Optimus Maximus

[Saaban]

I knew it was going to be expensive... but wow.. $1500. Optimus Maximus Or if you like the official website with a handy countdown timer for pre-orders.


I might consider getting the mini three. Its only $160

[kiania]

...well, I know whats on my christmas list now!

[Jyn]

I don't understand. $15 plastic keyboards seem to be perfectly functional. The need for something like this makes no sense to me. As such, I'm just going to chalk it up as being one of those things people who can afford it must have simply because it's expensive.

[Snrrub]

Hrm, okay. So what the hell is it? It looks like a normal keyboard to me, and the website doesn't seem to offer any easily-accessible information describing what the gimmick is.

EDIT: The yahoo link started working for me. I think it's nifty, but not worth the money. I can definitely see where it would be useful, though.

[kiania]

Originally posted by Vaer
I don't understand. $15 plastic keyboards seem to be perfectly functional. The need for something like this makes no sense to me. As such, I'm just going to chalk it up as being one of those things people who can afford it must have simply because it's expensive.

Pretty led flashy lights...thats why its awesome. Plus I would happily make a 'mudding' keyboard for when I logged into Mushclient

[Khaosai]

It's definately pretty cool, that your keyboard layout can change on a whim. But I figure the uses would dwindle for those of us who don't actually need to look at the keyboard anymore, gaming or typing. I suppose for the special "hot keys" it would be great, but most keyboards you can reprogram the hotkeys to do whatever you want as it is.

[Saaban]

I guess I should have added the concept page to the original post too for those that haven't seen this nifty keyboard.

So here it is. Concept page

And of course a $15 keyboard works just fine, so does $30 case for the computer itself. But its not pretty.

In this day and age of modding I see this keyboard being the modded out version of a Zboard with out having to switch out the keysets.

[Rosuav]

I'm fascinated by the price... $1536. To anyone who talks binary/hex, that's a known number (it's 1024+512), but clearly that writeup doesn't take much notice of such things.

As to keyboard designs... well, it's really just a fancy version of keyboard macros, coupled with some local feedback of button state. Given that most people aren't going to change the alpha keys around much (unless you have two people using it, one who prefers Qwerty and one who prefers Dvorak), it's somewhat overkill to ship keyboards that allow _any_ key to be redefined. Perhaps there needs to be a half-way-house between the $160 and $1536 varieties: a standard keyboard that has just F1-F12 redefinable in this way.

But hey. People will buy it for the "cool" factor, not because they're actually going to move the 'Q' key every time they hit it. (Although - that could make a rather exciting keyboard layout for the hunt-and-pecker. It'd also fix this fellow, scroll up two posts from the one marked "New" - there really WOULD be a different key.)

[kiania]

I'd have it to change to different layouts for different programs. But then, since most are muds, I'd need to keep most of the keyboard the same Although a new one right now would be nice, my spacebar is broken, so I had to hotkey my Alt Gr, and its a pain

Oh, and Rosuav...that'd also make a good practical joke on the less informed!