I think they are missing the point in saying that the universal remote's days are numbered. Smartphones just allow another way to do the same thing, and not always better. Currently, I use my desktop when im sitting at the pc, an ir remote when not, and an ipaq when roaming around the house. All three have different situation where they are better than others so to say one will hail the death of the other is missing the point that more options are available in general. I use linuxMCE for all my home AV needs and it allows me to use all three with the same interface. If anything I think the end result of smartphones being used more and more is less lost remotes.

Mine came with wireless off, and when you turned it on it required you to use the wep key it had or create your own. You CAN turn off the encryption, but it makes a point to tell you its a bad idea. And thats a product from At&t! Seriously though, most wireless products DONT come protected by default and I think the manufacturers should be somehow pressed to make this the default. It should really be the consumer who takes the time to educate themselves, but thats just not happening. my router is a 2wire home gateway 1800 (me thinks)