Optimus Pultius: because Maximus just isn't enough
By Paul Miller 
posted Jul 21st 2008 10:41PM
posted Jul 21st 2008 10:41PM
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now that is something i would buy.
That does seem more useful that a whole keyboard of them.
I would buy if they used firewire, it just make much more sense to daisy chain fire wire; especially when you consider the keys are really small video screens, which 1394 is well suited for.
ptshhh with firewire you can only daisy chain a mere 63 of these. USB on the other hand i can get a whole 127 of these suckers. hells ya.
ptshhh with firewire you can only daisy chain a mere 63 of these. USB
on the other hand i can get a whole 127 of these suckers. hells ya.
Exactly! Hopefully the keys are a lot easier to press down than the full keyboards!
I found it funny that the troll got ignored.
Back to the topic, I would enjoy some firewire devices. I have only one and that is my external drive. Anyways, who is going to daisy chain that many?
Speaking of daisy chaining, how many 4 port USB hubs can I daisy chain?
@haikibutsu
you can daisy chain up to 127 devices per controller.
you can add up to 5 levels of hubs per usb host controller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB
I wrote them a suggestion for a product like this a while ago. Basically, I wanted macro keys like I have on the side of my Logitech G15 keyboard, but I want OLEDs to show me what they're for. Not sure if they took my suggestion, but this product is something I'm very interested in.
Dear Art Lebedev,
I pray that you llearned something about price with the full size key board and make this affordable.
Signed, CheapAssPo3t
8^)
I also pray that I can come across a grammar/spell checker soon
Use FireFox.
llookout for llamas
and Lloyds
llookout for llllamas and Lllloyds?
Im guessing it will be about $350.
35keysx$10/key=$350
Yep, sounds about right.
The keyboard only has 15 keys though...
And I pray that Josh over here learns how to count or read the post, whatever happens first.
Wow
How did I manage to screw that one up?
Well, I would say Phail, but it's highest ranked.
Succeed?
Who names these keyboards? Charlie Darwin Jr?
No, Caesar does. Just wait for the Oled knife called "Brutus".
ME!
Hopefully this one is targeted at normal people and not to Sultans of oil rich countries.
"vague 2008 / early 2009 timeframe."
So we can look forward to this making it to retail by 2011! Woot!
Huh, this might actually be useful by itself for something like photoshop (*assign all the tools I'd regularly use to a button*).
What's wrong with the keyboard shortcuts already built into photoshop?
Snob!
Yeah, I think part of the point of keyboard shortcuts is not having to look to find things. If you're going to have to look at the keyboard to choose a tool you might as well use the mouse to look at your sceren.
It would mean less "tracking" across the keys. Plus I tend to forget what most of the shortcuts are.
I'll be impressed if they release an OLED upgarde kit for laptops.
Untill then, they can keep their overpriced keyboards.
You realize that the power requirements for the keyboard would make your battery:
A. Melt
B. Catch fire
C. Explode
D. Last 5 Minutes
E. All of the above
Take your time... Don't rush through this.
OK than an e-paper version for laptops.
And the only one of your options that is eve possible is "D. Last 5 minutes."
If my Dual video cards, dual hard drives, and 17 inch screen do not cause an explosion, than that won't.
All that aside... Ever hear of sarcasim?
Considering his effective deployment of it, I'd say Alexander has indeed heard of sarcasm.
But what's this "sarcasim" of which you speak? Sounds like a new game where you can pretend to post seemingly clever things online, and watch nobody else see the cleverness?
Why don't they actually work on making the Maximus a good keyboard to type on?
And lower the price?
Then it might start being the future, not just a proof of concept device (which it pretty much is).
Still not entirely convinced on the Maximus. At first, i was like, "Hey, that's flippin' sweet, i want one!" Then the waiting kind of gave me time to realize, "Wait, they want HOW much for a keyboard?"
If i pay $1500+ for a keyboard, it needs to be able to give me a reach around.
Yeah, it's flippin' sweet, but ultimately a novelty, imo.
