Optimus AUX nearly ready for its $650 price tag

Two bits of new information to tell you about. First, Art Lebedev's AUX keypad is expected to be priced at "around $650." Second, that's a final pre-production prototype kicking it live with Art's Verbarius clock in the background. With any luck, this programmable OLED keypad could be ready for a limited production run by Xmas.

[Bladey @ Nov 18th 2008 7:42AM]

with any MORE luck.. you got the price wrong and its alot less than $650!

[scuba_steve @ Nov 18th 2008 10:56AM]

- Way behind schedule? Check.
- Way overpriced? Check.
- Almost certainly going to have performance issues...like the Optimus 3's annoying hum? Check.
- Uncomfortable keys that require carpal tunnel-inducing levels of force to push? Check.


Folks, we have a positive identification on the inbound bogey. Target designated as "Art Lebedev overpriced crap". Confidence is high. I repeat, confidence is high.

[AVG @ Nov 18th 2008 7:53AM]

There is a little under $90 worth of practicality here.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Nov 18th 2008 9:07AM]

You spelled $40 wrong, silly.

[ajaxas @ Nov 18th 2008 8:56AM]

Hell yeah. This thing will never be out, don't be f00led :(

/Russian man

[Tarnation @ Nov 18th 2008 7:59AM]

@AVG The question is: What price do you put on the awesomeness?

Oh to dream of three of these and an Optimus Maximus.

[AVG @ Nov 18th 2008 8:03AM]

Three of these and you wouldn't need a Maximus.

[bureX @ Nov 18th 2008 8:03AM]

This is obviously not gonna work out...

[Levi @ Nov 18th 2008 8:04AM]

Oh the Maximus... huminahuminahumina...

Whatever happened to the idea he had to have one giant programmable OLED underneath clear keys? I guess it was supposed to give the same effect as the Maximus, but because it was one display underneath all the keys instead of a bunch of tiny displays, it was going to cost a lot less. Well, they said "Under $1000," which is a step ni the right direction, but they have a few miles to go before I'd afford one...

[Tarnation @ Nov 18th 2008 8:33AM]

Last I heard Art Lebedev inventer of the Maximus has plans to build such a monster.

[Patriks7 @ Nov 18th 2008 8:13AM]

Just give out double the $$ and get the full keyboard :p

[ethana2 @ Nov 18th 2008 8:25AM]

That's what they're saying.

Clever marketing..

[AlexTheSane @ Nov 18th 2008 8:17AM]

Is the display that displays the time in Russian words included in the price?

[AlexTheSane @ Nov 18th 2008 8:19AM]

Display that displays, very nice. From the department of redundancy department.

[Ammar @ Nov 18th 2008 9:21AM]

Ok so this is a cool concept, but are these people crazy?!! nobody is gonna that much for the keypad let alone a full keyboard

[BratPAQ @ Nov 18th 2008 8:23AM]

let me get this straight, shortcut keys for $650?

[Jamma @ Nov 18th 2008 2:34PM]

time is money, and i'm sure this will save me loads of time compared to moving my mouse and clicking on a shortcut on the screen.

in fact, in a whole year, this would probably save me a total of 6.50 seconds, which, with the seconds-to-dollar rate being so great, means its only $650 which is A BARGAIN

and it's not like there's a recession on or anything...

[Valicore @ Nov 18th 2008 8:27AM]

Hmmmm the clock reads 7:49am, is there anything super special about the clock other than displaying the time in words in Russian?

[wrabbit @ Nov 18th 2008 9:08AM]

Either you used Google translate or you have two typos there because the time shown is actually 17:49, which would be 5:49pm :)

[Valicore @ Nov 18th 2008 9:12AM]

it was my own fail actually, it's too damn early lol.

[Freakin Ijit @ Nov 18th 2008 8:43AM]

Translating the Russian it appears to be saying something like:

"I would have preferred to have an iPhone"

or something similar to that.

[ajaxas @ Nov 18th 2008 8:59AM]

In fact, it says "Seventeen hours forty nine minutes" O_O

[Kelmon @ Nov 18th 2008 9:25AM]

For that price it had better come with a year's supply of bacon.

[holycow @ Nov 18th 2008 10:12AM]

I bet the picture was taken at 17:49!

[Ryan @ Nov 18th 2008 10:31AM]

$43 a button. Laughable.

[FT @ Nov 18th 2008 10:48AM]

I'm hoping the Chinese could rip off their design and come up with a $40 version....

if the Chinese could clone an iPhone this is surely a piece of cake...

[palehorse @ Nov 18th 2008 1:27PM]

About $600 above what I'd be willing to pay... re-donk-u-lous!