Art. Lebedev To Release The Upravlator Keyboard

Having now released a three-button keyboard, Artemy Lebedev, the company behind the much talked-about Optimus keyboard, is announcing yet another partial keyboard before the real deal goes gold early next year.

Named the Optimus Upravlator, this next widget is apparently a “completely new kind of input device.” From the information available, it appears to consist of nine large (~5cm square) buttons, each featuring a customisable, colour display. There will also be an optional stand on which it can be mounted.

Intriguingly, the Upravlator input device will receive its display information directly from your video card rather than via USB. It plugs directly into “your second monitor port,” apparently to reduce the display lag down to that of a standard LCD monitor. The device is going to work under Windows and Mac OS X. According to the designers, you should expected the Upravlator to be available for sale in the second half of 2007.

Concern still surrounds the price of the Optimus, however. It will apparently “cost less than a good mobile phone.”. The Optimus Mini Three — the keyboard with only three buttons — is selling for a pretty steep US$159.96. For that price you get to do things such as play pong at three frames per second on three 96 x 96 pixel OLED displays.

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