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Button of the month: a dive into how we interact with our devices on a physical, tactile level

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 look at what some of those buttons and switches are like on devices old and new, and aims to appreciate how we interact with our devices on a physical, tactile level.

  • Today I learned about the ‘80s Casio calculator that doubles as a massive lighter.

    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:


    <em>Makes for </em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/44337451@N00/5677495372/"><em>an iconic photo</em></a><em>.</em>

    1/7

    Makes for an iconic photo.
    Photo by Vincente Zorilla Palau
  • The Indiglo button let there be light

    The Indiglo button on a modern Timex Weekender.
    The Indiglo button on a modern Timex Weekender.
    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    Long before the self-lit pixels of OLED phones illuminated our lives, there was a time many portable gadgets didn’t shine at all. Remember when the display of practically every Nintendo Game Boy was designed to be viewed by sunlight? Remember when it was tough to tell time with your average wristwatch after dark?

    But in 1992, Timex popularized a push-button technology that could bathe any small display in a soothing, sea-green glow. And even though the actual button was often bad, it literally changed the face of portable electronics.

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  • Sean Hollister

    Nov 30, 2023

    Sean Hollister

    The forbidden popcorn button.

    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.


  • Jon Porter

    Oct 31, 2023

    Jon Porter

    8BitDo’s NES buttons are a big, red, Nintendo-themed invitation to experiment

    8BitDo Retro Keyboard on a desk next to NES-themed buttons, controller, and SNES cartridges.
    The keyboard and buttons are an ode to all things Nintendo.

    When you think about it, adding two extra buttons to a keyboard, a peripheral that already has dozens of keys built in, is kind of ridiculous. Why add more buttons when so many modern keyboards already let you customize their existing keys to do exactly what you want? Are you really so attached to your dusty old Pause Break key that you’re not prepared to reassign it?

    And yet, the appearance alone of 8BitDo’s Dual Super Buttons offers half the answer. The peripheral buttons are giant, red, and look like you should be yelling “fire the torpedoes” with every press. Even if you don’t immediately have a use for them, they have a playful and fun design that makes you want to experiment and seek one out. You buy a functional, understated device like the Stream Deck because you have a use for it. You buy the Dual Super Buttons because you want to find a use.

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  • Sean Hollister

    Oct 1, 2023

    Sean Hollister

    TIL someone got the amazing analog Space Command remote to control Alexa.

    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.


  • Dan Seifert

    Sep 25, 2023

    Dan Seifert

    The Action Button is the most significant new iPhone feature in years

    A shot of the side of the iPhone 15 Pro showing its Action Button.
    So small, so powerful.
    Image: Apple

    The most significant new thing in the iPhone 15 Pro this year isn’t its lighter titanium frame, new A17 Pro processor, or its camera system (although all are appreciated). For me, it’s the Action Button: the little button above the volume keys that replaces the mute switch that had been on every iPhone since the very first one.

    The Action Button is perhaps the biggest hardware upgrade the iPhone line has received in years. It’s not a particularly advanced piece of technology — it’s literally just a button — but its programmability lets you use your iPhone in completely new ways.

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  • Andrew Marino

    Aug 31, 2023

    Andrew Marino

    This USB button helps Jeopardy! contestants get their buzz on

    An arm grasps a fist-sized round black metal rod with a glowing red button on top, just underneath the thumb.
    Many Jeopardy! contestants say they used this button to practice buzzing in before the show.
    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    The press of a single button can mean the difference between winning thousands of dollars on national television — or winning nothing at all. Jeopardy!’s buzzer is arguably the most infamous game show button; over the past 59 years, the “signaling device” has become a behind-the-scenes character of its own. The button on a stick inspires future contestants to train their hand-eye coordination, reaction time, and handling, all in an attempt to gain mere milliseconds over the competition. 

    How do you practice such a specific skill set? Jeopardy!’s producers don’t hand out buzzers. Many players have used clicky pens or Pez dispensers to simulate the signaling device, but you can’t measure milliseconds of improvement that way.

