Sun Blogs: Virtual RAMification
The Useless Keyboard
March 17, 2009 - 11:00pm
Out of curiosity, has anyone actually heard of the Optimus Maximus keyboard?
No? Well that’s okay, I wouldn’t have expected you to hear about it. And if you HAD heard about it, I would be impressed.
Very impressed.
For those not in the know, the Optimus Maximus keyboard is an advanced keyboard with each key being an LED screen that allows you to customize your keyboard. No longer will you be bound by the QWERTY keyboard of the world, you can break free and create your own keyboard configuration as you wish.
While initially that may seem like a very good idea, the second someone actually tries to implement this feature will make it painfully obvious that it’s only a gimmick that is meant to lure in peoples money. Think about it - the QWERTY keyboard is the most commonly used keyboard in the world, anyone who is going to be able to start reassigning an entire keyboard to fit their standards will have been already raised on the standard keyboard, meaning that the only customization that will occur is minute. In fact, the only kind of true customization will be to set up hotkeys or display the alphabet for another language, hardly something worth spending over $1500 for.
That’s right, this magical keyboard costs over $1500! To put it in perspective, a brand new 13 inch Macbook costs $1300. Not to mention that this keyboard requires 256 MB of RAM to even run properly. 256 MB!
So allow me to clarify, dear readers:
This is an expensive keyboard.
This is a resource hog keyboard (256mb of RAM, that’s enough to power Halo: PC )
Did I mention it’s expensive?
If someone were to, say, offer this for free to me, I would take it in a heartbeat. But when asked to buy it, I can’t in good conscience do so. Heck, I can’t even bring myself to recommend it to anyone. There really is no good reason at all to buy this… thing.
I feel like this article
I feel like this article misses some key points of the keyboard. The point is not to create your own keyboard layout - although if you did some research, you would know that QWERTY is an anachronism from the days of the typewriter when the most used keys had to be spaced out to prevent jams. I have heard that Dvorak is much easier to type with, if you have the time and energy to learn it. Plus, being able to switch quickly to foreign layouts would make typing a whole lot easier for any language major (If my keyboard supported the french layout, I would take the time to learn it to make accenting easier while writing essays).
Beside those excellent uses is the application support. I'm not a gamer myself (but the game support seems like a useful and just plain cool feature), but I do use photoshop a lot, and let me tell you - I would LOVE a keyboard that displayed the tool icons so I didn't have to memorize short cuts. Not only is it cool, it's also wildly functional.
Yes, the keyboard is prohibitively expensive, but don't write it off as a useless novelty item. The price will come down over time, as will the memory demands, and when it does, you can count me in for one. Because not only is it ridiculously cool, it is also extremely useful. I suspect you didn't do much exploration of the site after seeing the price tag, or you would have figured this out.
Misses the point
Like the reply above, I think this article misses the point of this keyboard.
The concept was created by a Russian design firm that frequently deals with American markets. Guess what they might find useful in a keyboard - the ability to quickly switch language layouts without using messy stickers or switching keyboards all together. I have to frequently type in Russian on my computer and while it's true that I can switch typing languages, it also means I have to memorize the entire letter layout to type effectively on an english keyboard. Also, for languages that are more complex and require lots of keys, simply holding down SHIFT on the Optimus will instantly transform all the keys to their secondary assignments. Same with CTRL or ALT.