May 7th was my birthday! I am now 35, which means that I am halfway to 70 years old… What The Heck??!? That blows my mind…anyway, I wanted to blog about a new toy that I got for my birthday.

Now that I have a new television (32 inch Samsung LCD HDTV.) I have just past that nebulous frontier of having too many remotes to enjoy watching TV. I call it nebulous because you can add a remote or two (if you do it over time) and not feel overwhelmed.

We got our tax return back and we purchased the new TV, and we past that frontier. We had to at least two remotes to start everything needed to watch TV, and if we wanted to watch DVDs, we had to use three. That is too many.

The other day I spent the day with my dad and we went to BestBuy to look for a birthday present. We looked and looked until I came across a Logitech remote that is designed specifically for the XBOX. I showed it to dad and that was his gift to me.

I got it home, and I LOVE IT!!!! Programming it couldn’t be easier. Instead of programming it the way you do other remotes by trying different codes until your equipment responds, the Logitech XBOX remote is programmed via USB.

It is actually pretty simple. The remote comes with a disc that installs a program that allows you to reprogram the remote. I stuck that dude in and installed the program. Simple! Next I plugged in the remote and answered a few simple questions and then hit a big button that said “Update Remote”. Voila… It worked.

And it is better than standard universal remote because it has one button that does everything needed to say watch a DVD, or play a game on my XBOX or watch tv on my DVR. And, that isn’t trivial. I have to set my TV to the right input, and I have to change my audio receiver to the right channel, and so on… each activity is similar…very complex.

I have to take my hat off to my wife. She actually is really open to learning new tech things, and is very sweet about all my new toys, but the TV had gotten out of control. She loves the simplicity of the new remote. It makes life much easier. We love it.

In fact, Megan just came into the room where I am blogging and said that she loves the way the new remote lights up whenever you move it. What??!? She noticed something before I did. Apparently there is an accelerometer in the remote. It can feel motion, and it automatically turns on the light….Sick!

If you are drowning under a sea of remotes, you really need to check out the Logitech Harmony remotes. Sure they are $100, but that is not that much to pay for the simplicity! And, you are future proofed. This remote can work for you basically in perpetuity. (That means forever).