Minebea Cool Leaf Keyboard concept is now a reality

Remember the Minebea Cool Leaf Keyboard we talked about over a year ago? Yeah, it was one cool keyboard, deserving of its name. Well, what was a concept design back then has now transformed into a commercial product. The Cool Leaf Keyboard is a flat mirror-like panel keyboard that is used in place of a regular keyboard. It gets rid of traditional buttons in favor of a flat touchscreen to give you a super sleek, sexy looking device.

Folks who’ve grown accustomed to typing on a touchscreen device like a tablet or a smartphone should feel right at home with the Cool Leaf Keyboard, but for those of you who prefer a keyboard with tactile feedback, you’re better off sticking with your current one. At the moment it only works with Windows operating system, and it is based on the 108 Key Japanese Keyboard layout. However, Minebea has announced that US English, German, French, and Italian versions of the Cool Leaf are on their way (July 2011), as well as a Mac compatible version. The Cool Leaf Keyboard will go on sale in two weeks, May 13 2011. Any takers?

[Press Release]