If you’re puzzled as to why this exists, imagine that, out of the goodness of your heart, you donate $230 to OpenAI to support their mission of rear ending the singularity, and receive Codex Micro memorabilia as a token of appreciation.
I think here it means accelerating towards singularity. Rear ending means accelerating your car so much that it bumps into the rear end of the car before you.
The cloud logo that is inscribed onto the base of this device and on its bottom-right key is no longer used by OpenAI. In fact, the "Codex" app, branding, and featureset was folded entirely into the ChatGPT app earlier this week. Upon release, this device is already outdated.
How is this more expensive than a Stream Deck? Shouldn't OpenAI be able to undercut existing software / hardware stacks due to how automated their engineering team is?
If anyone is looking at this thinking it looks pretty and wants to check out Work Louder's keyboards, let me save you the time. Their keyboards must be made by designers who do not type much because they are both not pleasant to type on and not very high-quality.
The Nomad [E] might be one of the worst keyboards I've ever purchased, and I owned one of the original butterfly switch MacBooks.
I was interested in their knob1, and, if you go to their website today it still says pre-order with shipping in August 2025 (stuck in the past), at this point I accepted it's vaporware [1]
Never heard of work louder, but it sounds like an idea I used to joke with coworkers about, around making a clickly keyboard with an amplifier and speaker to passive-aggressively demonstrate how annoying the clicky keyboards are in a high density office environment.
For the Nomad: The caps slightly rotate. If you look at them from the side profile, they are also all varying heights. I found enough variance in the physical layout of keys that I was constantly making mistakes and pressing multiple keys simultaneously. It has this gimmicky magnetic riser on the back which the magnets fell out of. The display is just a gimmick but has a fun Tamagotchi-type thing that analyzes WPM, so that's cool at least.
The company itself had crazy production delays on both the Nomad and the Knob1, and seem to depend on hypebeast marketing. For $400 you would expect a very premium product and it's easy to argue that they missed the mark pretty hard.
Oh I also placed a pre-order and they refused to cancel after many delays. Unfortunately after that point it was too late for a chargeback.
Wouldn't surprise me if the real purpose of this is to get a physical object on your desk that makes you constantly think about Codex -- either babysitting your currently-running agents when it's lit up and running, or subconsciously bullying / shaming you into using Codex if you're not right at this very moment.
That's the key, a physical object is much more easily made part of a devs identity.
Projecting a hacker image has become very fashion based. e.g., some devs love their clickity-clackity keyboards with LEDs, others have those all-blacks ones with nothing on the keys.
This is not really intended as a product you will use today.
This is an intentionally provocative statement on the future of work, where your keyboard is not supplemented by, but rather replaced by a dozen or so buttons for prompting (via voice), reviewing, approving or rejecting.
Codex Micro is a workstation controller for the knowledge worker in sama's 2030 fever dream. I'm not even entirely sure I disagree.
I'm currently supporting (a couple hours a week) an exec who has mostly automated his workflow via vibe coding (the rest largely failed - not everyone can make the leap, and those that do are largely marginal) his workflow is largely a VS code window with the git commit/sync button on the left, and 2-20 codex/claude tabs in the main window on the right. I think he could actually make use of this sort of thing. Extremely small sample group but I'd estimate 1/300 people in a tech centric location like downtown SF. Globally it would be a tiny tiny fraction of that number lol. The venn diagram overlap of people who this would be useful for, vs people who have already vibe-coded their own macro keyboard with a streamdeck (myself included) is probably a pretty strong overlap. It's an amusing marketing gimmick, and historical artifact, if nothing else.
It's not clear why this physical object is a better solution to the problem than, say, a window on your screen. Feels like more of a hobby project than something that provides $230 of value.
I know a lot of people who really like things like the Stream Deck. This seems similar to that kind of a concept. I'd probably take the Stream Deck over this though, its a good bit cheaper and each button has a little screen on it. Having some physical knobs is an interesting twist on it though.
There are dozens of us who went through the ordeal to use MIDI controllers for stuff because you just want to touch a button and not alt-tab 4 times. cf. https://f5n.org/blog/2026/hardware-mute-button/ (part 2 is not published yet where I replace the Korg software with my own app using a Rust midi driver)
But yes, mine was 55 EUR, is universally usable, and it was a fun project. There is a reason I didn't buy a stream deck and there's also a reason I did not buy a 3d printer, design a PCB and do it from scratch.
I built a multi-agent alternative with Stream Deck and cmux/orca and it works pretty well -- particularly when you pair it with CodexBar and can easily see your token spend across multiple subscriptions.
I'm curious who the target audience is. As a developer I already spend all day at my keyboard, so I'm not yet convinced dedicated hardware is faster than a desktop app. I'd love to hear from people who've actually used it.
I set up an old Stream Deck to do the same thing. I stopped using it after a few days. This design looks great though, status lights are a nice touch. YouTube vibe coders will love it, traditional devs will keep MacGyvering their own toys.
As someone with a few unused Teenage Engineering things. The real answer is probably rich tech people who love having things that make people say "I'm not sure who the target audience is".
I see it as another iteration of the wave that had everyone controlling agents directly from a chat app like slack. It isn't actually a more effective way to reach flow state, exchange information faster, and move your development projects forward to greater success, its simply a novel, oddly satisfying input mechanism, at least for the first day.
Which is no different than when the iphone first came out, the basic concept of touch screens was endlessly novel as an input and output device. That novelty did a lot more heavy lifting than what we can now see in hindsight was appropriate, because now many of us won't be able to control the temperature in our cars after the touch screen fails.
