Remote Buddy exemplifies the need for a universal remote

Pictured above, dear readers, is all the proof you need that a universal remote really is the best option if you have 4+ units that you use on a regular basis. This borderline-comical storage unit has enough room for four of your favorite clickers and one ice cold beverage, but oddly enough, there's no basket for holding your day-old tater tots or marginally stale Fritos. Still, it does boast a built-in panel that will automatically buzz a lost remote in case you misplace it, which totally makes up for any other oversights in design. Of course, we'd recommend putting the $59.98 that this costs towards a decent universal remote, but at least this piece is less embarrassing than the infamous Remote Wrangler.

[Thanks, Juergen]

[Tom Robertson @ Jun 26th 2008 5:21AM]

To be honest, I'm not sure how that would work? It just looks like a fancy cradle to hold your remotes!

[Tom Robertson @ Jun 26th 2008 5:22AM]

However the cup chiller is genius.

[Homeboy @ Jun 26th 2008 5:50AM]

But we all known that the real purpose of this invention is to hold burritos and a cold glass of Mountain Dew(no ice, no homo).

[David @ Jun 26th 2008 5:55AM]

Why such a small beverage holder?

[Sammybeany @ Jun 26th 2008 6:00AM]

Stuff like this makes absolutely no sense, as almost all remotes provided with A/V equipment these days are "universal" remotes. It always boggles my mind to see someone with four or five of these programmable remotes sitting on their coffee table all at once, cycling through each remote to operate each component.

When I was over my mom's house the other day I took ten minutes and configured one of her remotes to handle her DVD player, tuner, cable box and TV. Her and her boyfriend were amazed how much easier it was to operate everything from that single remote.

Why don't more people take the initiative to do this? I guess it goes back to that whole "VCR flashing 12:00" thing. What a waste.

[w4rh34rt @ Jun 26th 2008 8:11AM]

Yea', apart from I bought a cheap DVB tuner, and have no idea what make it is so I can't tune it without going through hundreds of codes, anyone know an easy way to do this?

[loosely_coupled @ Jun 27th 2008 1:12AM]

No kidding! I just bought my parents a new Harmony remote and it works great! If you can't afford the Harmony One, the $100 Harmony 550 is excellent! It's sleek, shiny black, with an excellent feel.

I love all the Logitech Harmony remotes.. It's so much better being able to program the remotes on your PC and set up viewing activities such as "watch DVD", "watch Cable", etc and have it all work flawlessly..

[gad get @ Jun 26th 2008 6:06AM]

Thank you so much for the link to that utterly classic head-mounted remote holder! Seriously, that is classic!

[giuliop @ Jun 26th 2008 6:14AM]

Do yourself a favour and buy the best and cheapest (I paid mine $12 at Amazon) remote control in existence: the Sony RM-AX1400.
It is underrated because it's so geeky you need a computer to program it, but you can make it do anything you want; you can even change every single code sent by the remote. It doesn't have the annoying, fingerprint-prone touch screen but it does have a little OLED screen that shows what keys do. My only minor complaint is that some buttons are too small, but hey, this is better than most Logitech's remotes costing up to ten times as much.

[Bad Beaver @ Jun 26th 2008 6:20AM]

This will look just awesome on my Captain's Chair replica's armrest, where it will do my bidding. Chill my drink and buzz my remote, device!

[kccboy2004 @ Jun 26th 2008 6:25AM]

@Engadget,

I can't believe that you got this so wrong. You missed the point here; if you research the specs on this, you will find that there is some nifty electronics that goes into this unit.

1. The base has fingerprint authentication
2. You have to touch the button to release the remote.
3. If you attempt to grab the remote without going to the fingerprint authentication a relatively small charge, (but sufficiently painful), will be discharged.
4. If you place your finger on the fail the authentication, then similarly a charge is discharged.

The product itself has been around for a while in beta testing, however it has not been until recently that the fingerprint technology has improved to such as extent at to make this reliable.

If you follow the link below, the article highlights some law suits that have been brought about by husbands who have had their wives circumvent the security.

http://www.tiradez.com/2008/05/24/remote-do_not_be_so_stupid_as_to_think_that_this_is_for_real/

[hiko36 @ Jun 26th 2008 7:52AM]

Damn, you really had me going. I said to myself, "Good lord, I have to get one of these". Then I started to click the link... Then I read the link...Ass...

[chickenrob @ Jun 26th 2008 8:09AM]

If I am not mistaken, It looks like some of those remotes DO have universal capabilities. The user Just doesn't know how to work the things. I once programmed all my inlaws stuff to work off one f the remotes that they had... I showed them how it worked bt they said it was too complicated, and kept using the 4 remotes they had. But maybe the user is not stupid, and maybe he just has like 20 devices he needs to command. If so, I bow to you, sir.

[barrywoods @ Jun 26th 2008 9:10AM]

Yea, that dish network remote will just about run everything.

[pfromg @ Jun 26th 2008 9:12AM]

yes, well thats obviously gods gift to women.I mean If you have one of those , all the chicks will be hot for ya.

[PaulPaul @ Jun 26th 2008 9:36AM]

Commander Data, bring the graviton-flux-regenerative-photon scanner online... make sure the plasma cells are flushed!

[astute @ Jun 26th 2008 9:38AM]

Seriously @ the photo, does that guy take any drinks with his ice?

[computer.dude.28 @ Jun 26th 2008 10:24AM]

Hey, when you have a Yahoo branded home theatre stereo and a Wal-Mart brand Prive LCD TV, the word "universal remote" only causes mental pain and sadness.

[Xepol @ Jun 26th 2008 1:47PM]

I just wish that universal remotes actually worked universally. Instead, they usually replace all the remotes but 1 and for 2 of the remotes, you occasionally have to track them down to use the 3 functions the universal remote simply refuses to do at all, and occasionally the function it refuses to do well.

Hey, I know how about instead of a universal remote, someone actually came up with the concept of a universal remote code set that every system could use? Like unicode for tvs, dvds, steroes etc.

It would not end the universal remote industry, but rather make it flourish - you could actually expect the stupid thing to work, oh I dunno, UNIVERSALLY?

[ShadowKain @ Jun 26th 2008 3:44PM]

That beverage holder will never fit my company mug!!!