New Keyboard Technology

An anonymous reader sent in linkage to a story running on a few places about a new customizable keyboard. It's a bit beyond anything you've probably seen before. Also tom's has more.

Comments

Available in retail outlets?

[CyricZ]

I always hear about these great keyboards, and I'd love to try one out, but they're never available in retail outlets like Circuit City or Masters Electronics. I always see your typical rectangular keyboard there, or those ergo keyboards. But never any of the really innovative ones like this! If they could get these sold in larger retail stores, then perhaps people would actually start transitioning to them. As long as I have to order them online, I won't buy them.

Re:Available in retail outlets?

[Donniedarkness]

As long as these keyboards continue to be $140+, we probably won't see them in retail outlets (at least, none of the big chains). These things just don't sell like a regular keyboard would (to your average consumer).

Re:Available in retail outlets?

[CyricZ]

Market economics dictates that in order for the cost to go down, more people must purchase the good. But then more people won't purchase the good unless it's at a lower price. Indeed, this may very well be a case of market recursivity.

Re:Available in retail outlets?

[bonehead]

If you want this keyboard, and you can afford it, then buy it

What about someone who's on the fence about wanting one, and would like to walk into a store and actually lay their hands on the physical unit as part of making up their mind.

A few photos and some text on a web page is no substitute for walking into a brick and mortar and actually holding the physical product in your hands.

Obligatory...

[charon_1]

Now I can have my CTRL+ALT+DEL keys in range for easy access!

Re:Obligatory...

[sneakyrussiian]

Obvious: Does it have any 'any' key?

Pictures

[SiGiN]

Picture 1
Picture 2
Quite neat concept.

Bad solution to a problem which is already solved

[tweakt]

That thing looks painful to use. I have enough trouble with a normal keyboard layout, but there's really no point to putting keys anywhere but directly under your fingertips where you don't have to move to reach them.... which is exactly what the CLAW has solved:

http://www.claw.com.au/

(It's been out for 5 years now too)

I hve 1

[Timesprout]

eve though there re oly 25 kes it works gret

Egonomic?

[Anonymous Coward]

How exactly can they claim that this is ergonomic, when they leave the layout to users, who may know nothing about ergonomics, and thus, create joint-damaging layouts?

Where's the damn keyboards with LCDs in the keys?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems obvious, really. If I want to switch to an APL or Dvorak keyboard (or in a multinational european environment, different people using the same computer have different national keyboard preferences), the glyphs on the keyboard should change!

Combined with repositionable keys like the subject of this story, that would be pretty interesting.

I use one everyday

[Bazuul]

I bought an Ergodex keyboard exclusively for gaming a few months ago. It took them 4 weeks to fill the order -- apparently, they haven't been able to scale large enough to distribute through the retail chains.

Being able to move the keys around is just one of many features that make the Ergodex valuable to me. You can also program complex macros and key-chords to a single keystroke on the fly. You can fine tune the timing of the individual keystrokes to the millisecond.

Right now I have my Ergodex set up for World of Warcraft. Anyone who has a few high level characters in the game know how quickly you fill up your toolbars with hotkeys and macros. The ergodex allows me to have an extra couple rows of hotkeys placed exactly where I want them. It also lets me chain precicely timed combos in a way that WoW's UI won't let you do at all.

The Ergodex will store profiles for different programs and automatically switch to that profile when you run the program as well. The buttons have great tactile feedback, and when you anchor them on the Ergodex they do not shift or wiggle one bit. You can also buy extra keys and an extra clear transparent keytray so that you can swap out entire sets.

At $150, it's not cheap. But considering that i've spent $400 for my graphics card that I'll end up replacing in 2 years, I expect to get a lot more bang for my buck with this upgrade. I wouldn't consider gaming without one now.

Re:Where's the damn keyboards with LCDs in the key

[kfg]

Oh, right, yeah. And the next thing you're going to demand is being able to change to an APL font without changing the spastic golf ball.

This is the real world, buddy.

KFG

Buckling spring?

[vidarlo]

No, I tought so. I'm still clacking away at my old IBM Buckling Spring keyboard. This keyboard has lasted since 1987, and is the best one I've ever came by to write on. So it's such a pity that they can't make new keyboards, with all the fashionate hotkeys, and loose keys (yes, I know this keyboard has loose keycaps) and such, with proper Buckling Spring switches under each key.

Sure, it'd cost twice as much, but maybe I for once would get a new keyboard? Ok, I'm not the target group for this new keyboard, but still. If I found a new and attractive keyboard (which I find all the time, like logitech's wireless), but with real buckling spring, I'd buy it at once, even if it'd cost a few hundred dollars.

Those rubber-dome keyboards is just shitty to write on! So if anyone knows of a black keyboard, that ain't so deep as the Model M, has some hotkeys and has real Buckling Spring mechanism, I'll buy it at once.

Me wants a real keyboard!

Re:Buckling spring?

[Noksagt]

I love my Model M. If you want new buckling spring boards, the place to get them is pckeyboard.com (which was actually linked in that wikipedia article). Not only do they have many ayouts (some with a windows key or even an integrated trackball or one of those nipples that is on the thinkpad), but they do custom builds.