Could Somebody Please Explain to Me. . .

Could Somebody Please Explain to Me. . .

In honor of the collapsing economy, I went out last night and bought a new big-screen TV. Well, to be more accurate, I placed an order for one on-line and then went to the local store and picked up my order. Because I bought it on-line, the vendor offered - "free" - a portable DVD player; just put it in the electronic "shopping cart" and it's added to the total order at no charge. OK, I'm never one to turn down an offer like that.

The little DVD player is this one, a Phillips 8.5" LCD that has an iPod dock. (I guess this means that the iPod is officially the de-facto standard for portable personal entertainment.) OK, so it's very cool. The entire unit is a bit smaller than a spiral-bound standard 8.5x11" notebook, it comes with a plug-in charger, a cigarette-lighter (excuse me, power point) 12V charger, and an A/V cable that will let you plug the display into anything with RCA audio/video jacks.

What I don't understand is why does this thing have a remote control?

YOU HAVE TO HOLD IT IN YOUR FREAKING HANDS TO USE IT.

Of course, the remote has a lot more buttons on it that the base unit. It would have been too difficult, I suppose, to put all those controls on the base unit instead of on the remote control that will get lost about a week after you take the thing out of the box.

I'm waiting for a wristwatch with a remote control, so you can set the time and date on your Timex without actually having to touch the thing that's secured to your WRIST.