I, too, aspire to live in a world in which keyboards can give me a reach around.
Troll!
This seems more reasonable than an entire keyboard to me.
Why is there a bar code at the top of it..wtf
that's their logo.
What comes up if you scan the bar code?
iMac.
Fortress Maximus was a pretty massive transformer...
I'm waiting for the omega supreme tablet.
What, no porn key on this one? Kinda a step down from the Maximus because of that fact IMHO....
Dude, they're programmable keys, you can set them ALL to porn if you want.
Thats iTroll, remember???
iWish
iRobot
amidoinitright?
sweet. so long as it's not fuckin $1500, i'm down.
Would also be sweet if you could use the whole thing as a segmented secondary video screen of some sort, kinda like a little tv wall of sorts... just a thought
and I second the 1394 daisy chain. Much better idea.
I've always thought taking a product with a very limited market, and limiting the market even more was a great idea! USB is more than capable of transmitting the 'video' to more of these than you can shake a stick at, but there's a very good number of computers with either no, or only 1 firewire port, and I would rather use it on a media hard drive than a keyboard extension.
I for one welcome our new OLED Keyboard overlords.
A year from now, the only thing this will be an overlord of is the bargain bin.
I sure hope so man
Maybe then I could afford
This cool-ass keyboard
I personally find this useless. I'd rather have 15 buttons on my mouse, as my hand never leaves it, than on my keyboard, or an extension of my keyboard. This may sound ridiculous but there are times where I'm too lazy to even reach over to the keyboard to press a button and wish I had the functionality on my mouse.
Logitech MX510 FTW, it's a classic with an unbeatable combination of comfort and buttons.
Wow, if you're that lazy I wonder how you manage to pick up food and put it in your mouth...
He's obviously very fat.
What about your other hand? I have one hand on my mouse, one hand on my macro keys (Logitech G15 keyboard)... works really well.
Chad, I think his other hand is already busy.
iTaco
sorry that was a reply to another post that I guess was deleted or something
thats nice to know
iTroll
i wonder what the box for this one will look like?
odd spacing of the keys.
I'd settle for five or six keys with a wheel to scroll through different presets.
combine that with context sensitive keys and you've got a winner!
51st!
iDiot
Anyone else notice the Engadget key on the picture?
i wonder why nobody is freaking out because they made an engadget shortcut on their product poto..... ;(
make it less than £25 and i'll take one
dude, do you not know the price of the original keyboard??
if this goes for less than £500 ill be amazed
Actually looks pretty good, I'd never shell out for a full keyboard version of these however as a set of 15 buttons it could actually be pretty nifty, especcially if you use quite a few different programs like 3DS Max, Hammer, Photoshop it would be pretty useful if this had the same feature that allowed keys to change depending on which program you're in for different tools.
Hi!
No t.A.T.u. key?
I would actually use this, where the keyboard is a worthless piece of crap.
I concur with the above posters that this actually seems more practical than the maximus. On a seemingly related topic, this post has the funniest comments!
The wonderful telephone system!
This is super cool
I want one of these real bad
But they cost too much
Engadget, I beg to differ. This is because the Optimus Maximus was TOO MUCH. This is closer to the right level.
My god this can actually be useful. You can use it to house all your program shortcuts at the desktop and if you were in photoshop for example you could turn it into your touchable tool palette. To bad this is going to cost $400 dollars considering that the Optimus Mini 3 1.0 has 3 keys and costs $160 dollars.
Himm wonder if i daisy chain these with keyboard keys...
Good for games that u could switch to Meele then to range then to sniper etc.
But my Logitech mouse can do that all ready.good for laughs tho (and seting Nvidia ESA contols while Changing AI nos) P
This would be a good remote control for the TV, he ever ported it
From the prices at ThinkGeek (3 keys is $134.99 and 113 keys is $1589.99) I calculated the equation for the cost (assuming it is a linear function).
Cost (USD) = 291/22 x Keys + 104839/1100
This gives a cost of 293.7172727272... for a 15 key keyboard.
I'm guessing they would take it up to $299.99 or something similar.