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  • Sean Hollister

    Aug 7, 2023

    Sean Hollister

    Mechanical marvel.

    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.


  • Sean Hollister

    Jul 12, 2023

    Sean Hollister

    We defeated bad elevator buttons!

    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.


  • The unsung heroes of the Apple Watch are its hidden buttons

    An upturned Apple Watch surrounded by spare straps, with its hidden band release button displayed prominently.
    The buttons on its underside are the key to the Apple Watch’s “strap monster” status.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    In the wide world of wristwatches, there is no easier way to dress to your aesthetic or customize your timepiece than by swapping straps and bands. There are all kinds of straps out there, from nylon NATOs and leather bund straps to hotly debated metal link bracelets. Most watch straps are universal across similarly sized traditional watches, an open ecosystem for anyone to explore.

    But none are as simple and convenient as the proprietary little band release buttons on the underside of every Apple Watch. 

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  • Sean Hollister

    Apr 30, 2023

    Sean Hollister

    The Stream Deck mastered the LCD key by making it peripheral

    Close-up of buttons on a Stream Deck
    Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

    Like many great products, the Elgato Stream Deck wasn’t exactly a new idea.

    When the very first one debuted six years ago this month, we instantly compared it to Art Lebedev’s legendary Optimus Maximus keyboard, which promised an array of swirling OLED screens under your fingertips an entire decade earlier. Razer, too, pioneered LCD keys before their time, tacking them onto a keyboard and the company’s very first Blade laptop.

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  • Victoria Song

    Mar 31, 2023

    Victoria Song

    Fitbit’s attempt to disappear the button proved why they matter

    Person with colorful manicure using the Fitbit Charge 3 with a clear view of the inductive button.
    The Fitbit Charge 3 was the first to introduce the inductive button. Confusion ensued.
    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    It’s easy to see why gadget makers are so fixated on touchscreens. Swiping is intuitive. It enables sleek lines for a futuristic aesthetic. It’s the easiest way to banish bezels and maximize screen real estate. So I understood why Fitbit was chuffed when it introduced the inductive button on the Fitbit Charge 3. Begone side button protrusion, and behold the slim profile of a modern fitness tracker!

    This is what an unforced error looks like.

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  • Mitchell Clark

    Feb 28, 2023

    Mitchell Clark

    The grill ignition button is a reminder of happy summer days

    Picture of a red ignition button on an ice-encrusted grill.

    It is 28 degrees Fahrenheit on top of this mountain, before you factor in the wind that’s blowing snow sideways into my face. I’m sitting on a rock with my soda can-sized backpacking stove the size of a soda can trying to make lunch and regretting my decision to go hiking in the middle of February. I press a small button on a pen-size rod that I’m holding over the burner, bringing a spark to life for just an instant. The familiar whoosh of gas igniting means I can start heating up ramen — lucky me.

    But wait, how did pressing that button cause a spark? My lighter doesn’t have a flint and steel or any batteries. It’s not even solar powered (not that I remember what sunlight looks like; it’s winter in Washington). So how can it start a fire? Magic? No, it’s actually an interesting quirk of physics and material science. Come, sit by this sad replacement for a campfire with me, and I’ll tell you how it works using an example from happy summer days rather than miserable winter afternoons.

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  • Sean Hollister

    Jan 31, 2023

    Sean Hollister

    The Nintendo Switch showed us we deserve more from joysticks

    Image of Joy-Cons in a grip on a light green background surrounded by an N64 and GameCube controller.
    The Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons, in a grip, flanked by their N64 and GameCube predecessors.
    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    Every evening, my kids beg for “Mario,” and I know what that means — watching their old man wrestle with a pair of Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers while hopefully saving a princess. It’s not always easy timing tricky jumps in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, especially not when the controls are fighting you.

    That’s not a lame dad excuse: we beat both games, and we’re on to Super Mario Galaxy now. But I can’t count how many times Joy-Con drift sent my mustachioed plumber plunging to his doom. When my left Joy-Con died, Mario started walking off edges all by himself. Now, my right Joy-Con is a distracted boyfriend meme, its erroneous joystick signals always aiming me in the wrong direction. This’ll be my third set of Joy-Cons in five years, and I’ve had enough.

