About the novatouch, I talked to the guy about it for a bit. Here's the reason.
It's a very new product for them. It is _not_ based on "known" technology. It's also not just a topre keyboard with MX compatible stems. There's some very new and very exciting engineering in there, especially with the stabilizers. Because of this, it's not a finished thing: there's likely more things to change and finalize before they take it to production.
With other products like a filco, or the QFR, it's just a board from an OEM. You just call them, up, talk to them, give them you specs and changes from teh base model and wait for shipments. It's obviously a lot more complicated than that, but it's relatively easy to deal with an OEM like that. Dealing with a japanese company that wants to branch out a little is a new experience for them both, and a lot of relationships have to be set up.
So why does this mean we can't take pictures? it hurts the final product, especially if it's noticeably different. People start to compare the two, people see two versions and get confused about it. It's just a bad idea all 'round. Ideally, no pictures of it should exist at all, aside from some carefully controllerd teaser photos.
The other reason is that this is an entirely new sort of product for them. Until now, they had been targeting the "decent quality and excellent price" sort of market, where it's not 100% top tier, but it's a few steps back from that at a much lower price. The Novatouch is a radical departure from that, as it's a top-tier product, or at least they are aiming it to a top-tier market.
Finally, as a top-of-the-line product, they have to spend a lot of time tweaking it to ensure that it is actually "that" good. That's why the development is taking so long. they are spending a lot of time, effort, and money ensuring that this is indeed as good as they want and especially will also cover as much of the market as possible.
Now keep in mind a lot of this is mainly speculation on my part. I did talk to the guy, and feel like I got a good idea as to what's up. I just think a lot of people are misunderstanding this and especially are underestimating what's going on here.
one thing to note: topre caps will NOT fit on it by design. There's a nub on the slider preventing them. However said nub would be really easy to just shave off....
