> I still don't know why every computing device must have a color screen that plays videos. It's mainly because hardware design is more expensive than software

> I still don't know why every computing device must have a color screen that plays videos. It's mainly because hardware design is more expensive than software design. I've been working for a while on a side project that's going to be a standalone "appliance" of sorts, and it's much easier to basically punt on the hardware -- just toss a general-purpose SoC in there, with a big old touchscreen on top, and then do the entire UI in software -- than it is to iteratively design the UI in hardware, with traditional buttons, switches, LCD multiline displays, etc. Even though I think the overall UX is often much better with traditional hard controls (more tactile feedback, easier to use without looking or with vision impairments... long list). 3D printing is closing this gap a little, but it's still a heck of a lot easier to upload some new files to a touchscreen-based device and plop it in front of your testers than it is to produce a new version of a hard control panel.