TiVo’s skip button changed how we watch TV forever – the verge, the verge
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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 will look at what some of those buttons and switches are like on devices old and new to appreciate how we interact with them on a physical, tactile level.
For years, the word TiVo was synonymous with DVRs. Launched back in the heady days of , the product came on the scene and quickly changed how we watched TV forever – and it all started with a button on its remote that represented a major leap forward in technology.
Before TiVo, you could record shows from a live broadcast on VHS tapes, but the process was limited and costly. You’d need a VCR that could record shows plus the tapes themselves, which cost extra money and took up space. For all that, the technology was still limited; recordings had to be made manually, every time. And while tapes were good for recording things to watch later, they didn’t give you much control over a live broadcast while it was actually happening.
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