For those who don't need a whole keyboard full of OLED buttons, Nikkai is showing off standalone units at CEATEC. The buttons are bulkier than anything on an Art Lebedev product, and seem to have three input states: depressed, tilted left and tilted right (or up and down, depending on orientation) which makes makes for what amounts to a highly versatile and communicative switch. A second type of button is a simpler in/out configuration, albeit with a larger screen.

I'm sure there's a highly practical application for such technology, but for the demonstration Nikkai just built them into a giant, OLED-infested control panel that looks to have been ripped from the basement of the Kremlin, circa 1985. Despite being too big to integrate into a traditional keyboard, the buttons will likely shine in the hands of DIYers if they're ever made available to consumers. [Akihabara]

1. It's not meant for a lot of typing. There's no way you're buying this $1500 keyboard for typing. If you wanted the best typing experience, there's plenty of boards from Microsoft or Logitech or Apple that are better suited (and protect your wrists better). No, you want this because of the shortcuts it'll let you see and the customization it'll let you perform. The individual keys are loud and clacky, which is not great for people who prefer scissor switch or membrane type keyboards. There is a decent amount of feedback when you press a key, however, and it springs back nicely. It's just not a keyboard you'd pick out to type 100+ WPM with.

No, if you do a lot of typing, you want to have two keyboards. One for typing, and the Optimus off to the side for button presses and shortcuts and gaming and the stuff that the Maximus was made for.

2. It works. Each key has a display on it, each display is bright like you'd expect, and each display is customizable. Not only can you pick what's displayed on each key (the whole point of this thing), you can customize what each key does when you press it. As of now, you can execute an AppleScript, Shell Command, trigger Expose, and open a file.

3. You can make the keys display ANYTHING. As long as you have an image, you can customize the display to show anything you want. Static images are fine, but if you wanted to, the keyboard can even support GIFs or MOVs. Play back a movie on your keyboard!

4. It's heavy and big and wide. This is not a small keyboard. This is probably the heaviest, biggest, and sturdiest keyboard we have ever used. If you heard an intruder in your house and you wanted to decide between a bat and the Maximus, it'd be a tough decision. Then again, unless that was a signed commemorative bat, you should probably leave your $1500 keyboard be.

5. It's not wireless. Sorry folks, this thing is wired. Not only is it wired to your computer, there's an AC adapter wire as well. Double wired, you might say.

6. The OLED display doesn't fill up the entire key. Those early renders of the Optimus keyboard aren't accurate. There's a small display embedded in every key, but they're all the same size. It takes up a good 85% of a normal key, but when you get to Shift, Enter, or Space, it's noticeably smaller. Not a huge deal, but if you were hoping to get a huge stat readout of your computer on the Space key, you're out of luck.

7. It comes in four models. Because the keys are interchangeable, you can actually buy them one at a time, or only have some of the keys be OLED display enabled. There's four versions now, one with only the space bar active ($462), one with the 10 side function keys active ($599), one with the 47 regular QWERTY keys active ($999), and one with all 113 keys active ($1564). It's up to you which one you like, but you should at the very least get the 10 active key set.

8. It's not plug and play. When you plug in the Maximus, all you get is a standard keyboard. To get fancy actions, images, or animations going, you're going to have to program them in yourself. Not a huge deal for the hardcore users, but be aware that you'll have to spend a few hours getting used to the system, setting things up, and digging up images to go with whatever actions you want to perform.

9. It's heavily customizable—or at least it will be. Despite the previous target date of April for the final version of the software, it's only at version 0.591 now. There are instances of announced features on their Optimus Blog that haven't made it into the beta versions yet. This means a lot of features—like being able to simulate any series of keys when you hit a button—are still missing. Not to mention that the software currently has a memory leak and balloons up if left alone for more than a day. Quitting and restarting fixes it.

10. You probably shouldn't buy it yet. Even though Art Lebedev is currently taking orders for the keyboard, you should wait until the final release of the software is out. At the very least, wait for them to reach 1.0 and add in all the basic functionality they've been promising. This shouldn't take more than a few months. After that, if you're worried about how expensive the Maximus is, you can wait for the price to drop. Chances are that it won't drop too dramatically, but $1564 is a high price to pay for a normal user.

