More Gadgets

Okay, I admit it.  I love gadgets. My earliest recollection of this addiction is from 1968, when I purchased from an office supply store a new digital electronic calculator.  It was probably the first one sold in Nacogdoches, Texas, the small town where I grew up, but I had to have it.  It cost me $175, which was something like $400 in today's money.  Mind you, it had only the basic four arithmetic functions and no battery or printing capability, but it was so much cooler than the old "adding machines" with all the clunky moving parts and which couldn't multiply or divide.  I remember being mesmerized by watching the little LEDs instantly displaying the result of the most fiendish calculation I could come up with.


Things haven't changed much.  You can tell from reading this rag that I am still a soft touch for techie stuff.  Phannie, for example, has a newer, techier, entertainment system and a newer, techier, mattress than we have in our house!   


Fortunately, I have had the means to support this addiction over the years. I'm not sure what our family may have been deprived of if I hadn't been able to support them and the habit at the same time.  Perhaps another saving grace may be the fact that nowadays, I don't always buy new gadgets when they first come out.  I suppose the calculator ripoff in 1968 was indeed a teachable moment for me.  Such was the case when I switched to Apple computers, HD television and Blu-Ray DVDs.  These had all been on the market for a while when I jumped in.  Such is the case with my latest gadget, a Logitech Harmony 700 universal remote for the entertainment system in our house.  


It's not clear why I put up with using three remotes to control our TV, our A/V receiver and our DVD player for three years, but I did until one of the remotes went on the fritz the other day.  A friend had recommended a Logitech universal remote to bring peace and harmony to our entertainment system, and that's all the encouragement I needed.  I hopped right down to a nearby Target store and apprehended the Harmony 700 model for 120 bucks.  A little pricey, you say?  Well, I thought so, too, but my friend was insistent that this was what I needed.  And why the top of the line 700 model?  Well, it has a little video screen so that the remote can communicate with you...a techie feature that definitely pushes the buttons of us addicts! 


What's neat about this remote is that it is programmable via the web.  You just attach it to your computer using the included USB cable and log into Logitech's site.  You supply the makes and models of the TV/audio equipment you're going to control, and Logitech downloads to your remote all the drivers needed.  Simple, but effective.  After one false start (I had a hard time finding the model number of the DirecTV DVR and entered the wrong one), the new remote worked perfectly.  Now it's one remote for everything and the old ones are in a drawer.  Oh, by the way, the batteries in the remote are rechargeable.


Phannie?  Oh, yes, she will undoubtedly need one of these things for her system.

Logitech Harmony 700 Remote