Either that , or sell to Apple and let them run with it.Apple could take that and change the world with it , within 3 years.

Atm it simply looks unfinished and tacky,despite the fantastic idea & technology they have.

pfromg

First, you can remap a keyboard, and ones like the IBM buckling keyboard has a better tactile feel, and the keys are easily removed to move them where you want them.

Second, it's Fifteen hundred dollars! You're already most likely got it embedded in your head to type on a qwerty keyboard already, and there's a lot of them to pick from in the non-insane sub $100 range.

Also lastly I'll mention that customizing your keyboard can be done, but it makes you type like a brain damage victim on EVERY OTHER KEYBOARD in existence you'll ever have to type on. Do you really want to use this remapped to your specs, just to go into slow motion on any other system you use?

I didn't think so. No, you don't have to apologize... No, it's really ok, HEY take that gun out of your mouth! Stop, you have so much to live for, think of Holly and the kids! You just got freaked out over a keyboard, I know it's fancy and expensive, just let it go. No, I won't tell anyone we even spoke about this. Just put the gun down, yeah that's better. See now you can use that $1500 to spend seven months on a psychiatrists couch, it's not your fault. These fancy niknaks and technodoodles can be confusing. Let's go get a orange julius... glad to be a help.

Hello_Newman

Niche Market.

The Wacom Intuos3 12x19 which still makes me drool retails at 750 and has no visually customizable parts.

The Cintiq on the other hand:
2000 and 2500 in the professional versions.

High end graphics workstations run anywhere from 3k to almost 10k.

I agree that to type all the b.s. that is coming out of your asses that a 10 no name keyboard would work just fine.

This products price is well within range of the users who are going to be getting the most benefit out of it.

And to those that say they memorize all the shortcuts in programs, the cool part about this is the shortcuts you don't use commonly but that by pressing CTRL+Shift will show as new options straight on the KB now that is a great tool.

migsims

CyberSkull

Russianz

voden

yogi

Bring it down to $200 and add a nicely designed lasermouse and I'm game.

I'll give it another two years before that happens. And then another 3 after that before its standard on every high end laptop.

Bysshe

Jason: I've said it before and I'll say it again: I haven't seen a single instance of Lebedev generating his own hype for the Optimus. All of the hype and backlash has come from sites like Gizmodo, jumping in at every step to say: Where is it? Why is it so expensive? Why can't these fancy-pants designers actually make a real product?

Are you so used to Apple-like hype for fancy-looking products that you take it as a given?

In before slowpoke

concrete_d

Oh come on, someone had to do it.

munan

qanzark

Oh man is the Deck friggin' sweet keyboard. Tentatively, I have the Microsoft Reclusa, which is kinda mushy but gets the job done. I can't wait to dump $150 on a real keyboard.

Damn do I wish I had the kind of money to spend on an Optimus Maximus. I suppose it'd be pretty damn frivolous for me, but it doesn't change my wanting it.

DisposableInterloper

onyx77

navstar

If gaming and you look at the keyboard - headshot.
If working and looking at the keyboard - slow, noob.
If typing and looking at the keyboard - slow, noob, fail.

Its like the G15 screen - look at it and you are dead or slowing down.

Just gotta learn those hotkeys/key placements.

Now if you WANT to setup a custom keyboard and learn it blind this is pretty cool - but thinking that changing the alt-f key to actually say, fuzzy in photoshop is kinda dumb...

twylight

Rain-man

dancinbojangles

chadmd23

WD40

Tommasta

THEN DON'T.

We were sick of your whining before it was in the flesh, we're sick of your whining now, and I (as someone who put down $1500 to be part of the adventure) am already sick of your whining when I'm sitting at my desk playing with my new toy.

STFU.

Bishop2K

Anyone can eg. say "hey... I´ll invent the replicator device from star-trek"...it´s like Gene Roddenberry that came up with the concept, but that doesn´t mean he can actually make the thing - he doesn´t have the knowledge to actually invent the thing.

Anyone in the world can literally claim anything as their own if we based everything on hear-say rather than actual proof of concept.

To give you an example - I could easily claim that I invented todays version of the digital cameras, simply because back in "Commodore 64" days I built a Video-digitzer module, hooked it up to a camera - and hey...if we re-built this thing with all the components bundled into one unit - there ya go - the worlds first consumer digital camera, but it first became practical years later when someone actually MADE the device (the first ones where actually Disk based rather than ram-based btw...and called Ion Cameras...weird...) ;)

And for the people complaining about the price. Yes...I´d like it to cost 50 dollars to...man...I´d rush out like a mad cow to get one then, but you know...there are actually people who´d see the point in its worth even right now.

Did you know what you paid for a specialized Video-editing keyboard? Several hundred dollars, I remember paying over 600 dollars for the one we used at the school - and guess what - it was Just a REGULAR KEYBOARD WITH COLORED KEYS!

Specialized items always cost a lot of money, but there are people who need them.

I can easily imagine video editing professional desperately needing this invention and for them 1500 dollars are a breeze in their pockets...you´ll be lucky to find a few professional cables within that price range. This won´t be for the masses YET....but it will be!

