$490 Keyboard Can Now Be Yours

I don't post enough wacky tech gear on this blog, but it's Monday, so I'm gonna mix it up. Here's a keyboard that looks impossible to type on, but the company (Maltron, which I love saying aloud) says it's just about the most ergonomic thing on earth. It's also $490 (the company charges 375 British pounds for the keyboard if you buy it direct (that's $691!), so this version from Think Geek is a steal!), or about the price of an entire Mac Mini.

If you think this is crazy, check out the one-handed keyboards Maltron makes. These are some wild looking peripherals, though of course I'm sure that one-armed individuals find them irreplaceable.

Now I've long seen so-called ergonomic keyboards on the market and I've used many of them personally. I can't type on any of these things with any kind of speed. My fingers just can't find the buttons; I guess 20 years of working on a flat keyboard will do that to you.

But Maltron's keyboards do claim to increase typing speed as well as decreasing the effort it takes to type: "One of the major causes of RSI is the need to pound the key of membrane key switches to make it activate. This constant pounding takes it toll on the human body over the years. Cherry MX key switches activate HALF WAY thru the key stroke. This means that the user does not have to pound the keys into the base of the keyboard. This significantly reduces the stress to the human body."

Sounds scientific to me.

So, I get to my point: What keyboard do you swear by? And if you use an ergonomic one, has it really made a difference? Post your responses in the comments, if you please.