Thoughts about Das Keyboard 5Q

After moving toward the gamer’s market with a relatively me-too product, Metadot is trying again to set the bar.  To fund product development, Metadot turned to KickStarter instead.  So, early backers who opened their wallets wide would be the first to reap the benefits.  As with any early adapters, there’s a risk and price to be paid.  Since Metadot is fairly established entity, this is less risky than some other ventures out there. Never the less, backers be aware.  Like investing in stock market, there are risks involved.  Again, backers be aware.

Now, with that out of the way, my focus is about the keyboard itself foremost.  As a spiritual descendant of the Das Keyboard 4 Pro line, the 5Q inherited a lot of the design and aesthetic elements.  Adding to the keyboard is a palm rest that can be detached for those who won’t need it.  Another big change is of course, the obligatory RGB LED lighting these days.  However, that’s only a little part of the story.

One big idea that Metadot is pitching for the 5Q is the ability to use the RGB lighting on the keys to serve as indicators.  Basically the keyboard lighting for each individual keys double as a notification system.  For example, when the D key turns bright red, it might mean that there’s a deal that you have been watching is on sale.  To enable this type of connectivity, Metadot is opening the keyboard lighting control APIs to the world so that developers can build custom apps for the keyboard to do something neat like that.  Basically, Metadot is going back to its roots as a developer’s tool to innovate.  According to Metadot’s word, it’s turning the keyboard into a dashboard.  The idea is rather interesting.  Basically the keyboard now serves as a notification screen like a smartphone, except the user don’t to have to go check on another device.  There is a companion application on the PC desktop to actually display the notification when the user wants to know what’s going on.

I can’t wait to see what other interesting applications that the development community will come up with.  Perhaps there’s going to be some interesting killer-apps that other keyboard vendors will ape.  Let’s see if that’ happens.  If this concept takes off, I am wondering if Metadot would just build an indicator array device independent of the keyboard.  Just a thought.

Anyway, I will give the key switch itself some more thought.  Stay tuned!