The Harmony 1000 – Total Remote Consolidation

One of the problems with stacking your front room full of technological goodness is that you soon find yourself having a coffee table full of remote controls. At present we have six, not including the one for the cat (which, incidentally, he takes no notice of whatsoever). As a consequence when I try to start recording a television programme the music center starts playing, when I try to start the music centre the TV turns on and when I try to turn the surround sound unit on the cat asks to go out.

The answer, it seems, is simple – remote consolidation. And, without a doubt, Logitech’s Harmony 1000, with its 3.5-inch colour touchscreen, is the daddy of them all.

Apart from making your front room look like mission control – which, as far as any self-respecting geek is concerned, is hardly a bad thing – the sleek, brushed aluminium Harmony 1000 is able to control up to 15 separate devices via its large touchscreen interface.

An astounding 175,000 devices from over 5,000 electrical manufactures are supported out of the box and, to make configuring the unit as stress free as possible, Logitech have even designed it to be hooked up to a PC so that the set up procedure can be finalised as painlessly as possible.

Harmony 1000 Specifications:

System Requirements

Windows system

• Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP
• USB port
• CD-ROM drive
• Internet access

Macintosh system

• Mac OS X 10.3 or later
• USB port
• CD-ROM drive
• Internet access

Package Contents

• Logitech Harmony 1000 remote control
• Charging station
• USB cable
• AC Adapter
• Lithium-ion battery
• Installation CD
• Installation guide
• 1-year warranty

Incidentally, you can even purchase a RF wireless extender for the unit which allows the Harmony 1000 to control just about anything at a range of up to 100 feet (which, let’s face it, means most of our front rooms covered).

No word yet as to whether it will also fetch your slippers, make you a nice cup of tea and engage your partner in small talk thus allowing you to actually watch your favourite TV programme from beginning to end - though it wouldn’t supriize me if Logitech offered this extra functionality via a future software update.

The Harmony 1000 costs around £300 and further information about this rather slick device, as well as information concerning your nearest stockists, can be gained directly from the official site.