JoOngle

He might be a great designer, but he's no engineer. Just my $.02. Engineers that have considered such a concept have figured out that this simply isn't cost effective... yet. Yes, there's more than one way to skin a cat. I can think of a couple dozen ways of implementing this thing-- lowering the cost, and getting the price down, but this thing isn't really viable until it gets below ~$200-$250. I say that and I love it, not to mention I've got sketches of the exact same device from decades ago(as does my father, also an engineer). As an aside, the LCD variant of such a device was patented long ago.

It's still not past the vaporware stage.

soggy_cheerio

I cross my finger for you Art! Your invention is nothing short of breathtaking!

JoOngle

Bowler Hat

bu11etman

deusdiabolus

digidandy

D_Zarster

Are the keyboards still being made in-house? Have they found a manufacturer for mass production? And, have they found a distributor or still doing it in-house?

My comment relates to those questions. If they can find a manufacturer that can mass produce these keyboards, and a distributor, then the cost will start to go down. One, bulk purchases in the mass bulk range are cheaper than if they are building them in-house still and buying 100 or so components at a time.

These keyboards right now, well you are paying for the development and probably close to what their cost is for the materials.

Koskun

What about the Ctrl+Shift+ commands...like De-select?

And configuring this damn thing...wouldn't you have to learn every shortcut over again??

ry_ry

NachoBoy

Fatty

The Art Lebedev keyboard certainly looks pretty, and might have a variety of interesting uses (e.g., displaying symbol characters in symbol fonts), but so far it seems like a solution in search of a problem.

If you're looking at the keys, the keyboard layout isn't well designed or you are not proficient. With the old Atex keyboard, you'd notice that you need to transpose two words and your fingers would magically make it happen by pressing the right keys. You would not think about which keys to press or look at them. They would just happen.

If it cost about $100, I might buy it because I love gadgets. (After all, I own a virtual laser keyboard, frogpad, and a half dozen other specialized input devices.) But I wouldn't buy it for more than that since it doesn't solve any problems.

mkant

Polybius

Polybius

God made the pretty girls pretty because he likes them more

I think the first pre-orders were $1500 for the really early adopters but it looks like they've lowered the price since then. They probably used the early adoption money to pay for bulk orders of the OLEDs and other parts in order to cut costs.

theantidote

in the year 2010 that is ;-)

celloids

This will not always be a niche market, "bud". The price of this particular product will probably not go down. That's not my point. The price of future similar products WILL go down from $1500. Bud.

ithcy

ripfire

i knew it was you.

BTW say hi to my Bro at the Seagate booth would ya? tall fat guy with an overgrown goatee. tell him Chris says Hi.

oh his name is Tim

Thanks,

B1663R

Now i will maybe think about buy one when the price is just 1/10th of the current price. Vanilla Keyboards ensure me a better Desktop for the time being! ($2 bucks, FTW!).

whiskey

I understand the law of supply and demand, but thanks. I'll show you my Economics coursework if you show me yours.

Increased demand will lead to competitive production, which means that, yes, retail costs will go down with time. Realize that we are talking about a product whose market lifespan is mainly in the future. Demand drives up price when there is an already-existant product with limited availability, and then only so long as availability is limited. Remember a few years ago when [popular retail item X] cost many times more than it does today?

Where's that book you're talking about? Maybe you should just flip through it again... :)

ithcy

But I sure as hell wouldn't spend more than a c-note for this, or ANY keyboard.

redman042

ripfire

bobide

Crazysamz

ripfire

D.

drzeller

Monty

Stang70Fastback

I wish I had the kind of money to casually buy this.

Reilaos~

There's no denying this is very cool. But at some point, the added expense has to be justified. What, exactly, does this add to the computing experience? Not a whole ton. Definitely not anything worth $1500. When the price does come down out of the stratosphere, it'll be worth considering. Until then, if you want to pay that much to be an early adopter, and have something that no app or game in the world will support because the installed user base at that price point will be, precisely, dick, then go ahead.

And yes, I realize that OLEDs are expensive. That doesn't mean that this application of them has value to match the expense.

And no, the price won't come down. When demand increases (i.e. when people see it's real and want it), prices stay the same or go up. Read a book! Or go on ebay and look for a Wii; there's an object lesson.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

This keyboard is Not. Meant. For You. Go buy your $50 keyboard. Have fun. This is not a $50 keyboard and it was never meant to be. It's 2008 where I live and OLEDs are still expensive to manufacture and buy, especially in small quantities.

When Apple releases their OLED keyboard, it won't be $1500 anymore, but it won't be $75 either.

The point is that someone is DOING it. When people see it's real, they will want it, and prices will go down. Then maybe one day you'll be able to pick one up on the clearance rack at Best Buy and you'll be happy with yourself.

ithcy

djdare

instead of taking time to learn all the keyboard shortcuts for changing tools they display right on your keyboard, I don't think I'd spend 1500 bucks on it, but I still think it's a really awesome idea.

micah-micah

Sorry, this was a cool concept but they fucked it.

skeeveAGAIN

NcSchu

adam12hicks

ripfire

ripfire

I do have to ask though... did they tell you why the space bar has a picture of... I believe that's William Shakespeare?

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

Ben

Stang70Fastback

Rob C

theMockingNoob

Lizard_King

Katorok

Cisco-Kid

Falconfire

Verrrry interestinhgh.

92BuickLeSabre