You name it and they probably make a remote for every single household item you can think of! And that is how we ended up with at least 6 remote controls just for the living room. Just about 5 too many.
Not only do these devices take up lots of space, contributing to unnecessary coffee-table clutter and fast becoming an eye-sore with just too many of them, it is also difficult to keep up or sort through the dozens of different remotes for the various electronic equipment. So we’ve had it with those darn remotes and decided to do something about it. We smashed them up, pull out all the colourful buttons, karate-chopped them into bits, put them all in a blender and then stuffed them into the microwave oven.
And then it was magic.
Enter the Universal Remote.
(Ok. Obviously I lied about what we did with all the remote controls we have…although there were times aplenty when I felt that way!)
So. This magical remote has been supremely god sent; thanks to my father-in-law who planted seeds of geeks into Silver Bullet’s already geeky head. I never realised that my father-in-law is a closet geek (sorry dad!) but I remember seeing how his face lighted up ever so LED-bright as he so passionately and animatedly told Silver Bullet about this nifty little device. Apart from the price, we needed little convincing. Within hours, he got Silver Bullet excitedly drooling (more than Spud ever did) over a piece of an electronic device that could potentially improve our way of life. All hook, line and sinker!
Within days, we had Silver Bullet scouring online and within weeks, this little device was sent to our home.
Enter the Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal Remote Control. It is so smart; it is the most fabulous thing on earth. (I have every reason to believe that was designed by a geek.) It is a one touch activity-based control where you can program up to 15 electronic devices in ONE remote. Believe it or not, that is really all it takes to watch TV or a DVD, listen to the radio, watch TV, play a game or turn on the fan. No more going through a bunch of remotes just to turn on the TV or spend precious 15 minutes figuring out what went wrong or most importantly spending hours explaining to guests how to work those remotes when we are not around.
The buttons can be customized for specific tasks. Backlighting is provided for the buttons as well as the LCD display. The remotes are also rechargeable via the charging station, with low battery notification available when in use.
Getting started is as easy as using the included USB cable to plug the remote into the computer. Then, all you have to do is enter the make and model numbers of the components you have and answer questions about your entertainment setup—like what components are needed for different activities, how everything is connected, and what input is needed for what.
Best of all for an idiot user like me, if, any other component(s) that may be required to use it (such as turning on a TV also when playing a DVD) is not turned on, you can just press a button for help. The device is so smart that it will start searching the set-up again. Once rectified, it will prompt you to answer with a “Did that solve your problem?” All you have to do is hit yes or no. If no, the device will continue to search for the problem and rectify the problem immediately.
Tell me that this isn’t the most intelligent thing ever! What I’d do without my closet geek father-in-law and my darling geeky husband, right! It has only been 3 days since we started using it, but its presence has already made its mark on us.
Super-dooper-yippee-yay! Now THAT is the meaning of life.
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