On May 20th, Art Lebedev Studio will begin accepting limited pre-orders on the highly-anticipated Optimus Maximus OLED Keyboard. “OLED” refers to the individual Organic LED displays on each key of the keyboard that can display any image or character that you choose. This makes the Maximus extremely versatile and configurable. Consider the possibilities of a keyboard that displays your NLE shortcuts when you are working in that software, but then switches on the fly to accomodate other programs, say Photoshop. Very useful.

Like all things in life, you get what you pay for…the estimated retail price of the Maximus is $1500. They have posted a price comparison of theirs vs a bundle of other high-dollar non-standard keyboards (some really cool models there that I’ve not seen before). Lebedev anticipates that the first 200 models will be completed by the end of November ‘07 and shipping before the new year.