New Lebedev Optimus Popularis Keyboard

[kriminal]

yeah i remember this, frozencpu sold the 3 key one for a while and then stopped.
i liked the idea and all but spending 1500usd on a keyboard just wasnt my thing

[muchadoaboutnothing]

I heard the Maximus is thoroughly unpleasant to type on.

That's a Cherry ML keyboard, right?

[Mental Hobbit]

Yes, ML.

[iMav]

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=5813

[lmnop]

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=5813

oh my god that cheeto video has me in stitches.

[type_dancer]

I read a review on that keyboard and it was awful. The reviewer said the keys are so close together there is no room for error and that while the idea seems to work, the practical application is just nothing but a headache.

Well, that is my summary of the assessment

[hyperlinked]

You can take their Optimus Minimus approach and just buy stickers to put on your regular keyboard.
http://store.artlebedev.com/computer_add-ons/optimus-minimus/

The Art Lebedev Studio is one hell of a madhouse of funky Russians. Have you checked out the the non-keyboard parts of their site? They make some really funny and weird **** and they seem to have visual design skills in spades.

It really seems like a place where the dot-com party never ended. This pillow fight party looks legendary.

[British]

This pillow fight party looks legendary.

My idea of pillow fights involving half-naked women, that link was quite disappointing.

[type_dancer]

I don't want the keyboard, but I wouldn't mind having this:



http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-aux/

I do love buttons

[JBert]

Actually, they want to discontinue those little ones, they said somewhere that an iPhone app did pretty much the same...

[type_dancer]

Not all of us have iphones

But that is cool to know you can do that... if I ever get one.

[ch_123]

It's probably more expensive than an iPhone...

[iMav]

Does any place still have stock of the Optimus Mini Three?

[jensma]

I'm digging this thread out of its grave:

http://community.livejournal.com/optimus_project/

[randku]

Well, it looks nice, but it's probably going to be almost as bad to type on as the original.

It reminds me of the apple keyboards. They look great, but I really wouldn't want to spend more than a few minutes typing on one.

They're going for cheaper, but "under 1000" isn't really the range I was hoping for.
They should just go in the business of making programmable keyboards with alps and mx switches, without all these strange key LCDs. I'm sure most of the people here would have a use for something like that, and maybe they could get their price range into the realm of a couple hundred.

[Zalusithix]

Can't say that I'm a fan of the rounded corners and keys. It almost seems like it was designed to fit in stylistically with a Mac and not a PC.

Meh, not like I care. Superfluous features that are by and large pointless for a keyboard. The very definition of form over function.

[washuai]

Bottom line, even for original prices, I'd rather have Topre  or mini-guru.

[kishy]

I would love to have something like this. Simply awesome.

However, if they're using crappy keyswitch technology, it's just not usable. I want elegant looking but uncivilized sounding and feeling.

[aegrotatio]

Monochromatic OLED screens are quite affordable.  I have a pile of Sansa MP3 players that have OLED screens.  The top third is yellow and the bottom two-thirds is blue.  The savings with OLED is that you don't need lighting.  The drawback is when you need color screens--it's expensive to smash the triad of red/green/blue pixels together.

I'm looking at the mono OLED keys and wondering why I didn't think of that?  Who really thinks they need full color on every key, really?

[quadibloc]

This keyboard, though, won't be OLED, but it will be full color, according to the description.

Since the keyboard appears to be completely flat, I'm assuming they're going to cut the price drastically by having one display panel under those clear keys, the switch being around the key.

[Nonmouse]

We expect it to ship at the end of this year / beginning of next year

So.... sometime in 2013-2014?

"Optimus- the perfect keyboard to play Duke Nukem Forever!!"

[Phaedrus2129]

Doesn't the Optimus use ML switches? I don't find them to be so bad. Not as good as an MX switch, but certainly way and away better than an Apple chiclet board.

[randku]

Doesn't the Optimus use ML switches? I don't find them to be so bad. Not as good as an MX switch, but certainly way and away better than an Apple chiclet board.

It's probably because the Maximus had almost no space at all between the keys, coupled with the smooth key texture. I doubt the ML switches were the worst part of it.

[quadibloc]

Doesn't the Optimus use ML switches? I don't find them to be so bad. Not as good as an MX switch, but certainly way and away better than an Apple chiclet board.

True, but this keyboard is supposed to be much less expensive than an Optimus Maximus. And the way the keyboard looks, I would not be surprised if the way they cut costs is by making the keys completely transparent, with only a single liquid crystal display panel behind the whole keyboard.

The feel of a keyswitch mechanism that fits into the space between the keys may leave something to be desired.

That would also explain why there is a display area between the main keyboard and the function keys on what is supposed to be a budget version of the Optimus. If there is simply an LCD display panel under the keyboard, it makes sense to open up that space, and not let part of the panel go to waste.

[isp]

Another expensive novelty?  Maybe I'm kind of shortsighted about this, but why would a keyboard try and compete with my actual displays for viewing attention?  I mean...If I want a little status bar for things I'd much rather view it on my 30" widescreen.  I bought a blank keyboard so I don't have to look down and break my main focus.  Should a keyboard just be something that goes under your hands or shoudl we have a more engaging interaction with them?

[muchadoaboutnothing]

People who know how to touch type can usually remember keyboard shortcuts so we're not really the target market here.

I see limited use for specialty applications where you're going to remap every key.

Too expensive for a point of sale though. Unless you sell very upscale items.

[itlnstln]

People who know how to touch type can usually remember keyboard shortcuts so we're not really the target market here.

I see limited use for specialty applications where you're going to remap every key.
.

This.  There were a few folks here that said they would like to have one (the Optimus, anyway) for Photoshop use as they would want to remap many of the keys.  Pricing, however, was a pretty high barrier.

[Zalusithix]

Straight single layer remaps hardly need fancy legend changes unless you have a poor memory. The thing that the keyboard could do IIRC, and the only validation for the display(s) as far as I'm concerned was the ability for a key to activate another layer. This would allow many layers to the point that pure memorization of them would be difficult. Everything else was fluff. Nice to have I suppose, but sacrificing the functionality of the base keyboard for non-essential features isn't the way to go.

That said, I have no clue how programmable the Popularis is / will be.