At the start of the year, I lamented the loss in functionality of one of my Roku remote's buttons after Sony shuttered its PlayStation Vue streaming service. As it happens, this turned out to rank rather low on the list of 2020's biggest problems, but I return to you this December with both good and bad news.

I've recently begun using the Roku remote from another device, my Roku Ultra. It works a lot like my Roku Streaming Stick+'s remote, albeit with a much bulkier frame that makes me feel as if I'm holding a deeply stale Twinkie (I'm not sure if that's a physical state that a Twinkie can attain, but hopefully you understand). It also has added A and B buttons that are oddly positioned. I don't know what they do, but they are new and different from what I'm accustomed to, and thus they frighten me. I don't plan to investigate the situation further.

Above those two is the standard layout of four buttons that jump you directly into an app. Netflix and Hulu are both welcome as such prominent streaming services. A third is for Sling, a service that I do not subscribe to, thus making it function as nothing more than an advertisement. So that's not great. But, on the bright side, it at least continues to exist, and so I begrudge it less than I do the continued blight that is the Vue button on my other remote.