Optimus Once Again Redefining Keyboards

[alexander]

OMG, so last year i posted on the concept of a keyboard that houses an OLED display in every button, is easily programmable and esthetically just looks awesome...

It has now gone in production, for $463, you can preorder your own!

But their new concept is just mind boggling, and i want it even more. They call it Optimus Tactus Optimus Tactus keyboard

pictures will say a 1000 words:









Beautiful

[PhysBang]

If it's got Tatu, I'm in!

[freeztar]

That would be absolutely awesome for specialty tasks such as music and video production! I'm getting tired of programming shortcuts, or having to deal with a limited set. But at $463, I think I'll stick with shortkeys for now...

I have some reservation about the tactile qualities as well. I like springy keys.

[Tormod]

Sorry but what's the point of having the video show on the keyboard?

Other than that, wow.

[Buffy]

Proof once again that "everything I know I learned from Star Trek"...

Freezey: You still have to program the shortcuts, but now you need to actually write code!

On the downside, I know I have trouble with "keyboards" that don't have "keys": I have to *look* at my iphone to type, and after 2 months my accuracy is still quite low (damn fingernails!), and without the instant, correctable feed back you get with say, playing a violin, I actually don't see myself enjoying this cool new gizmo anytime soon....

Sacrificing typing accuracy for style,
Buffy

[alexander]

for quick reference....
You can have a video playing in queue on the screen, and then if you say wanted to cut to a next scene, you can just cut precisely where you want on they keyboard for example and then tap and cut right over to it or if you are playing video clips, you can preview which one you are playing next its just pointing out limitless possibilities

Free, 460 for the older model that looks like a keyboard... apparently apple is working on a version of their own though, so, if they mass produce it, the price tag is so going down

[alexander]

Originally Posted by the supreme ruler of women and men alike, her highest majesty of the forums, the hope of life at the time of death, the one, the incredible, Buffy :)

You still have to program the shortcuts, but now you need to actually write code!

On the tactus, yes, on the optimus, no

[nikgod]

Honestly, as an amateur sound engineer - I don't find this particularly useful. Even for special applications. I mean it's true that a keyboard is essentially useless when you're recording/mixing/editing - it's mostly mouse driven. That said, this doesn't help a whole lot.

Sure, I could put a whole lot of faders on there for every channel, but without something physical there to tell me what I'm moving and to where, it doesn't help much. But, most importantly, I can get a specialized DAW (digital audio workstation) controller for a hell of a lot cheaper.

Nice flash, but not particularly useful.

[alexander]

Crash, i know you won't disagree, but there is more to computers then music applications

Yes, for anyone who is just typing in stuff, it will not be particularly useful, yes you can get controllers for a hell of a lot less, i have a few, well one, but for applications with lots of shortcuts, or self-defined OS shortcuts, and games, this keyboard is simply epic. Especially for graphics people that have to know shortcuts for hundreds of tools, animators, modelers, etc, you know what i mean... and that is who would use this keyboard; musicians, probably not-so-much, though it would be useful if you use with a lot of software mixing apps, you could for example put song-selection tools on the keyboard, with quick scrolls and buttons to load into virtual tracks on your system, so you don't have to use mouse, and then a combination, or click and drag, ipod-like selectorscroll, point, select track to load into, done

[nikgod]

I could see a limited use in graphics applications, as the keyboard becomes largely useless (or rather not useless, but less intuitive). However, even then a specialized hardware controller for Photoshop or Illustrator (or both - as most of the Adobe products have similar tools in similar locations) would be a more attractive - and cost effective - application. The only application where this interface would be both more intuitive and more cost-effective would be on the desk of the artist/sound engineer/videographer/programmer - and while some of us may do all of these tasks (actually, I do), we do some more than others, so the importance of a specialized interface for each and every task is not very important at all.

In my case, I do a lot of different tasks that could make use of a lot of different inferfaces, but I only really care about audio editing (my main hobby) and programming/administration (my livelyhood). I do some graphic design and gaming and countless other activities, but I don't do them often enough or care about them enough to find the keyboard overly-inefficient. I can put up with the general-purpose interface (although if I had a million dollars I would probably buy a tablet ).

On another note, in my music creation - I have about 4 pc interfaces that I use at any one time (mixer, my MPC, keyboard, and mixing interface). The only interface that would make a somewhat-usable transition to this product would be the MPC - but even then I don't know if it can take in velocity data. My point is that most specialized applications require multiple interfaces, not just one.