I'll try the ItTypes out and report back - both good and bad.
It's amazing what you can get used to. Just look at the keyboard in front of you. Took me a long time to master it, and when my wrists were bad, it took me a long time to adapt to something else.
I know Thad Starner types at 60+ on a twiddler (
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~thad/030_research.htm). So speed typing might be possible. To me it looks like a cross between the alphagrip and the twiddler.
I agree that it looks silly, it's why I like it. I'm not a big fan of the standard qwerty or even dvorak physical layout - if someone comes up with a different design I'm happy to check it out.