A Wider Net

Engadget published a terrific video of the Optimus Maximus keyboard at CES. You may recall that this keyboard has tiny full-color displays inside each key cap that allows they keyboard to change its appearance for different applications, user preferences, languages, etc.

In this video, the inventor Art Lebedev describes much of the functionality, and makes it really appealing to anyone working with macro-intensive applications (Photoshop, edit software, etc), gamers, etc. As I mentioned a year ago, there must be a way for a company to buy the rights to display their logo on one of those keys and drive traffic to their website, in return for subsidizing the cost of the device. That sponsor could even change that logo remotely to reflect special promotions (Woot! - are you listening? I need a woot-off key!).

I’m assuming that the key labels can change when you depress the ctrl, shift, and alt keys - making the process of finding those obscure macro keys and shortcuts far easier.

Now… if only Mr. Lebedev would send me one to review extensively…

Another gadget from CES - this one makes it easy for you to record podcasts on your iPod with “professional” results.
You probably should be thinking about podcasting. You probably need to think about the quality of the content far more than you need to think about cool (but kinda cornball) devices like this:

via Engadget

Information Aesthetics comes through again with a link to a great video demonstrating editing techniques in a most unusual way - in a one-take trampoline routine. Get it? It’s a video… about editing… without any edits. Since our company started in video production some 25 years ago I found this particularly appealing. Who knows? Maybe some of our customers may stop in knowing a bit more about editing after watching this. If I can get our busy editors to read this, perhaps they will comment on it’s accuracy.