Microsoft launching SideWinder X6 keyboard this fall?
By Ryan Block 
posted July 19th 2008 1:53AM
posted July 19th 2008 1:53AM
[Thanks, Husar]
Update: Reader RainMotorsports points out that the side profile looks, well, unconvincing. Certainly right, especially when you ask yourself where those giant knobs went. Hey, we never said this was a sure thing!
Keypad on the left side? Hmmmm. Not too crazy about that one.
I meant the numeric pad.
Looks like it can be attached to either side, look at the right side of the keyboard.
forgot to say that some people might want it on the left side.
Did you ever consider left-handed people might prefer it that way around? =]
I'd go crazy if it was one the left side. I'm left handed. It would be awesome.
More and more games use the keypad as a shortcut menu thing, so there it might be handy on the left too, mouse in the right hand, game control in the left.
Of course you can buy an USB (notebook) keypad and achieve the same I guess, then you'd have 2 keypads on both side.
Im guessing the cruise control just turns on caps lock, since its CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL
Bah, beat me by 5 seconds :p
Hive mind!
It had better actually BE the caps lock button. Or to make this keyboard more extreme, include a push lever and an onscreen message saying CRUISE-CONTROL.
Cruise Control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v47gR-nQjR8
Cruise control? Caps Lock? It is the cruise control for cool after all...
Could someone clue me in to this inside joke?
I AM COOL
It's reflecting how it's 'cool to type in all caps' but tiresome to keep pressing shift OMEN_20, hence using the caps lock is 'cruise control'
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/All_caps
DID SOMEONE SAY CRUISE CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!!
I love my Sidewinder Mouse (switched from the g7) and will be trying this keyboard out as soon as it launches (if it does, I am assuming it exists) to replace my Microsoft Pro 4000. Definately a good looking piece of kit and hopefully built like the mouse. Now I just have to wait for the Sidewinder X360 controllers (fans, led's, macro, who knows!)
Ditto, been waiting for a Sidewinder branded keyboarded to get with my mouse, was reluctant to get a replacement until they made one!
i'd press those buttons
FAKE - Look at the side profile.
Both sides of the keyboard are not smooth and both sides of the keypad are not smooth. So whats with the smooth profile of the sideview? Its definitely not the front and the curvature its all wrong for a back view.
Someone messed up real bad when they did the side profile.
Fake it might be, but I for one wouldn't mind having the numeric set on the left. Pity.
Your comment is fake. The side profile is of the number pad only.
The Number Pad is not smooth as i said in my Post. It has interlocks on BOTH sides. Look very hard you wont see a smooth side anywhere to match up that image with.
I don't want to look very hard. They prolly just airbrushed the anomalies out like they do on the cover of every magazine. Standard Industry Practice. Duh.
I was just about to say the same thing GMFlash. Glad someone else is using their thinking cap. Now lets see if the Ed updates it again to point it out.
Am I the only one who finds that keyboard ugly, they need to rework aesthetics.
I think it'll be mediocre at best based from my experience with the sidewinder mouse, which i upgraded from a G5, and was overwhelmingly unimpressed. It's plasticky, seems cheap, doesn't feel solid at all and appears to be designed for people with mechagodzilla hands, the ergonomics and button layout wouldn't be that bad if it was smaller, as is the macro is useless. The thing needs to go on a diet. The same day ups dropped it off at my doorstep i went out and bought a G9 which about 30% smaller than it. MS Sindwinder < G5< G9
For some reason, I read the last heading as "Microsoft launching SideWinder X6 keyboard: this fail?"
Here's an English article about it...
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8414&Itemid=1
Who knows...it might be real...here's hoping.
fuck optimus maximus. im having this one.
According to the French article, the "Cruise control" allows you to keep pressing buttons without you actually pressing them.
So, now you can blame your keyboard for spamming. Awesome.
I can do that too with a normal keyboard.
Here, let me show you.
Step 1. Hold onto the key you wish to repeat.
Step 2. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The profile look is only showing the Numeric KeyPad, not the keyboard.
Sidewinder = Ugly.
Just look at the mouse
I assume Linux users by very definition can't use nor endorse use of Microsoft products, regardless of merit. If you consider this big, I guess you must be a Happy Hacker Keyboard user yourself. Well, to each his own.
It looks horrible.
it looks horrible.
Cruise control going wrong?
in the top view, if you look at the buttons in the keypad, there are five going down the left side, the side photographed...supposedly. in the side view, you only see three, one of which is longer than the other. fail. and the keys seem to be white in the side view while they are grey in the top view
Umm... why does it look like a boom box from the 80's? They've officially ran out of ideas. hahahaha
That thing is hideous looking
I bet it also costs way too much money
http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u17625/x6_flat.jpg
Can you imagine if Apple would designed something like this? Where did MS find it's industrial designers? High schools and Devry??? It's so ugly that reminded me some of the early 80s to late 80s cheap boom boxes!
Looks like a piece of shit.
Everybody loves new and cool e-toys ,but how much are you willing to pay?
http://www.buyrefurbtoday.com
why would anyone buy this monstrosity? Apple's new keyboards are wayyy better than these POS.
if someone could make a washable back-lit keyboard: that would be what I want and would buy.
$80 and they should add another number-pad
In the picture with the numberpad on the right, it (the numberpad) looks oddly...blurry.
I like how it looks.
Detachable numpad that can be attached either from left or right side of the keyboard. Applause! Most practical keyboard idea so far this year.