Dude, Where's my remote?

A  comic strip I saw once asked in the first panel rather facetiously, "Who is God?"  In the next panel, one character screamed out, "the guy with the remote!"

As our living rooms, play rooms and man caves get overwhelmed with technology, the one constant through the  years has been the television remote.

All unintended blasphemy aside, the slight kernel of truth in this tongue in cheek observation is that he or she who has the remote, has the control. 

Yet all of us have a pile of dead remotes, extra ones shuffled in for the cable or satellite box, TV or DVD player.  Compared to today's uber remotes from our TV providers, these "older" ones sit taking up space until we have a battery breakdown or misplace the grand remote we all rely upon.

Now with tablets and phones, we have apps available for remote control.  DirecTV has both Android and Apple remote apps available, and some local cable providers offer same type of functionality to change channels, up the volume, set recordings.

Apps may be "cool" but the one remote that has always gotten some oohs and aahs around my home has been the line of Harmony universal remotes.  Harmony sold out to Logitech a few years back and Logitech has kept up the reputation of these "masters of the living room" for some time now.

I have owned one for each room that has a TV and they come with features such as a motion detector that lights up the remote when you walk in the room (now they should add a finder chirp too).

CNET Central recently reviewed the top remotes, and not surprisingly, Logitech's Harmony line dominates the top clickers.  Features such as smartphone integration and quick setup via PC are just what you can expect from these performers.

Check out the reviews at CNET at http://reviews.cnet.com/best-universal-remotes/ 

While you may balk at paying $200 plus for something that gets dropped, lost or sat on regularly,  you will find the investment in these 'family pleasing' units will be money well spent!