The Ultimate Nerd Luxury
February 23, 2009
This keyboard, called the Optimus Maximus, is the dream of any heavy computer user (particularly gamers). Each of its keys is a programmable 48×48 pixel OLED screen. What does this mean? The user can make each key look exactly how they want. Not only that, you can program different macros to each individual key, enabling the user to make any key effectively do anything they want it to. The keyboard, produced by Art. Lebedev Studios, comes with a hefty price tag and (until recently) an unknown shipping date. However, for approximately $1600 you can finally have a single button that takes you to YouTube, rather than bothering with all of that pointing and clicking. Actually, you can have 113 of these keys, each able to perform whatever action you can make a macro for.
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_eDq4uMV8k
While the keyboard’s site may say “Problem: Design a keyboard with screens embedded in each button,” one would be hard pressed to actually view that as a problem, unless one has a problem with the standard layout of a keyboard (or is just too lazy to bring up a browser by pointing and clicking on an icon). It does, however, make any computer geek salivate upon seeing just how customizable and frankly awesome in every way it is. Also, it makes any computer user’s life easier. For instance, a gamer can program whatever commands he or she likes to any key; also, any heavy Photoshopper can quickly switch between design tools (it has a Photoshop layout in which each key becomes a tool in the program).
To be fully honest, if I happened to have a spare $1600 laying around, you bet I would buy an Optimus Maximus. While I don’t see it revolutionizing people’s way of thinking about their keyboards, I do see people finding it the coolest thing since sliced bread. Anyone who likes fun gadgets and has a little (and by “a little” I mean “a lot of”) extra money laying around should definitely buy this.
