SlashGear

Oh, for crap's sake!  Optimus, you disappoint me.  After promising - yes, promising - to have a working OLED keyboard prototype at CeBIT, Optimus are practising their back-peddling and saying that it's not ready yet.  What they have been able to bring along is a new price - up from $1,200 to $1,490 - and news of how exactly they're going to make those keys replaceable.  Apparently rather than the OLED display moving, it's the transparent key-cap on top of it that somehow slides around; that's how they'll be able to sell you replacements for a mere $10 each. They've changed the name, too, and have obviously been reading The Big Book of Distract the Consumer; it'll no longer be called the 103, but instead the Optimus Maximus.  Seems inevitable that such a title will only draw attention to the maximus-pricimus. Edit: More official photos after the cut... including the return of the left-side key panel! Read The Full Story

Okay, so it's the second Optimus post of the day, but the news about the infamous OLED keyboard dribbles out like milk through an old man's beard.  Latest is what would appear to be a photo of the beast itself - unless Art Lebedev's boys have got a whole lot better at their Photoshop rendering - complete with bevelled keys.  These are apparently necessary since each 2x2cm key nestles up pretty close to its neighbours, so the notching gives back that all-important 4mm distance between keytops. Read The Full Story

Optimus are re-fuelling the hype machine in the run-up to CeBIT, promising to not only be there but bring a preview of the 103 OLED keyboard.  Now we've been stung before with juicy details that in turn lead to just more waiting, and I'm pleased to say that people are being a little more cynical than they were before; however, if the company can show a completed, working model as shown in this render, well, they'll surely have people waving cheques at them again. Incidentally, though it doesn't seem like much the above picture previews the new-size enter key, and shows how Optimus are keeping to a small set of standardised shapes in order to keep moulding costs down. Read The Full Story

One of the initial boasts of Optimus was that their OLED key technology would not only be used in standalone keyboards but integrated into other company's technology.  So far, delays in the full-sized 'board and getting the second production run of the Mini-Three going has obviously been monopolising their time, but they've still had a chance to collaborate with Epiphan Systems.   Epiphan specialise in video signal processing, having products with capture, recording, broadcasting and printing functionality.  They've been reselling the Mini-Three for a while now, but this is the first time that the micro-keyboard has been integrated into one of their own units.  So far, the only detail missing is what exactly this black box does, beside display information on the Optimus screens.  I'm sure they'll eventually update their website and tell us. Incidentally, Optimus are also reporting that they've placed a manufacturing order for the OLED keys to be used in the 103 keyboard, and that means it will definitely be released this year.  Excellent news! OM3 Usage [Optimus Project Blog]