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  • Sean Hollister

    Dec 30, 2022

    Sean Hollister

    The button on Canon’s image-stabilized binoculars unlocked superhuman sight

    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    From pirates to spies to kid detectives, it’s a common Hollywood trope: hold a simple spyglass or binoculars up to your eyes, and you’ll get a crystal-clear cylindrical picture of what’s going on.

    That’s horseshit, of course. Unless you’ve got the hands of a surgeon, it’s surprisingly hard to line up eyeballs, multiple pieces of glass, and a faraway subject. Kid Sean was sad to learn that fact. But I’ll never forget the day Teen Sean pressed the magic button that made all the difference: the button atop the image-stabilized binoculars that Canon still sells today.

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  • Mitchell Clark

    Jul 30, 2022

    Mitchell Clark

    The Google Pixel’s squeeze for assistant was a button without a button

    Photo of someone squeezing a Pixel 2 to activate Google assistant
    Putting essential features at your fingertips is good, actually.
    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    The Pixel 2 is an almost five-year-old phone, but it introduced a feature that I miss more and more with each passing year. It was called Active Edge, and it let you summon Google Assistant just by giving your phone a squeeze. In some ways, it’s an unusual idea. But it effectively gave you something sorely lacking on modern phones: a way to physically interact with the phone to just get something done.

    Looking at the sides of the Pixel 2 and 2 XL, you won’t see anything to indicate that you’re holding anything special. Sure, there’s a power button and volume rocker, but otherwise, the sides are sparse. Give the phone’s bare edges a good squeeze, though, and a subtle vibration and animation will play, as Google Assistant pops up from the bottom of the screen, ready to start listening to you. You don’t have to wake the phone up, long-press on any physical or virtual buttons, or tap the screen. You squeeze and start talking.

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  • Jay Peters

    Jun 30, 2022

    Jay Peters

    The Steam Deck’s best button is its software

    The Steam Deck is shown running Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade.
    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    The Steam Deck has a lot of buttons. There’s a D-pad, all the typical face buttons, two control sticks that also respond to capacitive touch and can be pushed down like buttons, two trackpads with haptic feedback that are also pressure-sensitive buttons, two shoulder bumpers, two analog shoulder triggers, and four buttons on the back of the device behind the grips. 

    Somehow, they all feel like they’re exactly in the right place while you’re holding the device, and in writing the latest in our long-running Button of the Month series, you might think that I’d wax poetic about just one of them. But for me, the true magic of the Steam Deck is that any button can be the awesome button, thanks to the device’s excellent software.

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  • Mitchell Clark

    May 31, 2022

    Mitchell Clark

    The push-button ignition was a luxurious way to start your car until it wasn’t

    Press-n-go.
    Press-n-go.
    Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    The first time I started a car by pressing a button, it felt too easy and convenient — like I had somehow stumbled into a tax bracket I don’t belong in. “You’re telling me,” I thought, “that I can just leave my keys in my pocket, and the car will let me get in and drive around?” 

    The push-button ignition is one of those buttons that doesn’t really add any new functionality over the thing it’s replacing (in this case, the ignition system that has you insert and turn a key). It exists solely for the sake of convenience, a job that it excels at. You get in the car, press down on the brake pedal and a button, and you’re ready to drive. It’s barely more difficult than unlocking your phone. 

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  • Mitchell Clark

    Apr 29, 2022

    Mitchell Clark

    The Mr. Coffee ‘brew now’ button is an escape from sleepiness

    One simple, clicky button.
    One simple, clicky button.
    Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

    In the age of aesthetically pleasing morning routines, a cheap electric coffee maker can feel a bit dated — something to begrudgingly use at the office rather than a gadget that brings joy to your kitchen. And while I love the fancy coffee gadgets that require a manual, multi-step ritual, there’s one thing that makes me turn to a standard Mr. Coffee machine every morning: its dead-simple “brew now” button that instantly starts the process of getting caffeine into my body. 

