MS Announces Xbox 360 mini-keyboard (PICS)

[Spartan_X]

Yea, it all comes down to price. If it's over $20/$30 then I'll just be sticking to good ol' voice-chat :p

AFAIK it's ~$30... :blush: :happy:

[slickice11]

Just get a Wolfking Warrior and teach yourself to type with one hand, sure it doesn't have all the letters but you can just use numbers in their place, lest people forget how l33t you are :rolleyes:

[Xerxes]

Price: $100

I prefer a full sized keyboard, this one reminds me of the keyboards on the LG phones.

That probally means it'll be close to $200 here in Australia :( oh well, be cheaper to just buy a full sized USB keyboard just for the 360 I think :p

[AlphaPrime]

It looks pretty good, US$30 is pushing it however.

I've got a question though, will it come in black? Using it with the Elite controller would look kinda weird.

[Remysaus]

looks pretty neat, but I'm going to have to try it before buying it, it just looks like your fingers will be cramped up when you're done typing a message.

also, a voice to text converter would be awesome :p

[gigapixels Veteran]

I think you're supposed to use your thumbs to type while you hold the controller regularly... That makes the most sense to me.

[neoadorable]

this is an april fool's day thing right? kinda late tho.

[Smigit]

Read the thread. Its an idea that was around LONG ago. Its not an 8 day old aprils fools joke, especially if you put it alongside the Dashboard updates where the big feature is Live/xbox feature integrations (chat ect).

[DrBroccoli]

I think it looks cool! From the size of it, it's comparable to my cell phone QWERTY keyboard, so I'm all ready for it!

[Glassed Silver]

if it will work with windows, too i will buy it.

a decent keyboard for when im on my bed, and since it uses the play and charge kit i dont have to change batteries all the time and it will be kind of affordable too i guess.

Glassed Silver:mac

[Liam]

i like it and i definitely want it, awkward or not, its alot easier than typing on a pad! , however, i would like to see some sort of improvement to the built in onscreen keyboard, something similiar to my mobile phone, let me press X for a,b,c,d,e etc , there's like 8 easy to get to buttons on those pads, alot quicker than navigating the onscreen keyboard.

[jackwanders]

Well, the keyboard fits that rendered controller well, but would it fit a real one?

No. didn't think so. The real controller is too short and not wide enough. How Microsoft is going to squeeze a keyboard into that tiny, narrow space is beyond me. We'd have to use a pencil or something to type in the letters.

You're looking at it wrong. The keyboard isn't going to squeeze between the handles, it's going to fit over the handles to an extent, that's why in the mockup photo the handles look so skinny, the keyboard is covering them partly.

[Samboini]

Looks fairly impractical and hideous. I think i'll stick with a kb for now.

[NeoTrunks]

I like it, and I'll be getting one. Now, I hope we can login with a different Live ID to chat on MSN. I don't use the one that's tied to my XBL account for chatting.

[dnast]

Here's a better picture for people that still can't see how the keyboard fits on the controller.

[FreqFace]

I actually think it's quite cool, something I didn't expect to see at all. I'd much rather just attach that for text input than plug in a full sized keyboard, far more convenient. I wouldn't use my thumbs though, I'd hold the controller with one hand and type with the other. Hopefully it's not too expensive over here, because I would like to purchase one. I'd say ?20 max, hopefully less.

[magik]

Actually, now that I think about it, $30 is a bit much. I think $20 or $25 is a more reasonable price considering there really isn't much to the internals of the device, AFAIK, it just sends the signals to the controller that will transmit the signals. I'm sure there will also be cheaper alternatives made by 3rd parties anyway, but 1st party devices are always the best.

[WelshBluebird]

$30 is fine. That would be about ?20 over here, which tbh, is pretty much what I expected. Considering that it also includes a new wired headset aswell, I think $30/?20 is about right.

[Spartan_X]

Pictures of the New Text Input Device

Okay, I'm no product shot expert, but I was able to get a few pictures of the new Text Input Device this morning. There have been some questions about how it attaches, and how comfortable the controller would be with the keyboard attached. These photos show how that's going to work.

Tony reports that it's hard to tell the difference when it's attached, since your bottom fingers don't actually wrap around the wings of the controller anyway. And it weighs very little, so you barely notice it's there.

By the way, I was told this morning that the keyboard will also ship with a new headset.

High res pics can be found here.

Source: Gamerscore Blog

[Huleboeren]

Thats pretty sweet actually, I gotta get me one of those as I dont use VOIP..

That is, if I decide to get a new X360

[jordanspringer]

not too bad actually, i'd have to take it off while playing games though, and i wonder how much additional weight it adds to the controler.

i'd have to get used to typing with just my thumbs though. to type properlly (using typing skills) you'd need to have the controller set in your lap in order to type.

[Rodrigo]

Nice! I'm getting one of these.

[Jimmy0]

Will they have a black version for the Elite?

[NightmarE D]

It can't be heavy at all. Look how thin it actually is.

I think everyone thought it would be thicker because in the other pics you never saw the back of the controller or pics of the keyboard unplugged. Everyone was assuming it was bulky. Clearly it's not.

[MGS4-SS]

Price?