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The link you posted is just, apparently, a redirector. Logitech Products > Harmony® Remote Controls

Anyway, this remote resembles the Tivo remote quite a bit. That's nice; I like the shape of the Tivo remote. In fact, the Harmony 688 is listed as being able to control a Tivo. I may have to look into getting one of these; I'd seen pictures but didn't know who made the remote. Now I do. I have set up my Tivo's remote to control my television set, and it works great for that, but I'd also like it to be able to control my DVD player and my separate powered speakers (not surround; deaf in left ear and can't hear surround, so I bought these used from a friend who upgraded.)

For the DVD player, I need to be able to navigate menus, stop, and play discs. For the speakers, I need to be able to change between Input 1 (TiVo/DVD) and Input 2 (Airport Express).

This looks promising -- I'm looking into it now!

I recently acquired a Harmony 676 remote. So far so good. I've been searching for a decent universal remote for a while. I started years ago with a *huge* Memorex CP8 learning remote which had a timer and was macro programmable. It was too large and didn't have enough memory, but I still miss it.

Ten years later, I ended up playing with JP1-based remotes. If you've got patience, it's not a terrible option if you're on a budget. Ultimately, the complicated setup procedure involving a complex Excel spreadsheet made me reluctant to play with it. I've got nothing but respect for the folks who've created and sustain this project -- it's a GREAT hack.

I received a Sony remote for the holidays last year. Though I was excited to get a "real" universal remote, the form factor (square? what are they thinking?) and my system's lack of discrete codes made the decision to return it necessary.

I gave up for a while and ended up using the uni remote which came with my Yamaha receiver. It wasn't horrible, but it was completely confusing to use for anyone but myself. It meant that watching a DVD was all but impossible unless I was there to set it up.

I came across the Harmony 676 at TECHXNY, where Logitech was selling them at a decent discount. I was skeptical, but so far it's the only remote which my wife has been able to use sucessfully. The bigger test: the father-in-law. Whenever he'd come over, he could barely figure out how to change the channel. Once when he was staying over, he left the whole thing on all night because he couldn't figure out how to turn it off! The Harmony remote solved that problem beautifully.

The biggest feature of this remote is it's "intelligence". I press the DVD button, it turns on the dvd player, sets my TV for component in, and the receiver for digial input #2. Why is this unique? Because my TV doesn't have discrete codes, yet the Harmony remembers the system's last state. If the TV was on composite in, it knows to send the 'change input' code two times to get to the component in. And when I press the "TV" button, it knows to turn the dvd player off, send the TV input code three times to get to S-Video, and the receiver to VCR-in. But what happens if the remote gets out of sync with the state of the TV? There's a HELP button on the remote, which will resend the codes and ask you "is everything ok now?". If you press "no", it'll go step-by-step: Is the TV on? Is the DVD player on? Is the TV on the component input? and will send codes depending on your answers. This is *HUGE* - and something a macro just can't do.

Other things I like about it: Programmable via your PC through USB. If your batteries die and it loses its program, just hook it back up and it'll redownload its config. It knows about every device I own, from the Tivo (including different tivo remote addresses) to the Audiotron to the LG air conditioner, and everything inbetween (and if it doesn't list your specific device, you can feed it a few IR commands from your exiting remote, and it'll auto-recognize the device). It feels good in the hand. Similar to my tivo 'peanut' remote.

What I don't like: No true "macros" as far as I can tell. The web interface to program the remote is a little clunky. I'm having a problem with one of the remote's buttons.

Ultimately, it was a good purchase. I'd buy it again.

How about one of these?

I use Samba on my server to give files to my XBox downstairs.

For music, I have playlists that are generated for XMMS, WinAmp and XBMC stored with all of my music. The only downside of this is that I have about 13,000 tracks in my "jukebox" with the following hierarchy:

first character of artist name

• artist
  • album
  • tracks

and for some reason the scan on the top level directory is pretty slow. Otherwise it's great.

For movies I either use XVid encoded files, SVCD images or DVD images (yes, XBMC can mount the images directly! :-). Since storage is so cheap lately I've just been using DVDShrink to store uncompressed DVD images of the movie only and watch them via XBMC.

