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Belkin Cable-Free USB Hub Wins Popular Science Award
Popular Science magazine has awarded Belkin's Cable-Free USB Hub one of its 100 "Best of What's New" awards, along with other cool gear like Logitech's MX Revolution, the Optimus Mini Three keyboard, among others. The Cable-Free USB Hub was due out in the spring but has been delayed several times due to a change in their chipset manufacturer (their original supplier got out of the cable-free biz altogether). The ETA is now December 2006 and the price, originally stated to be $129, is now up to $199. Let's just hope they actually get this thing out the door before the sparkly ball drops in Times Square and the price doesn't keep edging up because I really want one of these and as much as I love Belkin's products and continued innovation, I am getting a little tired of their "announce early, ship late, price high" track record.
Optimus 103 Keyboard: driver free for portabilitee
It's hard work to keep the juices flowing for a product whose design struck our Pavlovian bell more than a year ago. Especially when all we're getting is a picture of a single, non-OLED prototype key released just last week. That (LCD?) key will hopefully, someday, replicate itself a la the grey goo and become the Optimus 103 keyboard, you know, the wireless slab which features 113 103 contextual keys which can be mapped to different functions within applications or simply act as animated, informational widgets. We've just learned that the device will appear to your system as a USB mass storage device with all those custom mappings stored right in the keyboard. That should allow you to take the keyboard anywhere, to any PC, with your application specific layouts in tow without the need to install any pesky drivers. Promises, promises. *blots mouth* [Via SlashGear]
Here comes the Upravlator!
While we haven't quite managed to whip ourselves and others into quite as much of a frenzy as the Optimus series has previously garnered, the Upravlator still is looking pretty hot, and now we know exactly how it's looking thanks to an exclusive pic of the device we just got in our inbox. Like we said yesterday, it's a 12-button device, with a top-left button that switches context for the rest of the buttons. We've gotta admit we're a fan of this color swatch idea pictured above, and we're guessing there should be plenty more fun uses for the unit once some developers get ahold of the SDK. Of course, there's still no word on price or availability, that would be way too easy, but we have to say this little thing is shaping up quite nicely. Be sure to peep a couple more functions after the break.UPDATE: Good news, folks. Art Lebedev finally updated their main site with the full low-down on the Upravlator. Turns out the unit is a whole 10.8-inch, 640 x 480 LCD, with the 12 transparent buttons slapped on top. Every button has four contacts, and can be activated left, right, up or down, or pressed in the middle for a fith function.
Art Lebedev explains Upravlator to five year olds, no one else
Art Lebedev is in full-on tease mode for their upcoming Upravlator, which they will be announcing next week. Their blog is replete with cute little teasers posts, which include that "Explaining Upravlator To A Five Year Old" diagram up above. The input device, which will take over a whole monitor port, will feature "ultra-large" keys, which are pictured after the break, along with the rest of Art's smarmy hints. The Upravlator will require a USB and power plug, along with that precious VGA port, and will work with an optional folding stand. Other than that, we're still in the dark as to how this thing will be a help to video editors and graphic designers, but hopefully a few of our five-year-old readers out there can enlighten us in the comments.[Via DV Guru]Update: an anonymous source has let us know the Upravlator is a 12 button device indended to be the successor to the Optimus [mini] three, with customizeable buttons that react to one another. We're still a little unclear, but our tipster mentioned clicking on a corner button and the others will change in context. We're sure it's going to be cool and all, but we're just not able to get the buzz machine started on this one.
Optimus starts blog to track progress of keyboard development
We just got word from Artemy Lebedev about the new blog they've posted to keep us abreast of the Optimus keyboard development process. The Optimus "mini three" is already on sale and the "Upravlator" is "coming soon," along with the product I've been waiting for - the full sized Optimus keyboard. While none of these products currently have Mac drivers available, Art emailed to tell us "Mac support will be added later." And indeed, the blog does show a screenshot of testing being done on OS X. Check out the Art Lebedev site for more product details.Unfortunately, one of the most recent posts on the Optimus blog indicates that they have made a decision to not use OLED displays for the keys of the full-sized Optimus (aka Optimus-113) as originally planned, but it still sounds like it will be pretty cool, albeit expensive. We'll be keeping tabs on this one.
