I know Jakob is both a respected figure and a lightning rod of controversy in the Web design community. I’ve continued to read his Alertbox columns every two weeks, although they don’t feel quite so insightful anymore (which probably says good things about the state of the web, however far we still have to go).
His latest, Remote Control Anarchy, immediately earns a place among his best ever. Just the picture of the six remotes says it all. I’m almost tempted to take a picture of our four current remotes (TiVo, DVD, receiver, VCR) and two abandoned (cable TV, TV) just to compare. The TiVo remote has justly earned a fair bit of praise, although I feel it, too, could go on a button diet.
And people wonder why Apple spends its time trying to use the computer as a gateway to the living room… when the computer is the more usable device, the living room isn’t even putting up a fight!