    The single-button operation means I don’t have to navigate the complexities of brewing temps or ratios while I’m still half-asleep. I just press it, it lights up, and the machine gurgles to life, heating up water and pushing it up a tube onto the coffee grounds I’ve added to it. The only decision I have to make is how much coffee I’ll need to get through the day.

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Mar 31, 2022

    Chaim Gartenberg

    The BlackBerry Storm showed why you should never turn a touchscreen into a button

    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    In 2007, the iPhone ushered in an era of touchscreen gadgets that caused most buttons to vanish from our phones forever. But there was one brief moment in the gray, transitory haze between buttons and touchscreens that an unlikely company tried to fuse the two together. BlackBerry split the difference by boldly asking, “What if a touchscreen was also a hardware button?”

    Thus was born the BlackBerry Storm, a device whose entire touchscreen doubled as a pressable button. The Storm was one of the first (and last) attempts to bridge the legacy world of physical keyboards and the modern world of touchscreens. But to understand the existence of the BlackBerry Storm and its bizarre clicking screen, we first need to go back and understand BlackBerry at the height of its power — and why it wanted to keep buttons alive. 

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Feb 28, 2022

    Chaim Gartenberg

    The Steam Controller’s troubled trackpads made for a better Steam Deck

    PC or console? Mouse and keyboard, or controller? It’s a debate that’s raged for nearly as long as video games themselves. So in 2013, Valve — creator of games like Half-Life and Portal, and the founder of Steam, the beating heart of PC gaming — attempted to fuse the two camps together. 

    The Steam Controller was originally introduced as part of Valve’s Steam Machine push. The initiative attempted to convince partners to build gaming PCs that would sit in a living room like an Xbox or a PlayStation, but run the massive library of PC games already available on Steam. Plenty of PC owners have hooked up their computer to their television, but the Steam Machine project had bigger ambitions to turn living room PC gaming into a platform

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Jan 28, 2022

    Chaim Gartenberg

    The eject button held all the power on the original Xbox

    The most important button on the original Xbox wasn’t the power button: it was the button to eject the disc tray. 

    Conceptually, this doesn’t make sense. Of course the power button should be the most important button — it turns on (and off) the whole console. But that attitude is steeped in our understanding of modern devices, where our games and apps are far more self-contained than they were during the original Xbox’s heyday.

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Dec 29, 2021

    Chaim Gartenberg

    You must never press the original Razr’s forbidden internet button

    The first phone I ever owned was a Motorola Razr. The Razr’s buttons are some of the finest ever to grace a mobile device. The keypad is laser-etched out of a sheet of shimmering aluminum, and when pressed, ignites in a lambent blue glow that looked like the sci-fi future. 

    But there was one button that I was terrified to press. In all my years of owning a Razr, I can’t say I tapped it more than once or twice, and never on purpose: the internet button. 

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Nov 25, 2021

    Chaim Gartenberg

    The snooze button is the best part of the world’s most hated gadget

    Few gadgets are more hated than the alarm clock, a device whose primary purpose is to rudely rip you from the pleasant world of sleep into the cold, harsh, unforgiving reality that we live in every day — and whose level of functionality is directly proportional to how goddamn annoying the beeping sound it can make is. 

    But within virtually all alarm clocks is also a crucial reprieve: the snooze button, a temporary salve for the alarm’s cruel clarion call, a stay of execution for the day you will inevitably have to face. It is the phrase “just a few more minutes” rendered in plastic. 

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Oct 22, 2021

    Chaim Gartenberg

    It’s party time, smash the EXTRA BASS button

    The button is simple, almost plain. A flat black circle, simple dye-sublimated letters, and a small LED pinprick to let you know that it’s on. “EXTRA BASS,” it declares in tall, bold capitals. For indeed, the EXTRA BASS button only does one blindingly obvious thing: it adds extra bass. 

    The speaker in question here is a Sony XB90 Extra Bass High Power Audio System. It is a product without pretension, without guile or duplicity. It has Extra Bass in the name, and the eponymous button is a microcosm of the device, a thing that encapsulates the form and function in a neat, tidy shorthand.

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