I think its the same underlying mechanism that explains why I, a person who has never recorded or mixed audio in a studio, and a person who can know for certain that purchasing a 24 channel mixing console isn't going to faclilitate my career change or even hobby development. But part of me is still viscerally certain that my life would be fuller if I purchased a 24 channel mixing console.
I don't need a legitimate reason to own a tool, or a problem I would fix with it, to fantasize about using that tool.
I think people who want to project a 'cracked' (god I hate that word) agentic engineer vibe. But my experience with basically everyone in my immediate vicinity, is that people have no respect or awe for the 'tell the robot to do the thing' workflow.
This is a rebranded/reskinned WORK LOUDER Creator Micro 2 btw (https://worklouder.cc/creator-micro-2). Great device if you're into expensive tech toys (a la Teenage Engineering), but if you were waiting for a big OpenAI hardware reveal sorry to disappoint.
I own an elgato Stream Deck (somewhere in a drawer), I love the concept of keys being a display but the keys are VERY mushy. Still a better deal and a way more versatile device than that Codex Micro pad.
Now that I think about it, I think I'd enjoy using streamdeck more if it was just a USB touchscreen thing maybe with some vibration for tactile feel with the same UI.
RE: the joystick. They should have gone with the Playdate's crank instead, CrankGPT style.
Anyway, I think it's all a fun marketing thing. A desk toy for folks with disposable income. I imagine they'll sell out, given the limited release and then they'll be on eBay.
It isn't meant to sell like hot cakes. Work Louder is the keyboard equivalent of Teenage Engineering. They make expensive toys for silicon valley engineers.
This is really pretty, but I'm surprised it doesn't have a microphone. I know it's just rebranding the existing work louder creator keyboard, but a mic would really, really help with this product. Especially one that is really effective at Wispr Flow-type speaking.
yeah, they are barely hanging on. they only raised $144 billion over 14 rounds. who knows if they will ever get any more. we should all chip in for a t-shirt.
Great question - nothing. I was a little surprised to see it doesn't even have a microphone or speaker - that means regardless of whatever compute is available (esp32 is pretty common in the $30 price class for smart assistants) this can never be a standalone device.
The people who cannot DIY? There are a surprisingly large number of people who "code" in codex while being completely unable to write a single line of code themselves. Not that I approve, I think this will end in disaster (security or otherwise) and llm shines as a force multiplier not as a replacement, but I've long learned what's correct is not always what's selling.
After a few minutes on the site, I have no clue what this is for. A keyboard that interacts with Codex? That’s just a software feature, why am I paying $230 for hotkeys?
Special purpose keyboards can make sense (see e.g. music editing keyboards with sliders and volume knobs), but I'm with you that in this case the website totally fails at making a case for it.
just like the general mechanical keyboard community... over expensive hardware, sometimes not even shipping with friendly layers for rookies (like VIAL framework for configuring QMK) and oh! QUESTIONABLE ERGONOMIC DESIGNS like ortholinear arrangements for plank keyboards with 40% of the keys, the absurd goes on [0]
[0] i sell cheap handwired dactyl keyboards in Brazil
Finally we see what Jony Ive was cooking at Open AI. The long foretold iPhone killer has finally arrived. And with the 100% perfect speech to text model that Open AI with zero flaws that works with all accents on all devices, this will finally remove the clunky keyboard.
This one in collaboration with Work Louder[1] a company that specialized on mechanical keyboard. I don't see Jony Ive in this. Or maybe your comment is sarcasm, I can't tell.
The intersection of software developers and people who like audio interfaces for controlling computers has to be pretty small!
I don't want to hear my voice all day, nor my coworkers.
You know who does? Designers, product managers, and investors.
I can't decide if this is a misplaced product not understanding the mostly introvert tech audience or a stroke of brilliance predicting a future where non-tech people will be developing products all by themselves.
on one hand...this looks cool/teenage engineering-esque. on the other...engineers have been infantilized forever now but this is a new level. it feels like my career has been dwindled down to ... what? a few colors and like 5 buttons? reminds me of something out of idiocracy a bit. just need a button that orders a nice juicy hamburger for me during my lunch break.
but jokes aside, I suppose you can look at this being sort of like a numpad in addition to your main keyboard so I see the point of this gimmicky thing
Teenage Engineering makes a lot of products that are basically just a grid of buttons and knobs. It's an obvious comparison to make, even if you disagree on the style/soul etc. Like the OP-1 is also a rectangle of buttons, and even the style of the keycap itself can draw some comparisons (it is a rounded square with a circle in it and an abstract symbol on it): https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1
I don't understand how people still think Teenage Engineering has a soul. If OpenAI added a quirky LCD animation to this, would it be a soulful product worth $1,199?
The whole "soul" and "taste" nonsense is a meaningless marketing canard that companies use to differentiate a product.
I want very hard to agree with you but then I remember elgato has built a very successful business from a 8/12/16/... Macro keyboard for streamers so what do I know.
I'd debate that the custom LCD buttons made the difference... I've got a few macro keypads for some specific use cases, I ended up with a elgato for a -very- niche radio related use case and love it
If I needed something like this, my first try would be to take a MIDI / DAW controller like Novation Launchpad Mini Mk3 and write a script for it.
This would be cheaper, much more versatile and customizable I bet. Many MIDI / DAW controllers can be "programmed" via MIDI IN/OUT, e.g. how to light the pads.
