A remote that controls all devices

There are some products that somehow make immense sense, but just don’t because they are ridiculously expensive. Logitech, the Swiss peripherals company, makes some great devices, and we contend that the Air Mouse is the way of the future.

So, what do they have for us now? The Logitech Harmony 1000 universal remote is such a product. Logitech has been making some really nice products of late, and this remote, with a 3.5 inch touch screen and very simple controls, operates virtually every device known to man—Logitech’s library includes 175,000 devices, including the Tata Sky set-top box and the XBox360.

Painful bits include the fact that setting up the remote takes eons, especially since it needs one to find the exact model number of your device. Not an easy task considering electronics manufacturers put their model numbers in the wildest and most-difficult-to-access places.

But once you do set it up, you can really live without any other remote, you can even control your air-conditioner. So the device has a painfully long set-up time, but its biggest problem is not that.

That award will go to the price tag of Rs 27,995. Fair enough, it is wonderful and frees you up from the mayhem of grey and black remotes that litter your rooms. And unlike other universal remotes, there are only eight hard buttons, not the maze that you usually get.

But that price tag kills the Harmony 1000. Somehow it just seems way too expensive, as it is essentially a toy. Also, it isn’t an easy device to set up. For this kind of money, the set-up process has to be easier; it should not take more than five minutes. But then it can find almost every remote-controlled gadget ever made, you can actually even control your window blinds through this if it was remote controlled. We like it, but we won’t buy it until prices drop. A lot!

— Kushan Mitra

Qtrax This ad-supported music download service has all the large labels, but registering on it is a problem. Music download service QTRAX, available from www.QTRax. com, is the first ad-supported music download service with the full support of the large music labels. The software comes with a built-in webbrowser, and offers you the opportunity to download music over a peer-topeer (P2P) network legally. So, is it any good? Well, not quite. Registering from India is well-nigh impossible and even if you could, negotiating the adverts is quite a challenge. We figure it is still easier to download music through the BitTorrent network, albeit illegally (but we do not condone the illegal downloading of intellectual property). And while you can find most popular artistes on the service, we still think there are quite a few bugs to iron out. We do like services like www.rcrdlbl.com, which we wrote about a few months ago, because that is a great place to find new Indie acts. What is surprising, though, is that nobody has thought of a well-designed website for India from where people can download music, movies or TV serials, an Indian iTunes store. — Kushan Mitra