[scrumper]

I agree with the author's thesis, that smartphones, as generic information processing tools, offer poor user interfaces for controlling things in our physical environment.

Now, the cost and effort to manufacture hardware is dropping and we have the ability to create interfaces that are not designed as a generic device but designed for a specific person or situation.

This feels very true. The music industry has been taking advantage of this for a while, with all kinds of interesting and innovative tactile controllers interacting with music making software. In that domain companies like Native Instruments are addressing exactly the concerns raised by this article. (Interestingly, the author cites playing music as an example of how an appropriately-crafted physical device (i.e. an instrument) lets the operator focus entirely on the task by minimizing cognitive load.)