I haven't done any slideshow stuff with it yet. I'm sure it's cool though.

I tied it all into my entertainment center and use my Harmony remote to control it all. The one (very minor) downside is that the XBox needs to be powered on by hand but there are mods to change this behavior out there.

Pat

Bah... the batteries in my wireless mouse are rechargeble (just remember to put the mouse in the cradle every other or third night), and the batteries in the keyboard lasted more than a year before needing replacements, and I use my computer around 8 hours a day or more.

Bah... the batteries in my wireless mouse are rechargeble (just remember to put the mouse in the cradle every other or third night), and the batteries in the keyboard lasted more than a year before needing replacements, and I use my computer around 8 hours a day or more.

Another part of the problem is lack of support for game-related hardware. So many companies produce really awesome joysticks and other kinds of input devices that use USB (which Mac supports natively) but require special drivers that are not available for the Mac OS. I have on several occasions purchased something cool to try to use it on my Mac only to find that it has all the usefulness of a brick because there are no Mac drivers for it.

Logitech is really good at making awesome input devices. They are also miserable at writing drivers so Mac users can use them. This is extremely frustrating.

I have a Logitech Cordless Desktop MX connected to my linux box, and using Hotkeys I can easily set the volume with the spinning disc in the top center of the keyboard. This is very useful since I often watch movies with large volume ranges and I can very quickly and very precisely adjust the loudness that way. I especially like the fact that the disc doesn't have a fixed "start" and "end" position but rather spins freely, making it similar to the iPod scroll wheel.

You really got a good deal didn't you.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details /CA/EN,CRID=97,CONTENTID=6636

that nobody even mentioned the fact that the xbox already has 4 usb ports. I modified the 2 far right controller ports on my xbox into standard usb ports and just plug in my favorite usb mouse and keyboard. (I always wanted a happy hacker keyboard but the price was killer. I recently found the logitech netplay keyboard M/N Y-UC29 made for the PS2 but is really just a usb keyboard.) This is the closest picture i could find. imagine it without the stupid controller things on each end. and it was only $30ca

I used a Logitech keyboard for the Playstation at work for a while. The keys feel pretty nice, but the layout is kind of wonky. It's not expensive, IIRC.

I setup a Linux box with a couple of inexpensive Netcams from http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details /US/EN,CRID=4,CONTENTID=5042. I use ffmpeg http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php to capture the data and provide streams for ffserver.
I then can watch my monkeys playing all day from Windows Media player at work. By the way, I have firewall rules that only allow access to me and other family members. This isn't to watch a baby sitter as much as it is to be a part of the lives of my children. I wish we all didn't have to work and could stay with our children full time. But we can't. Video and audio during the day on breaks is good for me.
--russ

Ironically, when I clicked the links, the Logitech link redirected to this

Okay, point taken. Microsoft Mice do sell well. On the other hand ...

This vs this. I know which selection I'd rather buy from.

I live just North of Salt Lake City, and since this terrorist act threatens me imminently, I did a bit of research. My conclusion is that someone forgot to tell the pilot that the new mouse he was using was dangerous, he was goofing off, it flipped upside down and burned his retina. Case solved.

If you want to add a remote control to a homebrew PC, you have a dozen different choices with 3 or 4 different technologies, some of which are supported directly by your software and some of which require extensive configuration. Some will never work at all, though you have no way of knowing this until you've spent $$ and hours of your time.

Call me silly, but I just use a wireless keyboard and mouse. $50 on the closeout circuit and do the job quite well.

Is this to open the window? I thought electric windows were already "unroll by wire"? Is it possible that we will see overly obfuscated interfaces in the future as well??

The Logitech IO pen uses a small camera and special paper with faint dots printed on it to record what you have written, then transfer them over bluetooth to your computer, phone, $DEVICE.

its slick in principle, but clunky, large, and uses expensive paper...

Logitech did this a long time ago with the io

I've helped quite a few friends make the switch. They're pretty happy users as far as I can tell!

The best thing you can do is make friends with other Mac users, especially true Mac geeks. If they've been using Mac OS X for long enough and they're real geeks, they'll have a lot of great answers for you and be able to personally recommend solutions to your problems because they've run into those things and tried a few solutions themselves.

