The
latter part of this year holds the promise of two new keyboards that
will certainly enhance your typing experience. The one from the
Russia-based Art Lebdev Studio will be called the "Optimus" while
the one from Microsoft is slated to be called the "Ultimate
Keyboard."
As with any computer product category, manufacturers are
constantly trying to find the next big thing that will make people
want to buy them and toss out their older model. Take printers for
example. While they keep making them faster and with better quality,
sometimes a new model comes out that prints the same but offers a
number of "Gee Whiz" features that makes you want to get it anyway.
My new printer added a color preview screen, built-in memory card
slots and the ability to print without a computer so I bought it.
That's what's happening with these new keyboards. They don't really
make you type any better or more comfortably but they each offer new
features not seen on a keyboard anywhere before and they are hot.
Since neither of these keyboards are available yet, I'm just
going to focus on some of their projected hot new abilities. I'm
sure I'll follow up later on when I get some fingers-on typing time
with each of them.
The Optimus keyboard at first glance looks pretty much like an
ordinary keyboard in that its shape is the traditional rectangular
one with the typical grouping of letter keys in the Qwerty layout,
cursor keys, numeric keypad, function keys and a special
user-defined key cluster. The Optimus does have a quality look about
it in that it's a sleek, low-profile unit with what appears to be a
metal finish. But the Optimus' big specialty lies it its keys. Each
and every key cap is actually a small OLED color display screen.
That means that the included software will be able to configure what
is being displayed on every key at any given moment. So your
keyboard will have the ability to literally change itself to fit
whatever application you are running at any given time. For example,
if you want the key caps to reflect the style of a font you are
using at that moment, you will see the actual font on the keys.
Playing a game? Only the keys used in that game will have the
corresponding functions showing. Typing in another language?
The keys will show the appropriate letters. And it will do all of
this in a full color glow as the OLED technology is a luminous and
colorful one. The keys can even be animated with little moving
characters on any key at any time. Art Lebdev says the Optimus
keyboard will be platform independent so we can expect to see it
working on Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems. I can't wait.
Then there's Microsoft's Ultimate Keyboard. The ergonomically
curved keyboard sports a black matte finish with real metal accents
and comes with a matching mouse. For starters, it's backlit but
that's nothing we haven't seen before. What's new is that the
keyboard has proximity sensing built in so that it can sense when
you walk into the room. So basically, all of its keys begins to glow
brightly as you approach it. That's a big Gee Whiz factor right
there. Needless to say, as you walk away from it, the glow
diminishes. When you leave, it goes out when you do. I'm sorry but
that is so oh-so-cool that I want one right now just for that
feature alone. But it gets better. It's cordless, has Bluetooth
connectivity and the mouse recharges by docking onto the keyboard's
top center portion. As I said, I'll be writing more about the other
features when I actually get my hands on them. But for now, I hope
you're eyeballing your current keyboard and thinking it's toast.
To see more about the Optimus keyboard, go to:
