RE: Optimus keyboard in the news

From: Debbie Garside (debbie@ictmarketing.co.uk)
Date: Thu May 03 2007 - 04:51:25 CST

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    Hi Don

    IMHO the Optimus keyboard is way too over priced and because it uses
    individual LCDs for each key it will remain over priced.

    I agree with you that the potential for this is enormous. The need is there
    but there are better/cheaper ways of doing this.

    Best regards

    Debbie Garside
    www.geolang.com

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org
    > [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On Behalf Of Don Osborn
    > Sent: 28 April 2007 04:32
    > To: a12n-collaboration@bisharat.net; unicode@unicode.org
    > Subject: Optimus keyboard in the news
    >
    > The "Optimus Maximus" keyboard that has been in the works
    > since mid-2005(?) is apparently going to be a reality later
    > this year (orders being accepted beginning May 20; first
    > deliveries in Nov.) for a price - over US$1500.
    >
    > See:
    > http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
    > http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/27/optimus-maximus-gets-price-
    > and-date/
    > http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/757/uber-keyboard-costs-
    > more-than-your
    > -pc
    >
    > For those not following the story, the Art Lebedev Studio in
    > Moscow has been working on this project for a keyboard with
    > LED keys that change to indicate the active keyboard layout.
    >
    > Eventually the price will come down - personally I would hope
    > enough so that this could become standard. The potential for
    > minority languages that use extended Latin or non-Latin
    > writing systems, and for computing generally where more than
    > one language is used, could be great. On the other hand, not
    > sure how easily such a keyboard could be worked into
    > laptops/notebooks where one would think the nature of the
    > keys would add to weight and bulk. And of course something
    > like this on increasingly popular mobile devices - where the
    > keys are already almost too small to type with - would seem
    > improbable.
    > However one can hope that the technical and production-cost
    > issues can be resolved to make this technology more widely available.
    >
    > Don Osborn
    > Bisharat.net
    > PanAfrican Localisation project
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >

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