Optimus Maximus Passes Tests But Still May Be Further Delayed

I know, I know, we said we'd take it easy on the Optimus Maximus coverage, but Art Lebedev's cunning OLED "all things to all men (as long as they're rich)" keyboard is due to grab headlines again with some further good and bad news.  The former is that in recent testing (as seen in this photo) the Maximus passed preliminary wireless interference tests required for CE and FCC approval; the bad is that a potential shortage of OLED controller supplies (it's just like Optimus Prime all over again; there'll be a lot of disappointed kids on Christmas morning) may push the release schedule back once again.

Still, Optimus without delays would be like a man without eyebrows: unbelievable and vaguely unsettling.  They've also told us that each keyboard will ship with a 512MB SD card to store different key layouts on the unit itself; now that may not seem like much, but considering each icon will be a tiny little image file (and there'll likely be plenty of repetition between layouts) 512MB will fit a whole lot of settings.

It also answers a common question of "will I be able to take the Maximus between computers and use it with little to no setup?" which should please those lucky enough to get their employers to stump up for one and who also want to take it home to play Counterstrike.

Right now they're developing firmware; I promise not to tell you anything else about the whole project unless something indecently earth-shattering arises.

Optimus Maximus Current Status Report [Optimus blog]