Oh for sure. It’s like Monster cables or audiophile stuff or other luxury goods. It’s entirely irrational. Though some people badly need it to be framed as perfectly rational.
Mech keyboards are closer to audiophile stuff than monster cables and luxury goods. The prices are generally commanded by low production volumes with high production quality. At least that's how the hobby used to be, I know its grown a lot and its much easier to find mass produced mechanical keyboards.
While I love a good piece of hardware with real buttons, I struggle to justify the money on this. If it supported Linux and was a bit cheaper I might splerge just to have a toy, but I'm definitely not switching to windows or mac just for this.
You could probably easily get Codex (CLI) to vibe code Linux support tbh. It's probably just a regular USB HID device. The main problem is that right now it only works with the GUI Codex App which doesn't have official Linux support.
Looks fun, but I don't quite understand this product:
- Do the buttons map to configurable skills / prompts?
- Is it meant to be used remotely with some independence (like codex remote), or is it a peripheral like a trackpad?
First question; if theres a knob to adjust thinking level, and I can switch between agents, what if I turn down the knob for one agent and switch to another? Do I just insta-lobotomize it?
Pretty sure I could just vibe code this with my old Elgato Stream Deck. As a bonus, it wouldn't become eminently useless if I swap to any other model provider.
"OpenAI will launch a portable, screen-free smart speaker as its first consumer hardware product, Bloomberg News has reported, days after Apple sued the AI start-up and two former employees of the iPhone maker for trade-secret theft." [1]
Things you do if you definitely are focused on the a Trillion USD industry and SuperDuperUltraMega AGI is 100% possible and what you are fully committed to. Next they’ll spend Millions on a podcast that fails to get 50k hits on YouTube or a design firm whose biggest claim to fame is creating a Ferrari whose interior looks like a Magic Mouse. Say what you want about Anthropic, their Aquihires and interpretability investments at least make sense for an LLM lab.
This is the lamest possible implementation, exactly what I would expect from openAI. Nothing about it is interesting or unique or really leverages the power of LLMs to make a new experience.
Hate to say it, but this was an instant Buy for me. I love experimenting with new modalities and this is a cool idea pre-packaged. If it doesn't work, what is 200 bucks compared to a SWE salary? It would be a wacky novelty memento of the time. If it is a nice boost to my work by... what... 2% - or just good for a chuckle each day - Good, I'm happy.
This is partially an on-ramp for young people. No experience? Not sure where to start? Buy this gadget! Hook it up to your machine then take lessons on how to use it. All in the OpenAI ecosystem, of course.
Best outcome for OpenAI is that this becomes a status symbol / cool shiny thing that "leet" devs have.
For someone with a lot of experience already, this looks semi-retarded. For a newbie / newcomer it looks like someone finally thought of them.
i guess this is cool if you are going to expense it as a business but $250 is insane. I'm going to wait for the temu version with the usual hidden mic and phone-home feature
Why not a Stream Deck? I own 3 stream decks, and they are incredibly useful. Not only for coding, but windows controlling, shortcuts for anything. And the best part is that there are small screens you can customize.
If you’re puzzled as to why this exists, imagine that, out of the goodness of your heart, you donate $230 to OpenAI to support their mission of rear ending the singularity, and receive Codex Micro memorabilia as a token of appreciation.
tokens are getting expensive these days
Yeah that’s nothing compared to token cost. Cheapest iPhone costs like 2x than it.
The phrase made me chuckle, but I'm curious what exactly "rear ending the singularity" means.
I think here it means accelerating towards singularity. Rear ending means accelerating your car so much that it bumps into the rear end of the car before you.
Ah, the lesswrong people are going to buying these in droves to prove their faith to the basilisk
The LessWrong people hate OpenAI, they all back Anthropic.
i actually cant stop laughing... this is priceless
The non-branded version from Work Louder seems to cost $174 https://worklouder.cc/creator-micro-2
So I'd say it's probably only a $56 contribution.
The cloud logo that is inscribed onto the base of this device and on its bottom-right key is no longer used by OpenAI. In fact, the "Codex" app, branding, and featureset was folded entirely into the ChatGPT app earlier this week. Upon release, this device is already outdated.
What an interesting world we live in!
Maybe it's worth getting one just to cherish this crazy moment 10 years later. This does cost money but won't cost much of your drawer space.
don't take it out of its box, it ruins the value!
It would be a nice collectable trinket, but OpenAI is quite down on the list of companies I'd gift money to
Icon can be switched between ChatGPT and Codex at least on macOS in app settings
If you want an $18 DIY / open hardware version of this using an LED cube off amazon & WLED, here you go: https://github.com/pirate/led-cube-agent-monitor
How is this more expensive than a Stream Deck? Shouldn't OpenAI be able to undercut existing software / hardware stacks due to how automated their engineering team is?
https://openai.com/supply/co-lab/work-louder/ - $230
https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck - $130, with LCD sceens, works with any apps
I doubt the cost has any impact in the price. This is like a cool band t-shirt, but for nerds.
"Mom, I want ..."
"No, there is ... at home."
"At home..."
If anyone is looking at this thinking it looks pretty and wants to check out Work Louder's keyboards, let me save you the time. Their keyboards must be made by designers who do not type much because they are both not pleasant to type on and not very high-quality.
The Nomad [E] might be one of the worst keyboards I've ever purchased, and I owned one of the original butterfly switch MacBooks.
