Posted 06.30.2010 at 9:30 am
9 Comments
Art Lebedev Optimus Popularis
Known widely for the ambitious/crazy Optimus Maximus, the first keyboard with OLED screens for keys, Russian design house Art Lebedev has just unveiled its successor, Optimus Popularis. It's a looker.
Details don't extend much beyond what we can see here: the key caps are now practically all screen, whereas on the Maximus, a border frame cut down on the size of the visible portion. Also new is an overall much sleeker design, and a neat display bar that is home to several nicely designed widget readouts.
Pricing here is "under $1,000," but I wouldn't expect it to be too far under.
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ITS ABOUT TIME.
this should be advertised to Mac users, they'd be the only ones stupid enough to pay $1000 bucks for a flipping keyboard......
...also correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that pop sci was a website for science based news, not a bunch of ad's for overpriced electronics and green hippie BS global-warming crap
If there is one good use for that overpriced piece of technology, it's to inspire other companies to produce similar products that are more realistically priced for the masses, as soon as OLED technology becomes more affordable. The rest of us unwilling to pay $1,000 for that example of technoporn just have to wait a few more years.
In the meantime, I'll stick with my Logitech Backlighted Keyboard. No OLED keys, but beautiful enough to be at the Museum of Modern Art, which the Optimus Maximus is not.
the absolutely best key board I ever used was a flimsy usb no frills keyboard I bought back when the ps2 got its moden. I never used it for the PS2 but started using it for my normal PC. It has lasted 3 computers and I still use it. Its lite. I spilled milk in it once. I simply took it to the shower and let it dry for a day. Works fine. I just put an extra long usb cable on it and use it in bed just fine. I can not stand keyboards with all these extra buttons that you are never ever going to use. Most wireless keyboards have these huge rounded edges. Mine is the size of the old acicent key boards, which are actually nice and small. Has nothing but the basically keys, qwerty, f keys, num pad, etc. its thin. its 20 bucks and the best thing I ever bought for inside or outside of a computer. My mouse on the other hand is a completely different story and one of the most expensive made.
"also correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that pop sci was a website for science based news, not a bunch of ad's for overpriced electronics and green hippie BS global-warming crap"
No, actually it's become a stage for shit-mouthed do-nothings with far too much time on their hands, to make vitriolic comments about things they don't like.
Get a life, christian...
It takes a unique kind of person to find something wrong with this and then attack Mac users for no reason.
I love the inclusion of displays as keys and I greatly admire the forward thinking of this designer.
What could be better than a universal keyboard that works with PC and Mac other than a universal keyboard with displays for keys that could possibly be programmed to display the proper keys for either Mac or PC?
Plug it into a PC and you get your QWERTY along with Ctrl, Start and Alt keys or plug it in a Mac and get Command, Option as well as the function keys. This isn't even considering the keyboard's ability to display widgets, which would further personalize the experience.
Some people just don't like anything...
I don't expext something very special any more. This one is too expensive and not useful anymore. Look around the webpages ~ There are lots of touch screen panels.
The point of design should be ergonomics. Adopting screens and touch panels is not the state of the art anymore.
I would think this would be good for educational use. Try typing in another language one a QWERTY keyboard or trying to type up long thermodynamic or fluid mechanic equations with more Greek letters and symbols than letters or numbers. This keyboard has potential but it will need some really awesome software to make it anywhere near worth while.
It seems like this would be a very delicate (as in not very durable) product. The concept is interesting and it's certainly high on the aesthetics scale, but in real life I think about how much abuse my work and home keyboards go through and I don't think this would stand up for long. Also, not sure how accurately I would be able to type at high speeds without actually *feeling* each key under my fingertips. I could see this useable for consumer displays but not so much for utilitarian use like data entry.