Universal Remote MX-3000 Remote Control (Black)

Remember the original Star Trek series? Whenever they beamed down to a new planet Spock or McCoy always carried a tricorder. If the tricorder could sense alien life forms we'd bet you even money that the Universal Remote MX-3000 could control their TV sets and home theaters.

Just look at that picture. This baby is tricked out, from its 3.5 inch (89 mm) 65,535 color touch screen to its dual transmitters: IR (infrared—like most remotes) and RF (radio frequency—the more powerful kind that can control stuff in other rooms or even on other floors). It can even control up to 255 different devices!

If you're a granny who watches TV just for The Price is Right you don't need this remote. But if you're a confirmed gadgeteer, programming this thing may be more fun that anything you can actually watch on TV.

Be warned however, that before it's over you may be calling for help from that kid down the street with the antennae sticking out of his head. Or better yet, you should have a professional a/v installer do the set-up when he's installing the rest of your whole-house entertainment and home automation system.

You or your installer can even program different help recordings (WAV files) for different users! "I'm afraid I can't do that Dave." Freak out your friends just for fun.

With the MX-3000 you can create sophisticated macros with sounds, text changes, multiple page jumps variables, delays and IR commands. Where does all this power come from? A 206 MHz RISC microprocessor. We can remember when high-end engineering workstations didn't have that kind of juice.