Don't get a book. No one actually reads them after they buy them.

Also, if there's something you're used to on your PC (like your two-button mouse), there's often times a good equivalent or an exact equivalent on the Mac. Using a Mac doesn't mean giving up absolutely everything that was nice about the PC (even though, as a good Zealot, I would claim that list is somewhat short).

I use this Logitech mouse on both of my Macs, and I love it. Very basic and cheap, but it never fails me and I get the two buttons and scroll wheel that Apple didn't automatically include.

Logitech develops mice with "a personality".
Strangely colored "Ladybug" and "Football" mice fill up their product line.
I'm still waiting for a mouse-colored mouse.

Logitech develops mice with "a personality".
Strangely colored "Ladybug" and "Football" mice fill up their product line.
I'm still waiting for a mouse-colored mouse.

could this double as a laser pointer? Imagine a cordless laser-driven mouse that also had pointing capabilities for presentations and such. that'd be rad.

Currently I have my trusty version 2, but it's getting on in years (optical sensor gets freaked out more, buttons sometimes don't click).

I might go for one of these.

Did I miss the part where Vancouver annexed Switzerland?

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/about/company/CA /EN,CRID=296

The newer Logitech models (link, link) that have this problem pretty well handled (I use the second one listed), however, at the expense of battery life (not a big deal with these models, as they include NiMH batteries and a recharging cradle). Once you get used to cordless mice, dealing with a mouse cord is extremely obnoxious.

More on-topic, these "Museum-Kwality" mice look fugly.

The newer Logitech models (link, link) that have this problem pretty well handled (I use the second one listed), however, at the expense of battery life (not a big deal with these models, as they include NiMH batteries and a recharging cradle). Once you get used to cordless mice, dealing with a mouse cord is extremely obnoxious.

More on-topic, these "Museum-Kwality" mice look fugly.

I'm using the logitech MX 500, and it's mouse buttons also run the length of the mouse. The only actual clicky part, though, is at your fingertips. However, the buttons are just one homogenous length of plastic from the front of the mouse, to the back. Damn fine mouse, though - definitely recommend it.

I would imagine this microsoft mouse is probably similar. It would make no sense to have the entire button be clickable. Microsoft may be corrupt, but they're not stupid.

clicky

Tux, instead of the Windows start key and features 29 hot keys.

Exactly what I need... FYI I'm only using 3 of 6 hotkeys from my Logitech UltraX keyboard: Play/Pause, E-Mail and WWW.

The poster claims its an XML compliant universal remote - although I couldn't find the information on the website (admitidally I only looked briefly).

One downside is that it's very expensive ($299) but one cool thing is that it has support for TV channel guides built into the remote.

For more information, see:

• review by a usability guru
• review of similar model
• Company site (recently taken over by Logitech)

Someone might want to tell Kensington, Microsoft, Logitech, Wacom, etc that their mice don't work with the Mac. Someone might also want to tell apple to stop selling those mice in their online and retail stores...

as for the global menubar, you and Paul Fitts should have a little talk.

For anyone who's buying from them, stay away from the accessories. Mice are universal, PS/2 or USB. Laptop hard drives are universal, and the only thing you might need to worry about is height (9.5mm or smaller?). Laptop memory may not be completely universal, but it's pretty easy to find compatible stuff. All or virtually all external USB storage devices are compatible with Linux.

Not sure why the poster required bluetooth. May becasue he thinks it cool or something, but no one building home theater PCs is using it, and for good reason.
If you must do RF for one reason or another, get this one:
Logitech
Don't be afraid of the seperate mouse. If you really need a mouse, you will regret using anything but a real mouse. An optical mouse works very well on the arm of a sofa.
However IR is the way to go for a couple reasons.

Range - Easily get 10-20 feet with IR vs. 5-10 feet with RF. Bluetooh may be even worse

Repeaters - In the scope of a home theater, one thing that is noce to do is pipe the video throughuot the home with a channel modulator (ChannelPlus). Then you can take the IR keyboard into another room, and use an IR repeater to get the keystokes back to the HTPC. This keyboard:
The Airboard
has a built in weiner mouse that is usable, but not at all the fastest mouse in the west.

