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Not exactly a novel idea, the optimus maximus keyboard has been a concept design in 2005 and saw a limited production run in 2007. And it supported colors to b
by the8472 10y ago
Not exactly a novel idea, the optimus maximus keyboard has been a concept design in 2005 and saw a limited production run in 2007. And it supported colors to boot.
I think its main problem was that it was too expensive.
- orbitingpluto 10y agoI remember seeing it on Thinkgeek.com - $1500.
- mmastrac 10y agoLots of little tiny OLED screens - expensive!
- masklinn 10y agoThey're taking preorder for the followup (Popularis http://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/popularis/ http://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/popularis/), for the same $1500.
- Flenser 10y agoIt's available to buy: https://store.artlebedev.com/electronics/devices/optimus-popularis/ https://store.artlebedev.com/electronics/devices/optimus-pop...
- Semiapies 10y agoWasn't their final product more like a small keypad with OLED rather than a full keyboard? I wonder whether this one will go the same way, after years of waiting for these glossy CGI renderings to become reality.
- detaro 10y agoThey did both (the small one being called "mini three" or something like that), but the full keyboard came later and of course was freakishly expensive.
- belltaco 10y agoIndeed, but e-ink technology has come a long long way since then.
- Drdrdrq 10y agoHas it? I haven't heard about any important improvements for quite some time... What has changed? (genuinly curious)
- SonderDesign 10y agoIncreased DPI, colour, refresh rates and partial updating, front lighting solutions, cost(!), mass production optimisation, decreased power consumption. Just a few.
- webmaven 10y agoYou missed the biggest improvement: Increased contrast. The 1st gen Kindle's display was a light grey resembling cheap newspaper stock. Definitely readable in decent lighting, and you could increase the font size to improve legibility if it was an issue, but not what I would call "pretty". Kind of dingy, really, and illustrations & photos all looked blah. Current eInk Kindles' displays are much brighter looking in ambient light. Not yet as bright as the paper in a hardcover book, but about as good as a several-year-old paperback. And it is definitely bright enough to make looking at illustrations & photos worthwhile. On top of that, the front-lighting on a very low or lowest setting will increase the contrast just enough to create the illusion of whiter paper (and if that isn't enough for you, by all means crank it up).
- SonderDesign 10y agoGreat point, we work a lot with E Ink Holdings and they have a ton of IP being developed (like 350 patents) and some exciting product updates which from an engineering perspective are impressive. Their principals scientists are incredibly talented guys, pleasure to work with.
- 10y ago
- djhworld 10y agoWow, I hadn't thought about the Optimus keyboard until just now, there was a lot of hype about it at the time.
- SonderDesign 10y agoPerhaps, but as you said it costs 10x more. To design the concept so it a consumer who wants a dynamic keyboard to cost less than his terminal; actually takes a lot of novel engineering on a hardware, firmware and software side. The challenge is, to make it look not novel, to make it look obvious, simple even. P.S I work with the CTO on the project; they read HN also.