»In praise of the peanut.

The New York Times has an encomium of the TiVo remote,
including commentary by Jakob Nielsen, Mr Usabiility himself (who uses ReplayTV, apparently).

Aside from the distinctive shape (although the vertical symmetry can be disorientating), the remote has beautiful audio feedback: when scanning a program, or navigating the hierachical menus, clear, euphonic sounds provide useful indicators of progress (I can *almost* program the recorder without using the tv monitor!).

And, unlike any other remote in the A/V armada¹, I've used every single button ²

¹Pioneer DVD player, DirecTv TiVo, Sony A/V Receiver, Sony TV

²The DirecTv model has a whopping 36! TiVo's standard has 30 or 32.