Optimus Pultius: because Maximus just isn't enough

Sensing your deep down desire for more OLED keys, Art Lebedev is busting out the new Optimus Pultius, which adds 15 keys to the mayhem. Sure you could use it all by its lonesome, sans Maximus, but that's just not as fun. The keys are just like the ones on the Maximus, and there's even an extra USB port in the back. And you know what that's for... daisy chaining these suckers. No word on price or release date just yet, other than the vague 2008 / early 2009 timeframe.

[The Dead Marxist Trio Posted Jul 21st 2008 11:40PM]

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.

[clarinetJWD Posted Jul 22nd 2008 12:02PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2008 11:42PM]

I for one welcome our new OLED Keyboard overlords.

[Sora Posted Jul 22nd 2008 12:15AM]

A year from now, the only thing this will be an overlord of is the bargain bin.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 23rd 2008 6:42PM]

I sure hope so man
Maybe then I could afford
This cool-ass keyboard

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2008 11:46PM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 12:14AM]

Wow, if you're that lazy I wonder how you manage to pick up food and put it in your mouth...

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 1:06AM]

He's obviously very fat.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 9:50AM]

What about your other hand? I have one hand on my mouse, one hand on my macro keys (Logitech G15 keyboard)... works really well.

[Mile Posted Jul 22nd 2008 1:25PM]

Chad, I think his other hand is already busy.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 12:11AM]

iTaco

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 23rd 2008 3:27AM]

sorry that was a reply to another post that I guess was deleted or something

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 12:12AM]

thats nice to know

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 12:27AM]

iTroll

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 12:57AM]

i wonder what the box for this one will look like?

[Denver80203 Posted Jul 22nd 2008 1:40AM]

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!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 2:13AM]

51st!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 2:28AM]

iDiot

[XIYL Posted Jul 22nd 2008 3:07AM]

Anyone else notice the Engadget key on the picture?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 6:17AM]

i wonder why nobody is freaking out because they made an engadget shortcut on their product poto..... ;(

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 4:55AM]

make it less than £25 and i'll take one

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 8:50AM]

dude, do you not know the price of the original keyboard??
if this goes for less than £500 ill be amazed

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 6:26AM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 7:45AM]

Hi!

[Vamadeus Posted Jul 22nd 2008 9:39AM]

No t.A.T.u. key?

[bonedog73 Posted Jul 22nd 2008 10:25AM]

I would actually use this, where the keyboard is a worthless piece of crap.

[Ende Posted Jul 22nd 2008 10:53PM]

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!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 23rd 2008 12:12PM]

The wonderful telephone system!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 23rd 2008 6:39PM]

This is super cool
I want one of these real bad
But they cost too much

[PhoenixFox Posted Jul 23rd 2008 8:13PM]

Engadget, I beg to differ. This is because the Optimus Maximus was TOO MUCH. This is closer to the right level.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 2nd 2008 3:08AM]

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.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2008 4:30AM]

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

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 19th 2008 12:09PM]

This would be a good remote control for the TV, he ever ported it

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 25th 2008 8:54AM]

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.