IR code capturing I also use a Philips Pronto remote. I have captured several keystokes into the Pronto, so now I can run programs, Automate changing video outputs with my ATI card, and other thing I would like the wife to be able to do, all from the Pronto remote.

Personally, I do both RF and IR. The IR keyboard I linked to has a IR receiver that plugs into the PS2 KB and Mouse ports, but the Logitech KB I linked to uses USB. I am actuall able to use both keyboards, although I mainly use the RF logitech, and leave the IR receiver for the Pronto to talk to. If I had to choose only one though, I would use the IR keyboard.

I also use Girder and an ATI Remote Wonder for my HTPC setup. The ATI remote came bundled with a Radeon 7500 All In Wonder and they work flawlessly together. The MyHTPC software also works wonders. There is an ATI Remote Wonder plugin available for MyHTPC too.

As for the keyboard and mouse, I use a Logitech cordless mouse and keyboard which does the job nicely. I keep the mouse on the coffee table and the keyboard in one of the drawers. The only tricky part is keeping the RF receiver on the computer far enough away from the components in your home theater as the cord on the unit is not very long.

I also have a 4 port USB hub running to a spot under the couch that allows me to quickly connect or disconnect things like USB Thumb Drives or USB Gamepads. I use the gamepads for many of the games on the system like GTA Vice City and MAME. Specifically I like the Gravis Gamepad Pro (BB $15, Nice mapping software), the Nyko AirFlo PC (BB $20, Dual Analog sticks, Air Flow technology), and if you can find it the GF USB Control Pad (BB $10, Dual Analog sticks). All of the gamepads work well with Girder and the games I use them for. Sometimes it is nice to have 3 or 4 different gamepads for N64 Emulators because it is easier to know which gamepad you are configuring. Before I had 4 Gravis Gamepad Pro's which was a pain because I had to label them 1 - 4 but windows would not allow me to change their names.

Of course VNC is a must but aside from that if you get your bindings tight in girder you can do almost anything with MyHTPC and a good remote.

How about the Logitech Io. I bought one when it was originally released, and I am quite pleased. Basically, it captures notes that you write with the pen, which can later be synched up with the computer. The new software also has a demo of a handwriting-to-text program that works quite well. The only drawback is the price- $140-$200 for the pen depending on where you look, and about $20 for 3 notebooks. Also, you can get the FranklinCovey iScribe package, which includes planner pages and syncs with outlook. Also, no linux support.

I've been using it for the last year and a half in college, and it is great to be able to take notes all in one notebook. When the data is uploaded, the computer automagically sorts the pages (as the notebook has a subject box on each page). I can then easily email them to my friends who missed class, and print them out 4 on a page. Its really quite neat, and unfortunate that not too many people take advantage of it.

Oh yeah, you can buy it here on ThinkGeek.

It uses funky paper; a digital pen.

I believe the Logitech io Digital Pen is the only device that satisfies your requirements. I can't give you a recommendation because I haven't tried it myself. Epinions has a couple reviews as does ZDNet

It's about $160, plus the price of a compatible journal.

Any suggestions for a light, cheap, keyboard-equipped device?

How about a mechanical typewriter ;)

Seriously, check out the Logitech Digital Pen. I know someone who gave up his tablet PC for one of these and couldn't be happier.

It only holds 40 pages of text, but that might be enough for a two week vacation. Here's the link

Cheap techology is great -- make digital cameras inexpensive, offer an SDK to grab their output, and folks will come up with wonderful ideas for how to abuse them. Devices like EyeToy are mostly just oddities now, but I'd like to see them used to popularize gestural interfaces.

Arkane Studios' RPG, Arx Fatalis is one of a handful of titles that offers gestural input, with its mouse-gesture-based spells. But this was more a novelty than a boon for usability -- it would have been easier to cast a spell by clicking icons. Perhaps a sequel will allow you to embellish your runes with serifs to achieve subtle variations on an incantation?