I was interested in their knob1, and, if you go to their website today it still says pre-order with shipping in August 2025 (stuck in the past), at this point I accepted it's vaporware [1]
[1] https://worklouder.cc/knob1
Their website is blocked by my ISP as being unsafe.
Many ISPs block .cc domains. Especially when .co.cc was a free domain name thing and tons of malware would use it.
I'm guessing they didn't run "knob" past anyone from the UK.
Edit: as much as it pains me, this is hacker news, so, knob means cock in the UK.
It also, and I would say more commonly, means a round thing that can be turned. I've never heard of anyone avoiding the term.
I doubt anyone from the UK would call their product or company "knob" these days.
Knob the Yob has a certain catch to it.
sure it's not pronounced Kenobi?
they stylize it k•no•b or k•no•b1 take your pick
Never heard of work louder, but it sounds like an idea I used to joke with coworkers about, around making a clickly keyboard with an amplifier and speaker to passive-aggressively demonstrate how annoying the clicky keyboards are in a high density office environment.
What's wrong with it? I believe you but I'm just curious... since on paper it just uses Gateron low profile switches which seems reasonable.
For the Nomad: The caps slightly rotate. If you look at them from the side profile, they are also all varying heights. I found enough variance in the physical layout of keys that I was constantly making mistakes and pressing multiple keys simultaneously. It has this gimmicky magnetic riser on the back which the magnets fell out of. The display is just a gimmick but has a fun Tamagotchi-type thing that analyzes WPM, so that's cool at least.
The company itself had crazy production delays on both the Nomad and the Knob1, and seem to depend on hypebeast marketing. For $400 you would expect a very premium product and it's easy to argue that they missed the mark pretty hard.
Oh I also placed a pre-order and they refused to cancel after many delays. Unfortunately after that point it was too late for a chargeback.
*just found a random review if you want to see other opinions. The comments discuss some of the weird company shenanigans: https://old.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1ngka3...
Thanks. I like low profile mechanical keyboards in theory but I guess I'll just stick to the Keychrons and Lofrees.
Wouldn't surprise me if the real purpose of this is to get a physical object on your desk that makes you constantly think about Codex -- either babysitting your currently-running agents when it's lit up and running, or subconsciously bullying / shaming you into using Codex if you're not right at this very moment.
An electronic Siren's Song if you will.
>An electronic Siren's Song if you will.
Notifications on your smartphone that's always on you are way better for that purpose, than on a device that's tied to your desk.
Add Gacha mechanics for +100% extra damage.
Devices tied to your desk are actually very good for tech detox.
So if getting you hooked was OpenAI's goal with this, they definitely missed by a 1000 miles.
Agree, but there's also the psychological impact of having spent over 200 smackers on this thing and then letting it go unused lol
That's the key, a physical object is much more easily made part of a devs identity.
Projecting a hacker image has become very fashion based. e.g., some devs love their clickity-clackity keyboards with LEDs, others have those all-blacks ones with nothing on the keys.
This only works if you can get people to spend over $200, which is the part I'm skeptical of.
But who knows, maybe I'm overestimating people's intelligence.
If that was the real purpose they would have priced it lower.
it's like costco memberships. the more you pay, the more value you feel you're getting
* steady gentlemen *
What's codex?
This is not really intended as a product you will use today.
This is an intentionally provocative statement on the future of work, where your keyboard is not supplemented by, but rather replaced by a dozen or so buttons for prompting (via voice), reviewing, approving or rejecting.
Codex Micro is a workstation controller for the knowledge worker in sama's 2030 fever dream. I'm not even entirely sure I disagree.
You can do that now with a Stream Deck + XL. https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-plus-xl
Or for those looking for a challenge, switches + ESP32 or Arduino + a 3d printer can take you a long way.
https://www.printables.com/tag/macrokeyboard
I'm currently supporting (a couple hours a week) an exec who has mostly automated his workflow via vibe coding (the rest largely failed - not everyone can make the leap, and those that do are largely marginal) his workflow is largely a VS code window with the git commit/sync button on the left, and 2-20 codex/claude tabs in the main window on the right. I think he could actually make use of this sort of thing. Extremely small sample group but I'd estimate 1/300 people in a tech centric location like downtown SF. Globally it would be a tiny tiny fraction of that number lol. The venn diagram overlap of people who this would be useful for, vs people who have already vibe-coded their own macro keyboard with a streamdeck (myself included) is probably a pretty strong overlap. It's an amusing marketing gimmick, and historical artifact, if nothing else.
It's not clear why this physical object is a better solution to the problem than, say, a window on your screen. Feels like more of a hobby project than something that provides $230 of value.
I know a lot of people who really like things like the Stream Deck. This seems similar to that kind of a concept. I'd probably take the Stream Deck over this though, its a good bit cheaper and each button has a little screen on it. Having some physical knobs is an interesting twist on it though.
https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck
There is the Stream Deck Plus with physical knobs and a touch b... strip. :)
https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-plus
There are dozens of us who went through the ordeal to use MIDI controllers for stuff because you just want to touch a button and not alt-tab 4 times. cf. https://f5n.org/blog/2026/hardware-mute-button/ (part 2 is not published yet where I replace the Korg software with my own app using a Rust midi driver)
But yes, mine was 55 EUR, is universally usable, and it was a fun project. There is a reason I didn't buy a stream deck and there's also a reason I did not buy a 3d printer, design a PCB and do it from scratch.
