You may know Dov Moran, or at least know of him. He was the chairman and founder of M-Systems, the company that created the DiskOnChip and DiskOnKey, and which was later sold to SanDisk. He was also founder and chairman of the not so successful start-up cell phone manufacturer known as Modu which sold several patents to Google.

In 2010 Moran founded a company called KeyView, and their development team has worked on the KeyView Smartype keyboard for about two years. In 2012 Moran launched a company named Comigo to develop a smart set-top-box. KeyView's press release describes Dov Moran as a "serial entrepreneur", and that appears to be a fair evaluation.

Key Attributes of the KeyView Smartype Keyboard

The concept is not rocket-science, but will almost certainly find a core group of PC users that need, or just want the features offered.

Perhaps of greater interest is the ability to add more functionality with a variety of applications such as weather, e-mail notification, a clock, and other unique utilities that reside in the keyboard itself and are capable of delivering custom content such as stock tickers and news.

Availability & Pricing

Right now the KeyView Smartype Keyboard is available only in Israel's retail channels. An international launch is planned for the near future. Pricing has not yet been announced.