In today’s digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives our devices. Button of the Month is a monthly column that explores the physical pieces of our phones, tablets, and controllers that we interact with every day.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d totally wear the green or blue. There’s just something about this specific photo’s bone-wrapped-in-someone’s-peeled-face vibe... Can’t quite put my finger on it!
But Ive’s magnetic button, with a piston that magically fills a donut hole, does sound cool — and a lot like the awesome buttons that let you swap Apple Watch straps.
Enjoy this video of the tank turn buttons on the new electric G-Wagen, won’t you?
I wanted it to be February’s Button of the Month — partly because its big honking button has an incredible click and shoots out a monster jet of flame, partly because it triples as an alarm clock (!), and partly ‘cuz it hearkens back to Casio’s original invention: a finger ring for cigarettes.
Sadly, the Casio QL-10 seems rare. Last time one hit eBay, it sold for $499. Behold history through other people’s cameras in our gallery instead:
Technology Connections is a phenomenal YouTube channel, and I have no qualms letting Alec’s latest video take the place of our regularly scheduled Button of the Month for December — it’s very good.
I got a tad too busy with daily live courtroom reporting and some gaming handhelds to write or edit this month’s column, but I promise it’ll be back in January! Hint: think blue.
The retro NES styling of the mechanical keyboard is one thing, but the accompanying programmable buttons steal the show.
No batteries, no infrared — just the original “clicker” TV remote’s ultrasonic pings translated into digital commands by an Arduino computer, which then speaks in a robotic voice to get Alexa to do your bidding.
Here’s our Button of the Month about the 1956 gadget — and its service manual.
Also: Liam Neeson used it to blow something up.
We recently re-introduced you to a TV remote for the ages, the Zenith Space Command, which uses tiny hammers and tuning forks instead of electricity! That means no batteries :-)
Here’s a closer look... and we even pulled out our screwdriver to give you a peek inside.
The Space Command didn’t rely on infrared — or batteries.
Remember when we we shared the utterly infuriating elevator buttons stationed in our very own offices? They’ve been vanquished!
Now, instead of every soul aboard a crowded elevator stabbing a keypad in disbelief, a single tap and a single touchscreen press simultaneously summons the elevator, programs it to visit the appropriate floor(s), and points YOU in the right direction. And friends, the doors... they open instantly. Smartest elevators I’ve ever seen.
Changing watch straps isn’t new, but Apple’s hidden little buttons simplified it and took it mainstream.