My first reaction is WTF. My second reaction isn't here yet.
My second reaction is: ah is this what the stolen IP from apple fuss was all about?
My first reaction isn't here yet
We need to bring back the 'turbo' button.[1]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button#Purpose
And literal physical keys to lock computers with!
It's actually kind of funny that the purpose of the Turbo button was to slow your computer down so you could play games that were running too fast.
But I guess they didn't want to put a "Slow" button on their PC towers.
I built a multi-agent alternative with Stream Deck and cmux/orca and it works pretty well -- particularly when you pair it with CodexBar and can easily see your token spend across multiple subscriptions.
It is all open source https://github.com/mrshu/muxboard -- feedback would be greatly appreciated!
I'm curious who the target audience is. As a developer I already spend all day at my keyboard, so I'm not yet convinced dedicated hardware is faster than a desktop app. I'd love to hear from people who've actually used it.
I set up an old Stream Deck to do the same thing. I stopped using it after a few days. This design looks great though, status lights are a nice touch. YouTube vibe coders will love it, traditional devs will keep MacGyvering their own toys.
And you would need to spend your day at your keyboard for this to be useful anyway. It's just an input device.
The keyboard community maybe? I think these little macro pads are neat, but I don't have a real use for them either.
As someone with a few unused Teenage Engineering things. The real answer is probably rich tech people who love having things that make people say "I'm not sure who the target audience is".
The TE reference is strong!
Work Louder the company behind this, is TE in mechanical keyboard industry.
i'm guessing the primary market for these will be free gifts to enterprise customers at sales meetings.
I see it as another iteration of the wave that had everyone controlling agents directly from a chat app like slack. It isn't actually a more effective way to reach flow state, exchange information faster, and move your development projects forward to greater success, its simply a novel, oddly satisfying input mechanism, at least for the first day.
Which is no different than when the iphone first came out, the basic concept of touch screens was endlessly novel as an input and output device. That novelty did a lot more heavy lifting than what we can now see in hindsight was appropriate, because now many of us won't be able to control the temperature in our cars after the touch screen fails.
I think its the same underlying mechanism that explains why I, a person who has never recorded or mixed audio in a studio, and a person who can know for certain that purchasing a 24 channel mixing console isn't going to faclilitate my career change or even hobby development. But part of me is still viscerally certain that my life would be fuller if I purchased a 24 channel mixing console.
I don't need a legitimate reason to own a tool, or a problem I would fix with it, to fantasize about using that tool.
Its completely pointless yet I still want it. IDK, its the status lights that look fun.
People with too much money to burn and not enough brains to use it on something better
The audience is goobers.
I think people who want to project a 'cracked' (god I hate that word) agentic engineer vibe. But my experience with basically everyone in my immediate vicinity, is that people have no respect or awe for the 'tell the robot to do the thing' workflow.
It’s for twitter AI influencers and general marketing
This is a rebranded/reskinned WORK LOUDER Creator Micro 2 btw (https://worklouder.cc/creator-micro-2). Great device if you're into expensive tech toys (a la Teenage Engineering), but if you were waiting for a big OpenAI hardware reveal sorry to disappoint.
At least it's much more expensive
ooh Micro 2 is a lot cheaper, but doesn't seem to have individually addressable RGB keys unless I'm mistaken?
Update: did some research, found this thing for $39 https://epomaker.com/products/epomaker-ek21
It's got 20 keys, hot-swappable, and individually addressable RGB.
And for an FOSS printable one, https://github.com/Dwin17/bento
I made one too, though no LEDs:
https://github.com/skorokithakis/macropad
https://immich.home.stavros.io/s/macropad
$56 premium for the OpenAI skin. :)
Apple must be happy that they let Jony Ive go. What a letdown.
(assuming this meh partnership rebranding had his participation)
Pretty sure this isn’t the secret Jonny Ive project.
Work Louder is a different company, the LoveFrom hardware is still unknown at this point.
Or you could get a bluetooth number pad for $20.
Or a microcontroller and some buttons for 10
I'm using such pad as a second gamepad when I need one :) It is actually not too bad, if combined with a multikey mouse
IMHO this is a much better solution.
https://marketplace.elgato.com/product/claude-code-usage-ea7...
I actually have this as a problem with Codex / Claude where I don't know if I have to make a decision .
I own an elgato Stream Deck (somewhere in a drawer), I love the concept of keys being a display but the keys are VERY mushy. Still a better deal and a way more versatile device than that Codex Micro pad.
Now that I think about it, I think I'd enjoy using streamdeck more if it was just a USB touchscreen thing maybe with some vibration for tactile feel with the same UI.
Yuk. Windows only and closed source. Pass.
Elgato has official drivers for MacOS
There are also 3rd party drivers for Linux.
Yes I use an Elgato deck with my Mac but this specific tool showed as Windows-only when I tried to install it.
im reading its not well engineered.
They could've at least made something custom, and claim it was designed with help from GPT 5.6
The price for that HW basically implies it either has sizeable margins or is made with artisan methods.
$230 for a macropad with an exposed PCB and no washers under the Allen screws.
I'm not sure what the joystick is for, and neither are they apparently: the only example they give is something that could just be a keybind.
RE: the joystick. They should have gone with the Playdate's crank instead, CrankGPT style.
Anyway, I think it's all a fun marketing thing. A desk toy for folks with disposable income. I imagine they'll sell out, given the limited release and then they'll be on eBay.
Overfunded startups will slap their stickers on them and give them away in exchange for a sales call.