However, if you're in production or art and really need this for your work, you can go ahead and grab it now. $1500 is easily expensable, and if it helps your productivity by even a small percent, it's totally worth it. [Optimus]

Note: When the software version hits 1.0, we'll do another software oriented look at this keyboard.

Foxconn, if you remember, manufactures many of Apple's iPods while at the same time breaking Chinese labor laws—which to us screams low, low prices. The team-up will bear fruit "as early as summer," bringing keyboards with OLED keys like the one pictured. It's still unclear which name brand company will be contracting Foxconn and United Keys for their technology, but our guess is that all the major keyboard manufacturers (Microsoft, Logitech, Apple and Razor) will get in on their party. Well, maybe not Apple. Either way, expect a keyboard that's slightly less than $1500.

The units we got to play with were both fully working—one of which was hooked up to a Mac and the other was running in demo mode. Here's what we think:

• Each key's display is very bright and very crisp.
• The keys aren't too clacky and aren't too soft. A good and happy medium between the old ass IBM clackers and the scissor-style laptop keys.
• Unless you wash your hands regularly (which apparently trade-show attendees do not) the keyboard gets greasy. Very greasy. I need some anti-herpes wipe.
• The shift and caps lock keys were working, and they change the entire layout to CAPS (just as you'd expect). We've got video of this later, but it's very crisp and makes it extremely easy to tell whether or not YOU"VE GOT THE SHIFT KEY HELD DOWN.
• It's extremely customizable. We didn't get to see it here, but you can use the utility to change the background, foreground, and make the whole keyboard rainbow-colored if you so wish.
• It's super responsive hitting the keys as well—absolutely no difference between this and a regular keyboard.
• It feels very solidly made, more so than many other keyboards.
• Taking keys out is fairly easy, and it pops right back into place.

Is it worth $1500? We weren't sure before, but after getting hands-on time with it we're definitely leaning toward a maybe. And if they can lower the price by 50%, then it's a yes. It's one of those things that we'll save up money for and buy after a drunken night out.

We also got to meet Art Lebedev, the guy responsible for the Optimus and many other designs, and we can totally tell that he's on the level and a great guy to boot. In case any of you still thought the Optimus Maximus was vaporware, it's not.

I can imagine that artists, musicians and video editors would like something like this... however, there are solid LCD tablet displays and Tablet PCs on the market already. Experience shows that, for the time being, it's a limited market. Further limiting it to a keyboard replacement could be economically impractical at best, never mind how practical this could be. The issue of the price is the other key here: by the time a touch surface keyboard could be a commercial reality coming from China via Moscow, touch computing from Apple and Microsoft would be so ubiquitous that it won't make sense anymore. [Art.Lebedev]

The ship date used to be December all the way back in May, so either Impress is late with the postponement part of their story, or they're a bit off. Either way, if you've preordered the keyboard, Art.Lebedev will actually ship you a keyboard in December, but you won't be able to use the firmware because that won't be ready until February. [Impress]

Update: Optimus themselves have updated the situation, saying that standard shipments are still on track for February, but if you want a unit they will deliver it soon (but with only PC software, Mac software won't be ready until late January). Nothing's really changed, but they did explain that the slowness in development was caused by a Philips coprocessor that was so new that they had to work with draft documentation.

As you may know, each key is a mini OLED screen, one that can display any character you want (and even the icon of our worthy competitor). As such keys are slightly oversized, but placed together almost too closely, so that typing might get tricky.

Benny our NYC editorial assistant says the effect is subtle: it doesn't look pixelated from an appropriate distance. That said, they don't look like regular keys on a keyboard either, especially when a single key is showing an entire multicolored picture. Benny prefers the picture keys to the letter keys because they letters on black are almost too striking (though that surely can be fixed with a decrease in brightness). We were all disappointed that there were no animated keys. I mean, if you're gonna put tiny screens on every key, why can't I watch a bunch of teeny tiny movies?

Richard, our video pimp, says it feels big like it was "made for seniors" but admits his own zeal at having touched it: "I want one" is his final verdict. Wait till we tell him it costs $1,564. –Video by Richard Blakeley; photos by Nick McGlynn [Optimus Project]

[Fairlight via Crave]

Now look at you.

