The landscape QWERTY keyboard has disappeared from smartphone market for almost five years now. No further High-End landscape slider was produced since 2012.
Heavy IM users, technology enthusiasts, hackers, science researchers, Linux developers and users who care about productivity, have been waiting for a successor for a long time.
Now with the Physical Keyboard Mod, the wait is over.
The Keyboard Mod features a 5-row landscape QWERTY keyboard while sliding out, and screen can be tilted between 0-45 degrees. It is also planned to provide extra battery to power the device longer.* With Keyboard Mod, your Moto Z is transformed into a mini PC and will be productive again!
*This is under plan, may vary in final model.
We have designed the layout carefully to maximise the convenience for different user groups.
Non-QWERTY layout will be produced after we ship initial QWERTY layout keyboards.
For AZERTY, QWERTZ and Scandic Layout users, please refer to the Non-QWERTY layout perks.
We care about the comfortness of your typing experience. Hence we added:
Various tests will be performed under different scenarios, to make sure it delivers the best experience. The individual keys are designed to survive more than 200,000 hits.
We use Teflon™ Coating for the sliding track, to ensure smoothness and durability of the mechanical part.
The sliding frame is designed to have more than 100,000 complete slides to ensure its lifespan.
We are currently working with Motorola to improve the overall structure. More engineering information will be shared later once they are 100% confirmed.
We offer 3 colours to match your phone: Black, White and Gold. Black will be the only option for Super Early Bird Perk, and all three colours will be available in Early Bird Perk. *
3 colours are not enough? We have a Special Edition that will only be available once at Indiegogo, and won’t be re-produced afterwards – The “Livermorium Starter Edition”
We are aware the importance of having a keyboard on handhelds. And so do you. By purchasing the Limited Edition, you will not only show your support to us but cal also own an “once in a life time” product, which will never be able to get after this Campaign.
*If a typical colour’s demand is below minimum requirement for manufacturing, the colour will be shipped as black.
For product development, Livermorium is teamed up with some top-level engineers and mechanical designers in this field. You can find detailed team info at bottom.
So far we have finished conceptual level design and already verified on some technical aspects. We have also validated all the structural parts with simulation.
The Moto MDK we received early this month was used to verify keyboard input through the mod, by hooking a surface keyboard at the back of MDK and input text, and the keyboard works perfectly.
The next step is building a prototype of the enclosure and sliding mechanism. We are in negotiation with Motorola to get the key document and components, such as the metal connectors and magnetic parts, in order to build a real working sample. This is planned to be finished later this month, where results and progress will be shared here on a regular basis!
Afterwards is the tooling stage. This is where we need your support to fund us with the best mouldings and toolings for the enclosure, keyboard and sliding frame.A sliding keyboard has much more moving parts and more complicated than ordinary “one piece” device. We need the financial support from you to make sure that the quality is not compromised.
When the tooling is finished, we will build testing samples to verify everything goes well as it should be, and we will apply for different certifications, such as FCC, CE, RoHS, UL etc, to assure you that this is a safe device to use and legal to sell! This will also need financial support.
Finally we will use the funds to reserve the essential material and components to build the device – and get them assembled in one of the Foxconn factories, to assure you the best quality! We will also need the funding to pay for production line and labours, as well as quality control.
We will work our absolute best and plan to deliver the keyboard in your hands by as early as June/July!
Building a slider evolves a lot of engineering effort and a relatively higher upfront cost, as we have more moving parts and a more sophisticated structure. To sum up, funds will be used for:
Making this device isn’t one man’s job. We have a talented and experienced team behind us to deliver this product with the best quality we can get.
Liangchen – Msci from Imperial College London, Bsci from University College London. Currently working in technology manufacturing industry. Liangchen started to use landscape slider since 2007, from the Nokia N810 till N950. And he deeply misses the keyboard in recent years, until he saw the Moto Mod Challenge – “If the market hasn’t got one, why don’t we make one for ourselves?”
Michael – EMBA University of Zhejiang. Michael is an entrepreneur and a veteran in Consumer and Industrial Device manufacturing Industry. In the past 23 years, Michael has designed, manufactured and launched countless successful commercial projects with his team. Michael has his own principle – Never make cheap but useless devices. All has to be the best.
Anna – Anna spends here recent 15 years in manufacturing industry and helps Michael managing international businesses.
Duke – Duke is a senior product manager with 10 years’ experience and will help managing every aspects and make sure our project goes as it should be.
Oxbo – Oxbo is one of our heroes here. He serves as a senior structural and mechanical engineer and has 13 years’ experience, which means he has designed slider or other form-factor before bar-style took over the whole market. And he is excited and confident for this challenge.
Peter – Peter is our make-up artist here… Sorry senior ID Engineer. He has turned a lot of boring structures into beautiful looking products for the previous 13 years, and the products including this one.
Lily – Lily has worked for 10 years as a product manager and will also help on managing general aspects on this one, there are many many parts to be managed in this project which needs her support, trust me.
Bruce – Bruce has served his previous 11 years as a Senior Hardware Engineer. Like Oxbo, he has experience in keyboard design, before they disappear from the market. And his recent work was officially chosen by Microsoft as one of the official partner device.
Rita – Rita is our Senior Supply Chain Manager, she will take care of all the logistics, and probably your device will be shipped by her. (Or by someone she assigned to… at least.)