Avant Browser offers up a more useful gestural interface -- and I like it because it allows me to execute common tasks more easily. Rather than having to hit a smallish "new window" icon, I can rudely right-click anywhere on a window and sloppily drag my mouse upwards to open a new window.

EyeToy takes this a step further and does away with the mouse altogether; and though I had modest luck with the thing when I played against the noisy backdrop at Toys "R" Us, here's hoping that it's the first among many such interfaces. Perhaps five years down the road, a) gestures will be common, b) we'll laugh at what Minority Report got wrong, and c) we'll thank goofy gadgets like this one for paving the way.

After all, it was pretty silly to have a "Rat" for the Atari 800.
________________________________________________
The Inago Rage website is now up.
Critiques welcome and appreciated!

Yes. I'm using one now. My only other 2-button USB mouse wore out. The joke was that the OS would be ridiculously easy to use, execpt that you'd need to go through some sort of arbirtrary sequence to click on anything. But the mouse would look REALLY slick. Some might call it 'lickable'.

Honestly.... how many people actually USE the Apple Pro mouse? It's optical recognition's not nearly as good as it could be, it's not incredibly ergonomic (though better than most), and lacks the ever-important right button.

Of course, I've learned to begin control-clicking, though it's incredibly annoying. And I scroll with my PowerMate. But seriously, what did the right button ever do to Jobs?

On the other hand, on my PC (which I use less and less each week), I've got an old logitech trackball which is quite possibly the best pointing device in the world. The one i've got is different from the one on the site now, though it's mainly the same (sans USB). It's lasted me 6 years, showing no signs of wear whatsoever. I know of no mice which could stand up to that kind of use and abuse. I'd get one for my Mac, but I'm just too cheap

Maybe I'll spring for the wireless one someday.......

If you're that hard up for it, you buy yourself an external mouse or plug in the one that you already own or install SideTrack and stop complaining about stupid shit.

You don't need an illuminated keyboard if you just learn to type. Personally, it would take more that a mere light to sway me from my Logitech Cordless MX Duo. What ever happened to the days when modding something meant making it look good AND adding some kind of useful functionality?

Because USB is not only data but power...

I second this. I used the Trackman Marble (with wheel) for years, but am a recent convert to the marble mouse.

The reason I switched was because I found that after long periods of use with the thumb-ball on the Trackman Marble I'd get terrible pain in my thumb joint.

The Marble Mouse is completeley ambidexterous, and spreads the 'mousing' task across the three fingers between your thumb and pinky.

Left and right clicks are accomplished with the thumb and pinky respectively. AND .... the scroll functionality that was provided by the weel on my old trackman is now provided by two little buttons also operated by my thumb and pinky.

In conclusion ... any of you who also suffer from thumb pain with the Trackman Marble, but want to stay in the 'alterna-mouse' genra ... I highly recommend you give the Marble Mouse a test drive.

I actually prefer the model with the trackball front & center (Marble Mouse). It works as well in the right or left hand. I keep mine on the left so the keyboard is well centered, with the trackball opposite the numberpad.

As someone who relatively recently was forced to change handedness, it's really annoying that there are so many right-handed only mice on the market, and so few good universal or left-handed ones. Due to the nature of my injuries, I am REALLY sensitive to anything that might cause wrist problems. The Marble Mouse has no such problem for me.

Or if you're like me and your thumb is completely inaccurate as a pointing device (but have no problems moving your index finger side-to-side), there's this or this. The latter is the one I currently use, and the former is the one I'm currently looking at, since MS hasn't released a wireless version of their trackball yet.

My recommendation is to go down to BestBuy or some other large store and check out a couple of them to see how they feel. I have pretty bad problems with carpal tunnel when I use a standard keyboard and any mouse, but with a good trackball that's the right size for my hand and the right posture I can usually use a computer as long as I need to without a problem.

I'd also add that optical trackballs do need occasional cleaning (pull the ball out and make sure there's nothing in the sensors), but that the cleaning is significantly easier to do without damagining the trackball than the pre-optical trackballs and mice.

I started using one of these years ago. It's not one that you have to somehow convince your index finger to move from side to side, and they recently increased the arch to better fit your hand at rest. Highly recommended.