nicest keyboard ever?

[Sarkster]

it would also generate a bit of heat wouldnt it?

[Kotatsu Neko]

It's a nice idea but would surely cost a heck of a lot. All those back lit LCD screens?

And the keyboard itself isn't terribly pretty.

[Papercut]

IBM clicky model M is the way to go.

http://www.clickykeyboards.com/

[Walrus]

I thought I was the only one who loved clicky keyboards. Modern keyboards feel like typing of pieces of fudge.

That keyboard looks funky, but what happens when pieces of your bacon sandwich fall between the keys? And when the keys start to stick to glutinous mass trapped behind them and you try to pry them off and one of the keys flies through the air to land in some never to be found place, how expensive will it be to replace?

[MartyG]

Eventually, like with most technology, they'll be so cheap that they'll just be the standard keyboard that comes with your PC.

[Ciaran]

"It will most likely use the OLED technology"

They don't need a back light.

[Paleface]

Nicest keyboard ever --> IBM XT.

Though I'm kind of attached to my Powerbook keyboard now. It's the magnets that bounce the keys back up, I tell you.

[superkully]

And when the keys start to stick to glutinous mass trapped behind them and you try to pry them off and one of the keys flies through the air to land in some never to be found place, how expensive will it be to replace?

That's the beauty of it, just replace the key you lost with one you never use (like the star button on the numeric keypad or... Pause|Break).

[SubparMario]

Or you could bar any food, drink or un-gloved hands from coming within 25m of it.

[randombs]

Or you could bar any food, drink or un-gloved hands from coming within 25m of it.

michael jackson will probably want to find his other glove for this baby. it's probably behind the 'indecent material under the bed'

[Taurine]

This is quite clearly just a design concept. Sure it says in small text on the FAQ page that they are putting it into production. But every single image is a render, and the commercial and technical challenges involved are enormous, particularly considering they are an industrial design group, not engineers.

To put it in perspective, have you EVER seen an OLED display? Probably not, because they are currently only used on very high-end Philips shavers (the ?200 ones), jewelry-grade MP3 players made by Jens Of Sweden, and a few high-end digital cameras from Koday (who hold most of the important patents - which is holding back development). A single OLED isn't cheap, so how much will 104+ of them be? Plus a display controller that can track and render to 104+ separate displays? And drivers for this super-complex device?

Its a concept to show the design skills of the company. Its not a fake or a hoax, its a really nice design. And one day it may well be ubiquitous. But its not going to be available in the shops in 2006.

The thing that worries me most about this story is the complete lack of critical thought and skepticism surrounding it. No one seriously believes that Nintendo will make dynamically changing controllers for the Revolution, but everyone accepts that some guy in Moscow with an cute idea and a copy of 3DSMax is about to spank Logitech and Microsoft peripherals division.

[randombs]

party pooper

[superkully]

To put it in perspective, have you EVER seen an OLED display? Probably not, because they are currently only used on very high-end Philips shavers (the ?200 ones), jewelry-grade MP3 players made by Jens Of Sweden, and a few high-end digital cameras from Koday (who hold most of the important patents - which is holding back development). A single OLED isn't cheap, so how much will 104+ of them be? Plus a display controller that can track and render to 104+ separate displays? And drivers for this super-complex device?

Sorry, this is bollocks. Sony's IPod Shuffle contender uses an OLED display. My mobile phone has an OLED display on the front... They're not a rare as you make them out to be.

The other thing is the display controller, it doesn't need to move the graphics around or anything, all it's going to do is refresh an image loaded into memory on an OLED screen (a key) - simple.

There is nothing super-complex about this, it's just a case of waiting for prices to come down and some engineering and design.

I very much doubt it will sell for ?60, but it won't be as expensive as you make it out to be.

[Taurine]

Sorry, this is bollocks. Sony's IPod Shuffle contender uses an OLED display. My mobile phone has an OLED display on the front... They're not a rare as you make them out to be.

I genuinely would like to see an OLED, I wasn't aware that they were becoming more widespread - I last tried to find _any_product_at_all_ that had one just before Christmas, and back then my list was accurate. So which phones have them? And are you pleased with the display on yours?

But I still doubt its economically viable to create a consumer product with 104 of them, and a custom display controller, and develop the driver.

Put it another way, a pure render of a new console would be met with extreme skepticism, but for some reason this keyboard meets only enthusiasm. Weird!

[FreelancePolice]

maybe cause its quite an unusual idea