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.
This is not really intended as a product you will use today.<p>This is an intentionally provocative statement on the future of work, where your keyboard is not supplemented by, but rather <i>replaced</i> by a dozen or so buttons for prompting (via voice), reviewing, approving or rejecting.<p>Codex Micro is a workstation controller for the knowledge worker in sama's 2030 fever dream. I'm not even entirely sure I disagree.
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.<p>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]<p>[1] <a href="https://worklouder.cc/knob1" rel="nofollow">https://worklouder.cc/knob1</a>
I'm guessing they didn't run "knob" past anyone from the UK.<p>Edit: as much as it pains me, this is hacker news, so, knob means cock in the UK.
Their website is blocked by my ISP as being unsafe.
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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>*just found a random review if you want to see other opinions. The comments discuss some of the weird company shenanigans: <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1ngka39/never_buy_this_trash_keyboard_nomad_e_worklouder/" rel="nofollow">https://old.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1ngka3...</a>
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.
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.<p>An electronic Siren's Song if you will.
My first question is this — what does this do that a $50 Streamdeck cannot?
At this point these companies are going to release merch to fund themselves
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 <i>twist</i> on it though.<p><a href="https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck" rel="nofollow">https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck</a>
This is pretty hilarious. Guess people forgot how to use PCs and can only prompt now.
Stop giving me ideas to repurpose my AKAI Fire with a simple Pi extension!!
Is it April 1st already?
$230 for a macropad with an exposed PCB and no washers under the Allen screws.<p>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.<p>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.
We need to bring back the 'turbo' button.[1]<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button#Purpose" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button#Purpose</a>
This is a rebranded/reskinned WORK LOUDER Creator Micro 2 btw (<a href="https://worklouder.cc/creator-micro-2" rel="nofollow">https://worklouder.cc/creator-micro-2</a>). 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.
IMHO this is a much better solution.<p><a href="https://marketplace.elgato.com/product/claude-code-usage-ea7abd37-ad12-473a-a9cd-ab0bfeba3e3c?utm_source=pdp_related_v2" rel="nofollow">https://marketplace.elgato.com/product/claude-code-usage-ea7...</a><p>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.<p>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.
At least it's much more expensive
Or you could get a bluetooth number pad for $20.
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
Or a microcontroller and some buttons for 10
They could've at least made something custom, and claim it was designed with help from GPT 5.6<p>The price for that HW basically implies it either has sizeable margins or is made with artisan methods.
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 <a href="https://epomaker.com/products/epomaker-ek21" rel="nofollow">https://epomaker.com/products/epomaker-ek21</a><p>It's got 20 keys, hot-swappable, and individually addressable RGB.<p>And for an FOSS printable one, <a href="https://github.com/Dwin17/bento" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Dwin17/bento</a>
I made one too, though no LEDs:<p><a href="https://github.com/skorokithakis/macropad" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/skorokithakis/macropad</a><p><a href="https://immich.home.stavros.io/s/macropad" rel="nofollow">https://immich.home.stavros.io/s/macropad</a>
$56 premium for the OpenAI skin. :)
im reading its not well engineered.
Apple must be happy that they let Jony Ive go. What a letdown.<p>(assuming this meh partnership rebranding had his participation)
Work Louder is a different company, the LoveFrom hardware is still unknown at this point.
Pretty sure this isn’t the secret Jonny Ive project.
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.
My though process:<p>1. These abstract product visuals are not helping me understand what this software is<p>2. Wait, it's all about these renders, it's some kind of a joke<p>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]<p>[0] i sell cheap handwired dactyl keyboards in Brazil
They asked ChatGPT for the ideal crossover product and now the dog is wagging.
For the first hour of learning about this, I thought it was an elaborate joke.
It's an overpriced macropad.
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.
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 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.
i'm guessing the primary market for these will be free gifts to enterprise customers at sales meetings.
People with too much money to burn and not enough brains to use it on something better
Its completely pointless yet I still want it. IDK, its the status lights that look fun.
The keyboard community maybe? I think these little macro pads are neat, but I don't have a real use for them either.
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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
The audience is goobers.
And you would need to spend your day at your keyboard for this to be useful anyway. It's just an input device.
My first reaction is WTF. My second reaction isn't here yet.
I thought it was a new model.
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.
It’s $230 vs. $699? That’s almost exactly a third, not half.
Not that long (10 hours) ago this was considered a joke: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1uwzr82/got_my_new_dev_keyboard/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1uwzr82/got_my_...</a>
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.
"It is my pleasure to present you the Codex Box Signature Edition."<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KbRA2RjhgQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KbRA2RjhgQ</a>
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.
Why isn't there a video of it?
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.<p><a href="https://doioshop.com/products/doio-16-keys-programmable-multifunction-mechanical-keyboard-translucent-acrylic-kb16-01?VariantsId=10563" rel="nofollow">https://doioshop.com/products/doio-16-keys-programmable-mult...</a>
I checked the date but no.
