Why you will have to claw my TiVo Remote From My Cold Dead Hands

Of all the industrial design I've seen, nothing compares with my TiVo. And yes, this is probably a side effect of the fact that I watch way too much television -- but: when you line TiVo's screens against the Comcast standard, DirecTV, or frankly, just about anything else I can think of. Especially when you consider that it works even on low-def TVs and is eminently readable, a feat that is nearly impossible considering the nature and resolution of conventional tube-based television.

Part if its magic is that the remote is one of the simplest advanced remote there is. Each primary button is easily detected by shape and the key buttons are distinctly colored.

Paradoxically, so much was right about the first edition, very little has changed in the fundamental interface. What has been added is direct bridges to several video on demand services including Amazon and Netflix. While the selection on Netflix is limited, you can get almost anything you want to from Amazon (for a fee, of course.)

But like all good interface, it allows you to ignore the irrelevant in pursuit of what you want. For instance, once you target a show, it gets your content from any channel you want. Similarly it uses cloud logic to find programs like the ones you watch and rate.

The system has evolved to highlight and filter for high-def content and its storage is substantital enough to include a good mix of hgh def and conventional programming.

Its my life's ambition to build a tool that solves a problem as elegantly and as completely as TiVo. I have yet to see any similar product that comes close. No matter how hard Comcast or DirectTV pushes its brand hardware, I'll always go the extra mile to keep my TiVo operating with whatever channel I use.

The only thing that would make me leave TiVo is a quantum shift to Internet-delivered programming, which might make TiVo irrelevant.