The trashcan thing? Been done back in 2002 on Art Lebedev's design guide.

http://www.artlebedev.ru/kovodstvo/88/ (in Russian)

By the way, Art Lebedev is the guy who designed the coolest keyboard of all time, space, and the other three hyperspheric dimensions: http://www.artlebedev.ru/portfolio/optimus/

Holy.
That's no ordinary keyboard. It's something divine.

Flasher,

do you know if that's just a concept piece? Where can you buy those keyboards?

  -tim

That was a concept, yes, but he's got patents pending on it and intends to get someone to manufacture it.

There was a similar thing to this actually produced ages ago (and I mean the early days of PCs), with grayscale LCDs on the keys and language layouts switchable on the keyboard itself. Not quite as cool as the Optimus though.

One of the better blogs around. One of my favourites from him, http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/110/

Ah, wasn't aware he did an English version. Here's the trashcan bit:

http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/88/

Holy crap, I gotta get one of those keyboards.

No more swapping replaceable keycaps on my Model M when I need to test my apps in a foreign language.

From the website (about the kbd) -
"It’s in the initial stage of production.

We hope it will be released in 2006."

May I say "W00T!"? I may? Oh, good.

In this case it means he's negotiating with OEMs and electronic engineers who are going "fucking designers, how are we supposed to make it work in real life?"

They'll be doing the chip count and sending emails back and forth saying something like 'how can we get the build cost below $1,000'. To which there is a reply, 'We make a million of them.'.

Of course, if they manage to get it working, they *will* sell a million - and more...

Yeah but for a million you get it down to $500 retail, that's a lot to risk on a keyboard.

Yes well, Lebedev is a Mac user, he is all too well familiar with the concept of paying ludicrous amounts for trivial tech in a nice package. :)

Anyway, it would be the Aeron chair of the keyboard world. Employers will buy them in bulk to attract and motivate the kind of people who would appreciate one.

Yeah, right.

Hey, one can dream. :)

I, for one, welcome our new Russian keyboards.