jallison's Journal: Logitech Harmony 880 Remote

I was finally able to procure a Logitech Harmony 880 remote control, stories of which have been circulating since early this year. I have owned an early Philips Pronto for several years, and like it quite a bit. However I found that when watching the TiVo or using the Squeezebox I would use the native remotes rather than the Pronto. Since the point of a fancy remote is to have one remote, it seemed that the Pronto was not living up to its duties. Part of this is the touch-screen interface. While nicely flexible, the touch-screen does not have the tactile feedback that a real button has.

Enter the 880. This promised to be as flexible as the Pronto, with a cool web interface for programming, while using real keys to do the controls. Sounds great, so I bought one. Found it online for a bit over $200 US, so this is not a cheap toy. List price is around $250, but as of mid-July you just cannot find these in stores.

The unit showed up yesterday and I'm pretty pleased so far. The remote feels great, and works as promised. The online programming tool knows about scads of devices, so the onerous task of learning from your existing remotes is gone. Instead you go to the Logitech web site and work through an online package to set up your device. Now here's the first drawback: it doesn't work with Firefox. Big bummer.

The second drawback is that the unit doesn't seat in the cradle much of the time. You have to jiggle it a bit to ensure that the batteries are truly charging. That could be a drag.

Final complaint: as an enticement to register your product, you are offered a 20% discount off a new Logitech product. OK, sounds good. I go through the registration rigamarole and get the discount code. With an expiration date of July 18, 2005! That's weak, guys. If you want to give me a discount, give me a discount. Don't make me use it that same day. Boo.