The impossible dream of the universal remote

万能遥控器的“不可能之梦”

You don’t really ever have to explain why a universal remote is a good idea. You have a bunch of stuff that needs controlling; this thing controls them all. Many companies have set out to build a product worthy of this idea, and one product came much closer than most. It was called the Harmony, and for many years it was the best universal remote on the market. Maybe the only one that mattered. And still, even the Harmony couldn’t make it work.

你其实根本不需要解释为什么万能遥控器是个好主意。你有一堆需要控制的设备，而这个小东西能把它们全部搞定。许多公司都曾试图打造出一款配得上这一理念的产品，其中有一款产品比大多数竞争对手都更接近成功。它就是 Harmony，多年来它一直是市场上最好的万能遥控器，甚至可能是唯一值得一提的产品。然而即便如此，Harmony 最终也没能彻底解决所有问题。

On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Harmony. The Verge’s David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and John Higgins are joined by Matt Rogers, the CEO of Mill and former co-founder of Nest, to reckon with two decades of buttons and touchscreens. The product begins as the Easy Zapper, takes off, sells to Logitech, expands like crazy for a number of years… and then begins to fade. Sure, you could argue smart TVs and integrated entertainment systems just made the whole idea irrelevant. But there’s something about the universal remote that feels as enticing as ever. So we try to figure out why.

在本期《Version History》节目中，我们将讲述 Harmony 的故事。《The Verge》的 David Pierce、Nilay Patel 和 John Higgins 将与 Mill 首席执行官、Nest 前联合创始人 Matt Rogers 一起，回顾过去二十年里按键与触摸屏的发展历程。这款产品最初名为 Easy Zapper，随后迅速崛起，被罗技（Logitech）收购，经历了数年的疯狂扩张……然后开始逐渐淡出视野。当然，你可能会说智能电视和集成娱乐系统的出现让万能遥控器的概念变得无关紧要了。但万能遥控器身上似乎总有一种魅力，让人难以抗拒。因此，我们试图探究其中的原因。

This is the first episode of the fourth season of Version History. (We are so back.) For the next several weeks, we’re telling a bunch of stories about the smart home, from Hue lights to Keurig coffee to the viral sensation that was The Clapper.

这是《Version History》第四季的第一集。（我们正式回归了。）在接下来的几周里，我们将讲述一系列关于智能家居的故事，从 Hue 智能灯泡到 Keurig 咖啡机，再到曾经风靡一时的“拍手开关”（The Clapper）。