In 1956, the first viable television remote control appeared on the scene. No longer required to actually get off their ever-widening behinds, men and woman could now press buttons from across the room to change channels or adjust volume.

However, with the addition of VCR's, receivers, DVD players, CD changers, gaming consoles, ad infinitum, the household collection of remotes grew and grew. Watching a video cassette (remember those?) might have required you to use a specific remote to direct the VCR's output to the TV and actually play the tape, while you may have been required to use another in order to adjust volume.

Eventually, "universal" and "learning" remotes showed up. While useful, you often had to search through reams of codes in order to find one that worked with your particular collection of components -- and still, you'd often have to keep the others around, "just in case."

I have four remotes -- a relatively small number compared to some people. (I have a friend who has at least 8!) Is Logitech's Harmony 680 enough to replace them all? And will I have to be a rocket scientist to find out? Let's give it a whirl...

The Harmony 680 (hereafter referred to simply as "the 680") comes in a slick Logitech-looking box (gotta love that teal!) containing an even slicker plastic clamshell that defies all but the strongest of blades to open it -- be careful, you could easily cut yourself on this beast!

The front of the box boasts, "The Internet powered universal remote," in addition to its suggested uses. It also proclaims, "Build for Media Center PC's" and "One Touch Control" with icons representing the core WindowsXP MCE activities.

Flipping the box over, we see a series of more verbose ways in which the 680 can improve things for you. (We're reminded again that it's built for media center PC's.)

But who cares what the box says, right? We wanna see what's inside!

Once you've fired up your diamond-tipped drill and managed to rip your way through the plastic clamshell, the remote is yours! The 680 also comes with an instruction booklet, a drivers and software CD, four AAA batteries (w00t!), and a USB A-miniB cable.

Let's see what all this stuff does...