For sure the next hackathon prize
For context - macropad is about $5-10 from aliexpress. I got one for my kids in back of car so they can control music and climate.
This is pretty hilarious. Guess people forgot how to use PCs and can only prompt now.
Someday my kid is going to ask me why we need 79 keys on a keyboard if we only use "accept" and "accept all".
A quarter RGB keyboard for the price of half a MacBook Neo? Yeah this will sell like hot cakes...
It isn't meant to sell like hot cakes. Work Louder is the keyboard equivalent of Teenage Engineering. They make expensive toys for silicon valley engineers.
So work louder is the new work smarter?
And very fitting in this case, too, with everybody having to use voice input. :)
It’s $230 vs. $699? That’s almost exactly a third, not half.
At release, the Neo was $499 for education.
That's the number I had in mind, but correct, apparently this is only for education and it's also 100 USD more now.
This is really pretty, but I'm surprised it doesn't have a microphone. I know it's just rebranding the existing work louder creator keyboard, but a mic would really, really help with this product. Especially one that is really effective at Wispr Flow-type speaking.
At this point these companies are going to release merch to fund themselves
they have, click on "back to store" -- there is more merch.
they actually did, nothing surprises me anymore
Whatever is need to boost the numbers before the IPO
They need to sell like 300+ per single Nvidia B100 GPU lol I'm not sure they'll quite fund themselves with this
My first question is this — what does this do that a $50 Streamdeck cannot?
Donate 200 bucks to a struggling startup.
yeah, they are barely hanging on. they only raised $144 billion over 14 rounds. who knows if they will ever get any more. we should all chip in for a t-shirt.
:P
Marketing, you don’t end up in the news with a streamdeck plugin
Great question - nothing. I was a little surprised to see it doesn't even have a microphone or speaker - that means regardless of whatever compute is available (esp32 is pretty common in the $30 price class for smart assistants) this can never be a standalone device.
Even the name "work louder" seems to encourage some sort of post-literacy future; I find it off-putting.
This feels like a thing that will be fashionable in a few very specific regions of San Francisco, and nowhere else in the world.
I am surprised they released this. Who is the audience for this? You can DIY this yourself surely.
The people who cannot DIY? There are a surprisingly large number of people who "code" in codex while being completely unable to write a single line of code themselves. Not that I approve, I think this will end in disaster (security or otherwise) and llm shines as a force multiplier not as a replacement, but I've long learned what's correct is not always what's selling.
By that same logic I think OpenAI should get into the burger business for those who cannot cook.
That would unironically be a way to start to make money
Haven’t you heard? Anyone can DIy anything now they just have to ask ChatGPT for help.
After a few minutes on the site, I have no clue what this is for. A keyboard that interacts with Codex? That’s just a software feature, why am I paying $230 for hotkeys?
It's an overpriced macropad.
Special purpose keyboards can make sense (see e.g. music editing keyboards with sliders and volume knobs), but I'm with you that in this case the website totally fails at making a case for it.
They asked ChatGPT for the ideal crossover product and now the dog is wagging.
My though process:
1. These abstract product visuals are not helping me understand what this software is
2. Wait, it's all about these renders, it's some kind of a joke
3. I don't understand, this can't be real, I need to check comments
just like the general mechanical keyboard community... over expensive hardware, sometimes not even shipping with friendly layers for rookies (like VIAL framework for configuring QMK) and oh! QUESTIONABLE ERGONOMIC DESIGNS like ortholinear arrangements for plank keyboards with 40% of the keys, the absurd goes on [0]
[0] i sell cheap handwired dactyl keyboards in Brazil
For the first hour of learning about this, I thought it was an elaborate joke.
But they have special colors - only $45 each!
Finally we see what Jony Ive was cooking at Open AI. The long foretold iPhone killer has finally arrived. And with the 100% perfect speech to text model that Open AI with zero flaws that works with all accents on all devices, this will finally remove the clunky keyboard.
This one in collaboration with Work Louder[1] a company that specialized on mechanical keyboard. I don't see Jony Ive in this. Or maybe your comment is sarcasm, I can't tell.
1. https://worklouder.cc/
Aah our lord and saviour Jony has not yet delivered the iPhone killer.
The intersection of software developers and people who like audio interfaces for controlling computers has to be pretty small!
I don't want to hear my voice all day, nor my coworkers.
You know who does? Designers, product managers, and investors.
I can't decide if this is a misplaced product not understanding the mostly introvert tech audience or a stroke of brilliance predicting a future where non-tech people will be developing products all by themselves.
I checked the date but no.
I KVM between a bunch of boxes and I have a Doio KB16 for Claude and I love it. I get the reasoning for the product. Price is..... interesting.
https://doioshop.com/products/doio-16-keys-programmable-mult...
Thanks for the link, it seems a lot more capable and interesting, to a much better price.
I thought this was an aprils fools joke. Then i realized it’s July..
How long before someone shows a hobby project with a robotic arm and computer vision controlling one of these?
I am only half-joking.
on one hand...this looks cool/teenage engineering-esque. on the other...engineers have been infantilized forever now but this is a new level. it feels like my career has been dwindled down to ... what? a few colors and like 5 buttons? reminds me of something out of idiocracy a bit. just need a button that orders a nice juicy hamburger for me during my lunch break.
but jokes aside, I suppose you can look at this being sort of like a numpad in addition to your main keyboard so I see the point of this gimmicky thing
With that lens your career before this device was a few colors and 104 keys?
