Here’s a recent article from Slate Magazine that caught my eye. Computers today are getting much easier to setup and configure. Anyone who remembers how we used to play with IRQ settings to get a sound card to work can attest to the fact that most computers today work right out of the box. Plug in, attach the internet, you’re surfing.

While computers have gotten easier to use, the same can’t be said for televisions. Remember when you used to be able to pick up the remote, turn the TV on, change channel, adjust volume, all within the one control? Today my “improved” home theatre consists of a television, an audio reciever, a DVD Player, a VCR, a Cable Box, and to top it all off a Tivo. If you plug your iPod into your computer, the computer recognizes it, fires up iTunes, syncs the music, all without human intervention. My Tivo remote has no idea if the television is on or not. People now need instructions of the specific steps we need to follow just to watch a movie, as there is no feedback between the controls and any of the components, and those components don’t talk to each other. Makes the simple act of watching TV a pain to figure out. We haven’t even gone into the horror that is hooking all this stuff up.

The article proposes that the interface people at Apple are probably the people to solve this problem.

Check it out here