UnitedKey's OLED-enhanced keyboard is an Optimus Maximus wannabe, but it does something the latter cannot imagine: Leave you with a few extra dollar bills to pay the rent.
The $260 keyboard has nine large moddable OLED keys on its
left-hand side, and each tiny display has a pixel resolution of 64 x 64 and each emits only one color -- yellow. That's wack. Compared to the full-color orgasmia that the 133 tiny OLEDs the Maximus are able to provide, this accessory seems to pale like a stick.
But some early owners of the keyboards are actually enjoying its ability to improve a user's efficiency. Like the Maximus, the UnitedKey pad can be individually programmed to display different applications, and for this one, it's set up to create 'layer' commands for computer processes.
One of the examples of layering that's cited by the company is the ability to place a Gmail icon on the display, and when it's selected, you can build a sub-grid with nine new Gmail-appropriate tasks.
The keyboard comes with the appropriate software needed to mod your keys but like the Maximus, it appears that the full process to mod each display requires a lot of patience. And since not everyone wants to spend a few hours creating the layer in order to save time later, it will be hard to catch on as a must-have.
In addition, some early owners are also saying that while the keyboard works great with Windows XP, it's not quite compatible with Vista yet. But that's just another unsurprising notch on the belt of the latest Microsoft OS.
The full UnitedKeys' keyboard is now available for $260, but the company also sells the nine-paneled OLED keypad separately for $200. Art Lebedev is planning on releasing a similar version of the Maximus Optimus this year, the Pultius, with 15 OLED keys.
Photos: UnitedKeys, Oled-Info