Codex micro - is it a tiny coding agent? Or a small coding model? No it is hardware, that has nothing to do with coding.<p>I think they should have called it "codex luna" - because it's small!
OK, these folks have <i>way</i> too much money. This is like peak-Google vibes.
8th openai product named codex btw
Windows and Mac only (no Linux).<p>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.
I thought this was an aprils fools joke. Then i realized it’s July..
Wait. This is only a keyboard?! For how much?!
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.<p>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?
Programming is basically now playing with some keystrokes and joysticks :p
They've been issuing these new tablets to the new people at work, productivity has gone through the roof. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2ZD6J2W" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2ZD6J2W</a>
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): <a href="https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1" rel="nofollow">https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1</a>
So when are we gonna get this: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXzJR7K0wK0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXzJR7K0wK0</a> ?
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.<p>Best outcome for OpenAI is that this becomes a status symbol / cool shiny thing that "leet" devs have.<p>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 was just thinking of making something like this! But more as a novelty than something I realistically expect to use.
I don't understand. What's costing 230$ here???
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?
I like it because it looks sleak, and the colors are neat.<p>However, it really puts in perspective that a large part of my job has just become clicking a few buttons.
This is just a Macropad, right? All of the smarts are on the PC side. So why is it so expensive?
Looks cool. I’m looking for a macro pad with a little LCD that’s Mac and Linux compatible.<p>This looks like it has LEDs but not a screen.<p>Any experience with <a href="https://www.eezbotfun.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.eezbotfun.com/</a> or recommendations for something similar?
Is this a joke? Instantly thought of this: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1s7m8ld/this_is_the_keyboard_claude_deserves/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1s7m8ld/this_is_the...</a><p>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.
Looks fun, but I don't quite understand this product:<p><pre><code> - 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?</code></pre>
Seems like they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
We're rapidly approaching the Jetsons one button workplace territory.
So this is why Apple is suing OpenAI and Johnny I’ve? A stream deck with LEDs?
Finally, a profitable product for OpenAI.
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.
Damn, OpenAI really jumped the shark
Looks like a novelty item made with the purpose of testing their hardware production capabilities before producing a real product.<p>Also, translated pages transform newlines into \n.
Is it April already?
Or just order any macropad
what happened to the Jonny Ive and them purchasing his agency?<p>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]<p>[1] <a href="https://techcentral.co.za/jony-ives-first-openai-device-an-ai-smart-speaker/283738/" rel="nofollow">https://techcentral.co.za/jony-ives-first-openai-device-an-a...</a>
I like the teenage engineering style, but is that the hardware that they were stealing Apple secrets for?
Post a picture of one of these with the “X” key conspicuously removed and you’d probably get a repost from Sam
We march ever closer to the cntl c v keyboard!
This was not worth getting sued by Apple
Where's the Stream Deck emulation layer?
Is it compatible with Apple cloth though?
Lol this is trippy, although not sure how much use I really would get outta this thing
$230 for essentially a fancy numpad that's only useful for one tool? Welcome to the AI revolution
They made a streamdeck?!?
AGI is almost here, but first, one more thing... a keyboard controller!
Is this the reason OpenAI decided to steal Apple hardware secrets?<p>Regardless, device looks nice
Presentation is not clear to me. How is it superior to using my keyboard?
You know you can take that old phone out of the drawer, let an AI code a webpage for you which runs on the phone, you attach it to the side of the keyboard (maybe by gluing some magnets), and you have a cheap Stream Deck you control and can wire however you want.<p>Why don't these companies don't just do that, offer "assistant control pages"?
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.
Ordered. Not sure will beat my streamdeck modules, but YOLO
they would prefer that you never words type manually again
Literally just keymaps
This feels like a missed opportunity for an OpenAI Nintendo Power Glove collab. Smh.
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.
One step closer to desks with a monitor and a single big red pushbutton to nudge the token spend forward.<p>I'd personally like one that says "slop me up", or maybe plays an airhorn sample or whatever...
Is this the moat?
If this is a sign of what’s to come from OAI, it’s going to be worse than Meta devices.
Wow, they are going to sell dozens of these!
So it's like a more limited Streamdeck.
It's just a keyboard.<p>Nothing to see here.
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.
Seems a bit silly (especially given how easy LLM's make building such an accessory)
I want to make my frontend look clean and pretty like this too.<p>The developers who build OpenAI's UI seem really skilled.
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?
i guess they were stealing pricing logic from apple
Is this the Jony Ive device?<p>It looks very sus like an Apple product.
This is the kind of stuff that happens when there’s too much money
I ordered one because I lack impulse control.
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
1. looks nice, want.<p>2. lol, why is this $230
"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.<p>Uh… what?
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Finally! Definitive, tangible, tactile proof that we're near the top of the bubble. /s
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Where have I seen this before<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1ue5inx/i_built_a_status_light_for_claude_code_do_you/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1ue5inx/i_built...</a>