CLEO VINCENT, LONDON
Q Do I have to stick with my TV’s remote?
A This would once have been an excuse for Guru to espouse about Logitech’s masterful Harmony range of third-party clickers, but they’ve met their end – possibly because TV remotes are generally pretty solid these days, or perhaps because of the slow deprecation of infra-red.
Not that others haven’t stepped up to claim the crown that Harmony left vacant. SofaBaton, for example – GaGu loves the descriptive name – sells its X1 universal remote kit for about £230. It includes a beamer that sits in the middle of the room, allowing it to selectively control all manner of devices, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, which offers it control over more than the average remote. If you want something slightly more Harmony-esque, the SofaBaton U2 (£70) looks and acts suspiciously like the Harmony Elite once did. Not that Guru is making any accusations.
Industry veteran OneForAll is still loitering in the shadows
