Buttons to turn me ON

On the front panel of my all my sound system components, which are about three years old, there are large ON/OFF buttons. The remote controls have them too. The amplifier remote control even has a separate buttons for ON and OFF.

When I got my last mobile phone I could not find an ON/OFF button. “Start Call” and “End Call” functions are very salient, the number pad too, but how do I turn this device off? I feel that the ON/OFF function that was one of the most important and some times was even safety related had lost its significance and this is an act of interests. The service providers wish to keep my phone ON, making the act of turning it OFF hidden in the only menu that is reachable by long press on the “End Call” button.

Does any one turn his mobile phone OFF any more? Or do we put it in silence / vibrating mode?

When reviewing the iLiad by iRex, a new e-ink reader, it seems that this pattern of down grading the ON/OFF function is spreading out. For the proper discloser, I think that it is a smooth device with a lot of appeal and a promising future. It is obvious that a lot of effort was put into the user interface and the physical layout. But in a short field study I made more than 90% failed to turn it ON (with out reading the manual). Most of them had a degree in engineers or nature science.
As you can see in the picture below, on the top right corner of the device, the immediate suspect is located. My friends tried to press it with different strategies (short, long and double) with out success.

Well the ON/OFF button is hiding at the low right corner of the device. It is engraved in the devise body and can be found only when tilting the device. According to the device specifications it can hold up to 12 hours of proper use (well what proper use is?) but still, with this impressive ability why hiding the ON/OFF button?
After several days of happy use, without reading the manual, I still don’t know what the round button at the right top corner does. Sometimes when I’m board and no one is looking, I press it… maybe something will happen.
Any ways, this interesting device and the raise of the e-ink technology brings by new and old challenges. Most of us remember vaguely the days of monochrome monitors. But with time, we got used to design colorful user interfaces. Monochrome interfaces are quite rare at the moment or at least not in the center of attention. Certainly there are monochrome interfaces, in old mobile phones, cheap MP3 players, and heavy duty military and industrial applications. Still it is far from the mainstream. When adopting existing UI methodologies to monochrome devices we have to think out of the box. I will review this matter thoroughly in another post.