They've been issuing these new tablets to the new people at work, productivity has gone through the roof. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2ZD6J2W
Programming is basically now playing with some keystrokes and joysticks :p
I don't understand the many Teenage Engineering references in this thread, this design has no soul.
Teenage Engineering makes a lot of products that are basically just a grid of buttons and knobs. It's an obvious comparison to make, even if you disagree on the style/soul etc. Like the OP-1 is also a rectangle of buttons, and even the style of the keycap itself can draw some comparisons (it is a rounded square with a circle in it and an abstract symbol on it): https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1
I don't understand how people still think Teenage Engineering has a soul. If OpenAI added a quirky LCD animation to this, would it be a soulful product worth $1,199?
The whole "soul" and "taste" nonsense is a meaningless marketing canard that companies use to differentiate a product.
Not that long (10 hours) ago this was considered a joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1uwzr82/got_my_...
I want very hard to agree with you but then I remember elgato has built a very successful business from a 8/12/16/... Macro keyboard for streamers so what do I know.
I'd debate that the custom LCD buttons made the difference... I've got a few macro keypads for some specific use cases, I ended up with a elgato for a -very- niche radio related use case and love it
"It is my pleasure to present you the Codex Box Signature Edition."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KbRA2RjhgQ
Is it April 1st already?
Stop giving me ideas to repurpose my AKAI Fire with a simple Pi extension!!
Why isn't there a video of it?
8th openai product named codex btw
Given that their initial product was called ChatGPT I’m not sure that anyone should expect them to be able to name anything remotely sensibly.
Fun fact, the name Codex predates ChatGPT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI_Codex_(language_model)
Obviously it stands for Ghat Phat That. Obviously
If I needed something like this, my first try would be to take a MIDI / DAW controller like Novation Launchpad Mini Mk3 and write a script for it.
This would be cheaper, much more versatile and customizable I bet. Many MIDI / DAW controllers can be "programmed" via MIDI IN/OUT, e.g. how to light the pads.
I feel this as more of a fashion runway garment type object, more statement and vision than what you'd see in everyday retail.
Reminds me of an italian specialty coffee shop that puts moka pots as napkin holders on every table.
I just hope they don't just go after the keyboard but the screen, desk and office.
I like it because it looks sleak, and the colors are neat.
However, it really puts in perspective that a large part of my job has just become clicking a few buttons.
Wait. This is only a keyboard?! For how much?!
If you think that's expensive, don't fall down the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole. There's no upper limit on how much they can be
Oh for sure. It’s like Monster cables or audiophile stuff or other luxury goods. It’s entirely irrational. Though some people badly need it to be framed as perfectly rational.
Mech keyboards are closer to audiophile stuff than monster cables and luxury goods. The prices are generally commanded by low production volumes with high production quality. At least that's how the hobby used to be, I know its grown a lot and its much easier to find mass produced mechanical keyboards.
Check out Norbauer for the upper echolon of mechanical keyboard engineering. https://www.norbauer.co/pages/the-seneca
Work Louder co-founder demos the Codex Micro and does a walk-through of some of the features: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-2OH6ReiPM
Windows and Mac only (no Linux).
While I love a good piece of hardware with real buttons, I struggle to justify the money on this. If it supported Linux and was a bit cheaper I might splerge just to have a toy, but I'm definitely not switching to windows or mac just for this.
You could probably easily get Codex (CLI) to vibe code Linux support tbh. It's probably just a regular USB HID device. The main problem is that right now it only works with the GUI Codex App which doesn't have official Linux support.
Looks cool. I’m looking for a macro pad with a little LCD that’s Mac and Linux compatible.
This looks like it has LEDs but not a screen.
Any experience with https://www.eezbotfun.com/ or recommendations for something similar?
Looks fun, but I don't quite understand this product:
Codex micro - is it a tiny coding agent? Or a small coding model? No it is hardware, that has nothing to do with coding.
I think they should have called it "codex luna" - because it's small!
Thanks, thought I was the only one expecting a tiny, coding focused model from the title. Codex really is the least consistent brand in tech.
FYI: This type of keyboard has been around for a few years https://worklouder.cc/
First question; if theres a knob to adjust thinking level, and I can switch between agents, what if I turn down the knob for one agent and switch to another? Do I just insta-lobotomize it?
So when are we gonna get this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXzJR7K0wK0 ?
We're rapidly approaching the Jetsons one button workplace territory.
Seems like they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Pretty sure I could just vibe code this with my old Elgato Stream Deck. As a bonus, it wouldn't become eminently useless if I swap to any other model provider.
Looks like a novelty item made with the purpose of testing their hardware production capabilities before producing a real product.
Also, translated pages transform newlines into \n.
This device should have been a blog post about how you can make this device with an Arduino/Pico and a 3D printer and Codex.
The device is mysterious and important.
I was just thinking of making something like this! But more as a novelty than something I realistically expect to use.
We march ever closer to the cntl c v keyboard!
More ways to not look at the code written. Where are we trying to go ?
Where's the Stream Deck emulation layer?
Post a picture of one of these with the “X” key conspicuously removed and you’d probably get a repost from Sam
I like the teenage engineering style, but is that the hardware that they were stealing Apple secrets for?
This is just a Macropad, right? All of the smarts are on the PC side. So why is it so expensive?
Because (A) it has an OpenAI logo on it and (B) they made $13B and lost $21B last year?
I was hoping this would be codex-cli with much less bloat. Alas.
