours at a time, but it is so much easier to find the keys on a regular keyboard. In fact, I don't ever see myself buying an ergonomic keyboard.
In the end, it's just a personal preference. They should have both styles so those of us who like ergonomic and for those who hate it can still be happy.
That, and price it under $200.
how about making it... well, not shitty to type on.
@Eli
Yeah, I thought it best to get it out of the way first thing :-)
BTW- My real change to it would be to build in a speaker, my laptop sounds awful.
make it so u could play back one video on all of the screens, making it look like one screen. then i might buy it =)
Make it flat and rollable...
have the OLED cover the entire face of each key
Bingo.
That's the only thing apart from price, to have the OLEDs filling the keys - especially the space bar.
They are saving this for Optimus Tactus which will be even shittier to type on as there are no keys:), but at least it will look cool as opposed to the Optimus Maximus.
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/
Yes, this. This would be the most disappointing change from concept to shipped product.
OH... so it was sarcasm.
Too bad there are real fanboys who do this.
Remove the Segway-of-keyboards factor.
I would slap some boobs on it. I'd like to make porn time a little more realistic. Also the price. Other than that, it looks awesome.
PRICE PRICE PRICE - Really $500 for a keyboard? I don't care what it does, it ain't worth $500.
go full hd on all the keys
Minus sarcasm points for not knowing how to spell "renowned".