wow coolest mac keyboard ever... without a question...
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
sweet eh! but does anyonw know if it has the usb ports in the keyboard?
sweet eh! but does anyonw know if it has the usb ports in the keyboard?
Comments
Originally posted by zfmt
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
sweet eh! but does anyonw know if it has the usb ports in the keyboard?
really old news.
How about pricing ? I couldn't find any. Must be a prototype or something ...
Can see some linuxer getting ASCII DVD playing on those keys
Originally posted by zfmt
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
sweet eh! but does anyonw know if it has the usb ports in the keyboard?
This is so three or four weeks ago.
It will be nice if it hapens, but expensive, like the quote "less than a good mobile phone". That could put it in the $300+ category, I doubt less than $150.
[my bold]
What's the target market? People who are not touch typists, but use multiple keyboard layouts?
Useless.
Try watching somebody attempt to type accented characters. It's an exercise in futility even in many people's native languages. The option key, accented characters, and a keyboard like this could make many user's lives simpler.
Oh... and god have mercy on the greeks.
Originally posted by Gon
Even if it was produced exactly as designed...
What's the target market? People who are not touch typists, but use multiple keyboard layouts?
Useless.
Somebody needs to buy a can of imagination juice.
My god, anyone who uses their keyboard as anything other than strictly a text interface. That captures just about every GUI program ever written for Mac OS, OS X and Windows.
A secondary key display showing keyboard shortcuts will exponentially lead folks to better use of their time. And just about any non-text intensive app aggressively uses keyboard combos for basic functionality, thus a boon to amost any entry level professional, and by extension to the folks hiring those entry level professionals who get more work done faster.
But sexy.
It's a great concept (and pretty stupid to announce if they're not close to something because some very large company could come up with something similar and get it out first).
Originally posted by dfiler
Let me guess, you're american and don't have to deal with other languages much. Same for me, but perhaps we should take off our mid north american blinders for a bit.
Actually, no. I'm from Scandinavia, and switch between my native layout and US layout tens of times a day with the cmd-opt-space shortcut. I'll soon be needing Mac OS' Japanese input too.
Consider that the amount of people who switch layouts is really small. And from that you have to subtract everyone who can touch type. That's the target market for this keyboard as I see it.
Originally posted by Joey
I'd imagine it would handle all the keys as one display and map the individual keys (picture a regular monitor with a picture of a keyboard on it... but sending each key image to an actual key)... even with that, there's quite a bit of engineering to do. Right down to things like how the keys connect to the keyboard, back lighting, etc. How would it be driven? If it has its own built in display controller, would USB be enough to power and control it? Perhaps a proprietary controller PCI card that the keyboard would plug into?
A keyboard really has to work without drivers and extra hardware. I'd prefer it if the computer saw a standard USB keyboard which works without drivers with default keys, and another virtual device to control the display functions.
USB 2.0 would certainly give it enough bandwidth, dunno about the power.
Originally posted by Gon
Actually, no. I'm from Scandinavia, and switch between my native layout and US layout tens of times a day with the cmd-opt-space shortcut. I'll soon be needing Mac OS' Japanese input too.
Consider that the amount of people who switch layouts is really small. And from that you have to subtract everyone who can touch type. That's the target market for this keyboard as I see it.
Heheh. Woops... sorry for calling you american.
While this keyboard will probably be extremely expensive, I do see it as helpfull. Whether the utility is worth the price, I guess is something that everyone will have to answer themselves.
However, we shouldn't underestimate the bennefits for people who need to type seldomly used characters or characters that require chording of multiple keys.
Certainly people posting to this board are above average in computer skills. So I'm not suprised that you have no difficulty typing in foreign languages. However, in my college years, I saw many an exchange student struggling with how to type special characters and accented symbols. At work I routinely see designers struggle with doing the same in quark.
Also, high end AV studios tend to have specialized keyboards hooked to expensive hardware. Keys frequently have multiple labels and it is neccessary to know which mode you're in to know what pressing that key will do.
I suspect that some day, all keyboards will have more sophisticated ways of communicating key functionality.