Christmas Toys

Got a couple new pieces of technology for Christmas this year.

1. 4GB 2nd Generation iPod Nano – Replaces my on-again off-again Creative Zen Micro.  The Zen was working last week but it seems to be particularly flaky after fixing the headphone connector.  After using the iPod for a day or two, there’s a reason why Apple dominates the market and I see no reason to jump back to the Creative.
2. Logitech Harmony Remote Control – This is a strange one b/c I don’t have a lot of equipment.  I’ve got a TV, HD Receiver and DVD player… a grand total of 3 remotes.  Nonetheless, the harmony is a pretty cool device that was able to support my devices out of the box.  I didn’t read the instructions so it was mostly trial by error but it really didn’t take that long to figure out how things were supposed to work.  It’s an activity based remote which is rather interesting.  Instead of simply allowing me to operate multiple devices (which is does as well), it provides a mechanism to say ‘Watch TV’ which will turn on the TV and Digital Receiver as well as making sure the TV input is set correctly.  Selecting ‘Watch DVD’ will make sure the DVD player is on and the TV is set to the correct input.  It seems like a pretty powerful tool of which I’m barely scratching the surface.