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I like my Harmony Remote. It's easy to configure but also versatile. And it has real buttons, not like the fingerprint-smudged touch-screen that lacks tactile feedback (such as the Philips Pronto.)

Harmony Remotes, the only activity oriented remote that I know of.

Harmony Remote

Interesting thought, I dunno. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Apple made its own all-in-one remote control, but I love my Harmony Remote. :-)

Don Norman, a colleague of usability expert Jakob Nielsen (who is quoted in the article), has a great essay about "activity-centered design" and the highly-usable Harmony Remote Control.

Folks setting up a home theater should get these instead of the traditional all-in-one remotes just for the WAF (wife acceptance factor).

Check out the Harmony SST-768 at www.harmonyremote.com. They also have a new Harmony 659 with perhaps slightly better ergonomics for non-geeks, but not quite as powerful as the 768. (The 768 isn't bad for non-geeks, but the 659 has more pre-assigned buttons for things like "Watch TV" instead of having to select it on the LCD with the scroll wheel). Not to mention the built-in program guide (useful mostly if you don't have a sat/cable box with a guide, or if it's a slow, painful guide like the TVGuide guide).

Both of them will control PVR's, etc. The "Geek Eye" people were using the 768, which is overkill for that household - the 659 would be a better choice.

Harmony Remote

'nuf said.

One thing you *have* to get is a good universal remote to control all your TV/STEREO/DVD/etc. gear. I just got one of the top of the line models from Harmony, and this thing *RIPS*. Took me about 10 minutes to set the thing up and it works flawlessly.

When I want to watch TV now, I pick up the remote, scroll the LCD until the "WATCH TV" icon appears, and hit one button. The TV fires up, and tunes to my favourite channel. My stereo receiver power up and kicks over to the proper channel. One button - everything works. Same sort of deal for watching a DVD or tuning to your favourite radio station. It also supports all the PVR gear and a boatload of electronics. All of the updating is done via their web site, which is constantly updated, so that is a great thing -- no futzing with your 12 different remote controls to get it programmed.

It's also got a built in channel selector, which is nice for a little thing called "covert channel surfing", which allows me to only flip around when I see something I like, as opposed to hitting a new channel every second -- while I find it a little slow, my wife appreciates the extra 10 or so seconds she gets to watch a channel.

Check it out at harmonyremote.com.

I had a cool sig but my wife made me get rid of it.

Geez, did -anybody- read the description of this thing? I quote: "The Electro-Luminous Display combines the flexibility of a touch-screen with the push button feel of a traditional remote control, so you get the best of both worlds!"

Take a good, close look at the animation of this remote. It's not an LCD remote. It's got buttons, albeit chicklet-style buttons. Only the buttons that can be used in the current mode are lit up. The animations are a lot like the animations on those crappy LCD video games you can buy for $10 at your local toy store.

Unless you lost all of the nerve endings on your fingers, this thing can be used without looking at it, just like any other remote with buttons.

Now, if you want a programmable remote with buttons and an LCD, check out The Harmony Remote. Much better than a Pronto and the like, and much more advanced than this one.

2.) The remote with the best U.I. that I have found is the Harmony Remote. It is very MS-Windows centric, but you can just give it model numbers and it downloads via USB the commands into stand-alone remote with a truly terrific interface. It understands like commands like "Watch DVDs" require commands to multiple devices. It has enough smarts to keep track of the state of all the relevant devices. It has a convenient interface is someone happens to walk in front of a device at the wrong time. If you are buying just one remote, this is the one to buy. Most of the operations are on a clickable thumbwheel with an automaticly backlit display, but it has just enough well chosen, well shaped buttons, that it is a joy to use.

3.) Although not stand-alone, I use a ZephIR on the USB of my Mac. Although it doesn't have the great interface of the harmony remote, and it also has a convenient web based database of equipment models. And like the harmony remote, you can upload the definitions of your own equipment. I uploaded the controls for my Toto Zoe Bidet, to the ZephIR, and I can definately control the the spritz on my lap bottom from my Mac laptop.

None of these remotes will let me bring up a TV schedule on a web page, then click in a show's box to queue it for programming into a VCR. Ideally, it should manage multiple VCRs, each with its own native time recording interface, and look for alternate viewing times to get everything I selected on some tape.