Upravlator inbound and Optimus update from Art Lebedev
Art Lebedev, creator of the Optimus concept device, Optimus mini three, etc. has had some news to churn in the past couple of days, so let's get started: the big Optimus is still on track, but will no longer use OLEDs. Instead, it will use 32 x 32 displays (presumably LCDs), and they're aiming to keep the cost "within the range of a good mobile phone" (i.e. presumably under $1000). Art also showed off the Mac version of the mini three configurator, which we'll be happy to give a go when it's ready. Finally, Art. Lebedev Studio is preparing to announce the Upravlator this week. "A completely new kind of input device," it will apparently plug into a second VGA port and "will be a single best friend of any music engineer or video editor." Confusing as to how it'd be an "input device" per se, but stay tuned for more info on this mystery device.[Thanks, Daniel P]
Rozetkus power strip just made yours look lame
Heck. Yes. Sure, we might have absolutely zero use for a powerstrip chock full of CEE 7/16 europlugs, but we just chucked all our current powerstrips out of our 4th story windows anyways -- even those cute little PowerSquid units can't compete. The new Rozetkus strip comes to us courtesy of those Art Lebedev design crazies responsible for the Optimus line, which has had us drooling for years. Of course, there's no word on any production plans for this unit, and a US version seems quite out of the question given the basic design idea of 12 low-power plugs pluggable in any configuration you see fitting. Oh, Art Lebedev, you taunt us so! One quick note before we split to remedy our newfound powerstrip situation: Lebedev would like all of you geometrically disinclined folks out there to know that these plugs don't work diagonally. You never can be too careful.
Hands-on with the Optimus mini three
So we just got our hands on the underground gadget hit of the fall, then spring, then summer, then fall again -- the Art Lebedev Optimus mini three. Considered the trial run of the true Optimus keyboard, this little sucker features three "interactive" OLED keys, which act not only as animated informational widgets but also as contextual keys depending on which application you're in. It definitely worked as advertised, but we're afraid the mini three's not quite all it's cracked up to be. Read on, and we'll tell ya why, with plenty of eye candy in between.
Optimus mini three OLED keyboard
There's still no sign of the full-sized OLED-keyed Optimus keyboard, due to drop in 2006, but the Russian design firm Art. Lebedev Studio have announced the "Optimus mini three keyboard." They describe it as "an auxiliary keyboard with three keys, each complete with an OLED screen displaying the current function... Optimus mini is a blank sheet. It’s hard to say what a usual monitor is worth until you open an image on it."Using the above example of Half-Life 2 for "game control," I have to question the value of the $100 peripheral. Sure, it's an attractive enough piece of kit, and the OLED screens are muy cool, but they offer little functionality above and beyond what any three keys on a regular old 104-key USB keyboard could.However, if you've got $100 burning a hole in your pocket... the Optimus mini three is set to arrive May 15. [Via Primotech]
Optimus Keyboard shipping February 1st?
Patent controversy or no patent controversy, it appears that Russia's Art Lebedev Studio is pushing forward with its plans to introduce their new buzz-crazy Optimus Keyboard on February 1st. They're a little oblique about what exactly they're introducing -- their site now says "Good Things Come in Small Packages -- February 1, 2006". To jog your memory, the Optimus is that keyboard where each key has a customizable mini OLED display that allows you to tailor the layout -- with color graphics, if you'd like -- so that it's optimized for use with different applications. Still not entirely sure that they'll be able to pull it off (at a price that real people can afford), but we'll have our credit cards primed on February 1st. [Thanks to everyone who sent this one in]