If we're leaning into audio, why not always-on instead of push-to-talk?
I thought it was a new model.
I did too! That HAD to be by design.
OK, these folks have way too much money. This is like peak-Google vibes.
Lol this is trippy, although not sure how much use I really would get outta this thing
Is this the reason OpenAI decided to steal Apple hardware secrets?
Regardless, device looks nice
Would think they would be doing it for their own hardware device for chatgpt not for developers.
> Is this the reason OpenAI decided to steal Apple hardware secrets?
Of course not.
Presentation is not clear to me. How is it superior to using my keyboard?
AGI is almost here, but first, one more thing... a keyboard controller!
I don't understand. What's costing 230$ here???
what happened to the Jonny Ive and them purchasing his agency?
6.5 billions paid, nothing so far, this was such a sus transaction, sounded like the way to get money out of OpenAI.
"OpenAI will launch a portable, screen-free smart speaker as its first consumer hardware product, Bloomberg News has reported, days after Apple sued the AI start-up and two former employees of the iPhone maker for trade-secret theft." [1]
[1] https://techcentral.co.za/jony-ives-first-openai-device-an-a...
Ordered. Not sure will beat my streamdeck modules, but YOLO
Is it April already?
Steam released a game console with no controller.
OpenAI released an agent controller with no agent.
The state of the tech industry.
Is this a joke? Instantly thought of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1s7m8ld/this_is_the...
Things you do if you definitely are focused on the a Trillion USD industry and SuperDuperUltraMega AGI is 100% possible and what you are fully committed to. Next they’ll spend Millions on a podcast that fails to get 50k hits on YouTube or a design firm whose biggest claim to fame is creating a Ferrari whose interior looks like a Magic Mouse. Say what you want about Anthropic, their Aquihires and interpretability investments at least make sense for an LLM lab.
This is the lamest possible implementation, exactly what I would expect from openAI. Nothing about it is interesting or unique or really leverages the power of LLMs to make a new experience.
wow, great partnership for Work Louder but man, I have a micropad from work louder, it's basically just a weird layout for a macropad.
Is it compatible with Apple cloth though?
Wow, they are going to sell dozens of these!
So it's like a more limited Streamdeck.
This was not worth getting sued by Apple
Damn, OpenAI really jumped the shark
Hate to say it, but this was an instant Buy for me. I love experimenting with new modalities and this is a cool idea pre-packaged. If it doesn't work, what is 200 bucks compared to a SWE salary? It would be a wacky novelty memento of the time. If it is a nice boost to my work by... what... 2% - or just good for a chuckle each day - Good, I'm happy.
This is partially an on-ramp for young people. No experience? Not sure where to start? Buy this gadget! Hook it up to your machine then take lessons on how to use it. All in the OpenAI ecosystem, of course.
Best outcome for OpenAI is that this becomes a status symbol / cool shiny thing that "leet" devs have.
For someone with a lot of experience already, this looks semi-retarded. For a newbie / newcomer it looks like someone finally thought of them.
Or just order any macropad
Finally, a profitable product for OpenAI.
They made a streamdeck?!?
This is more expensive than a streamdeck. The streamdeck has LCD keys you can customize dynamically.
Literally just keymaps
Seems a bit silly (especially given how easy LLM's make building such an accessory)
they would prefer that you never words type manually again
This gives companies a physical thing to buy to demonstrate they are fully AI-enabled
$230 for essentially a fancy numpad that's only useful for one tool? Welcome to the AI revolution
Is this the Jony Ive device?
It looks very sus like an Apple product.
It looks nothing like an Apple product and no, it's not part of the io/Ive partnership.
One step closer to desks with a monitor and a single big red pushbutton to nudge the token spend forward.
I'd personally like one that says "slop me up", or maybe plays an airhorn sample or whatever...
So... an overpriced RGB keyboard? That is what we're doing today?
No microphone input, no speakers, and no included months of Codex membership. What is the point of this device?
So this is why Apple is suing OpenAI and Johnny I’ve? A stream deck with LEDs?
If this is a sign of what’s to come from OAI, it’s going to be worse than Meta devices.
The intelligence knob is hilarious.
Just imagine vibe code slop streamers twiddling it like a DJ and the chat goes crazy. That's where we're headed.
I want to make my frontend look clean and pretty like this too.
The developers who build OpenAI's UI seem really skilled.
It's just a keyboard.
Nothing to see here.
I ordered one because I lack impulse control.
This feels like a missed opportunity for an OpenAI Nintendo Power Glove collab. Smh.
i guess they were stealing pricing logic from apple
i guess this is cool if you are going to expense it as a business but $250 is insane. I'm going to wait for the temu version with the usual hidden mic and phone-home feature
Why not a Stream Deck? I own 3 stream decks, and they are incredibly useful. Not only for coding, but windows controlling, shortcuts for anything. And the best part is that there are small screens you can customize.
Is this the moat?
I had to check the calendar as I thought it’s April fool. What’s the point of this? Isn’t that like the meme of stackoverflow keyboard?
1. looks nice, want.
2. lol, why is this $230
This is the kind of stuff that happens when there’s too much money
"Hey Codex, help me design the most useless hardware you can think of"
> Flick the joystick to launch common Codex workflows like reviewing a PR, debugging an error, or refactoring code.
Uh… what?
Finally! Definitive, tangible, tactile proof that we're near the top of the bubble. /s
Where have I seen this before
https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1ue5inx/i_built...