Now, before someone feels obligated to tell us that this isn’t real and is merely an animation, we do realise that there’s no software in the App Store that can actually transform your iPhone 3GS into a dinky netbook. Still, our love of time-consuming fan renders and Transformer-style videos leaves us honor-bound to mention Manuel Eder’s marvellous video of Apple’s smartphone doing just that.
Video after the cut
Android concept phones were ten-a-penny back when we though Google themselves would be producing the hardware, but they’ve dwindled since HTC started pumping out devices. Happily that hasn’t stopped designer Tryi Yeh, whose Google-G0 concept is one of the better we’ve seen.
As concepts go, here’s one I’m surprised we haven’t seen before. Take a BlackBerry 7130 and give it Optimus Maximus OLED keys, which can double as shortcuts and page controls together with SureType text entry keys. These renders are the handiwork of designer and editor Billy May, who has been working with Mozilla Labs on developing “a conceptual ‘Mozilla Phone’”.
More images after the cut
As concepts go, here’s perhaps an obvious one: take one of the slicker keyboards around – in this case Apple’s waif-like offering – add some Optimus-style OLED keys and a dock for everybody’s favorite cult smartphone, and settle back to reap the praise. The work of
While it might not share the eye-catching splendor of the Optimus Maximus, UnitedKeys OLED Keyboard does at least avoid its full-color rival’s jaw-dropping price tag. OLED-Info have been test-driving the UnitedKeys offering, and while it’s still early days – the accompanying software seems to be chief culprit for poor usability here, and there’s a marked absence of pre-created icons – they’re still positive about it.
Check out the video demo after the cut
Art Lebedev Studios have released an image of what they’re calling the “final pre-production prototype” of the Optimus AUX, which presumably means that commercial versions of the 15-key OLED ‘board will look this way. They’ve also, finally, given an indication of price: around $650.
Optimus have released photos of the newly assembled Aux prototype, the fifteen-key accessory that will use the same OLED technology as its Maximus full-QWERTY sibling. While it’s arguably straightforward to produce a slick prototype and then ruin things with a shoddy production run, we have to give the Optimus guys credit here: the Aux looks great.
Art Lebedev, the design studios behind the Optimus Maximus OLED keyboard, are working with Russian carrier Scartel to develop a WiMAX cellphone. The so-far unnamed flagship device will include WiFi, tri-band GSM and a 850 x 480 touchscreen, together with WiMAX to take advantage of the network Scartel have just launched in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Two Optimus posts in one day almost smacks of Maximus hype, but it’s Friday and we do have some slick new renders of the recently-christened Aux. Optimus have tweaked the design from its initial, Pultius form: gone are the odd gaps between the columns, and an extra USB port has been added to the back. Optimus originally suggested that the USB could be used to daisy-chain multiple keypads together.
Optimus Labs’ Pultius prototype – a numeric keypad using the OLED-embedded keys from the company’s full-sized Maximus keyboard – will likely be released with the name Optimus Aux, according to the latest post on the company blog. The fifteen key add-on will offer a lower-priced point of entry to people wanting customizable keys but unable to afford the full Maximus.
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