macnn/electronista

12/26/2007, 8:40am, EST

Wednesday, December 26th

Optimus OLED keyboard pushed to February

Art Lebedev Studios today revealed that its Optimus Maximus keyboard has been delayed until late February. Although the company has nearly filled its capacity for preorders, which began earlier this month, the firmware that controls its unique features needs to be improved before the device can begin shipping in earnest, according to the Russian design house. The firmware flash method to update the keyboard's software also needs improvement before the final release.

The core design remains unchanged from its original concept, which revolves around incorporating OLED-based displays in each key that allow their symbols to change as the user switches languages, opens programs with context-specific shortcuts, and programs shortcuts to favorite apps or websites. An SD card saves information that can be swapped between multiple keyboards. The Optimus Maximus should be priced at $462 US and work with both Mac OS X and Windows systems over USB.


Filed under: peripherals
Other story tags: Art Lebedev, Optimus Maximus

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jpellino
Maybe it's their slogan..
0
12/26, 8:50am, EST
"The Duke Nukem Forever of keyboards!"

... that's holding things up?

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Joined Oct 1999
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coffeetime
very innovative
0
12/26, 9:34am, EST
I wonder if it would be able to display application (ex. AfterEffects) shortcuts right on the keyboard itself. The mini LCD display embedded on every key button is such a cool idea. Just don't spill your coffee over it.
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PBG4 User
re: very innovative
0
12/26, 12:49pm, EST
That's the whole idea behind this keyboard. Instead of memorizing keyboard shortcuts, have the images shown on the keys change.

IIRC, it's OLED technology, not LCD though.
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Joined Feb 2001
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notehead
at least it's real
0
12/26, 2:52pm, EST
This keyboard has been in development for so frikkin' long, that there has been a lot of speculation as to whether it would actually come out. Now, not only is it fairly close to release, the price is down a LOT from what was originally expected. This thing is wicked cool. The keys can even display animations. There are endless possibilities for this, some practical and some purely fun.
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Buran
That's the POS version
0
12/26, 4:36pm, EST
If you want the lame spacebar-only version you get that price. You have to pay over three times more for the version we were promised "for the price of a high end cell phone".

The liars can cram it sideways up their butts as far as I'm concerned.
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Joined May 2000
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