The build quality is *excellent* and better than the Optimus Prime by Hasbro. I know, you've got batteries and sound effects now. (Still no Biew Biew Biew). And you've got some translucent under-wings that are spring-loaded and neon. And you have a chain-whip/grappling hook, secured to a spring-loaded three-pronged claw. But what's with all the ornate armor? Who redesigned you without asking any of the legions of Transformer fanboys?

You're all frilly. You call them spikes, but it looks like robot lace. And If you're way easier to transform, its because you don't really transform into anything but a frilly fake jet that observes zero laws of aerodynamics. Your wings look like wings on a paper airplane that I made in 3rd grade that crashed into Mrs. Pendleton's boob. Really, all you do to transform is fold out the wings on your back, flip your head up, and put giant spikes onto your arms. And your legs don't really transform into anything, they just sit underneath and back like a duck's while it squats on some eggs. Really. You look like a sissy gundam reject.

SPOILER: Autobots win in your new movie. Sorry, but what do you expect when a Red White and Blue 18-wheeler Cab goes head to head with a transformer that transforms into nothing? Prime is going to kick your ass.
Please go find your dignity and your bullets and turn back into the Megatron we all knew and feared would take over the Earth. – Brian Lam

RIP Die Cast Megatron

Product Page [Kapowgifts via Nerd Approved]

The costume looks pretty great and even includes details like the gun and face shield, but check out the guy when he takes off the outfit. Yeah, someone needs to work out some more. – Jason Chen

Thanks Ian!

If I had an extra $1564—and a less sensible wife—I'd be on this like something that's really on something else. Really on it. – Mark Wilson

Preorder Here

Now its Russian makers at Art Lebedev Studio have posted a countdown clock, showing how much time is left until you can pre-order one of the pricey input devices. So when will this bauble really ship?

The company set a ship date for the first 200 keyboards at November 31st of this year, with 200 more rolling out in December, and 400 more in January 2008. The designers are attempting to be completely transparent about their development schedule, but that countdown is also to the time when we can finally see a description and detailed specifications of this expensive keyboard.

Check out the development schedule:

At these low volumes, perhaps Lebedev should sign and number each one, because they're more like performance-art objects than keyboards. – Charlie White

Optimus Maximus Keyboard [Art.Lebedev]
Optimus Maximus Development Schedule [Art.Lebedev Blog]

In other news, their updated development schedule has the plastic tooling done by July 10, OLED tooling done by July 16 (they have a new manufacturer), and a fully functional prototype done by early August. After all this is done, they have to go through the certification process by the FCC, but after that, you're free to plop down a grand and a half for this. Oh, and there's only going to be 200 units done by the end of November, another 200 by the end of December, and 400 by the end of January '08. Really crankin' them out, eh boys? – Jason Chen

Optimus Maximus Development Schedule [Optimus Bog]

Optimus Maximus OLED News [Livejournal]

The driver's alpha, which means all you get is black text on a white background, but the groundwork seems to be there. Pretty soon you'll be pressing buttons like a pro on your Mini 3. – Jason Chen

OM3 Windows SideShow driver [Optimus Blog]

This makes the keyboard seem even less interesting than it was before, and it's gotten down to pretty uninteresting levels at this point. Next they'll announce that rather than OLED screens, the keys will be very small flipbooks. –Adam Frucci

Optimus Key Prototype from Taiwan [Optimus Project]

They're gonna keep on truckin' with the development while looking for a new manufacturer, but even more delays are probably inevitable. But hey, were you really planning on spending $1,500 on a keyboard? You just want it to come out so we can get one and post lots of pictures of it, so it's not like this is really that much of a blow to you. –Adam Frucci

Bad News and Good News [Optimus Project]

So now the official name of this much-delayed and over-hyped keyboard is Optimus Maximus. Too bad the damn thing will have a maximus price to go along with that naming conceit, spanking early adopters with a $1490 price tag, and now the company is saying it won't be available until December of this year. If ever. Sigh. – Charlie White

Optimus Keyboards [Art.Lebedev]

Optimus Key Modules [Livejournal]

As you can see, the configurator lets you easily swapout languages, functions, and plugins for each key. We were going to call this vaporware again, but we can't stay mad at you, Optimus. You had us at qwertyuiop[]\.

– Jason Chen

Optimus-103 Configurator [Optimus Blog]