Three Logitech products fit into two new categories

LOGITECH MADE A SHARP left turn for introductions at the show, not the usual assortment of mildly tweaked mice. There were four new introductions, three significant, and none were rodents.

The three significant ones were lead off by the Harmony One remote control, a successor to a lot of other Logitech Harmony remotes. It has a really bright context sensitive touch screens, an ergonomic shape, and the buttons are arranged into zones.

If any other company said that this was done for something other than looks, I would seriously question it, but Logitech sweats the details, so I will give it the benefit of the doubt. The feel of it was almost right, not perfect like most of its mice, but really good. The bottom is ribbed for your pleasure, or at least so your hand fits somewhat naturally in each of the the zones.

The next one is the DiNovo Mini keyboard/remote/touchpad - see no mice! This mini keyboard has two modes, keyboard and remote. If you flip a switch, the touchpad goes from touchpad functionality with a lighted orange border to a smart remote with a green illuminated 4 directional pad. The back has a holder for the USB dongle, a welcome addition if you use this as a travel keyboard.

The last one is the Squeezebox Duet. If you remember that Logitech bought Slim Devices a while ago, you have probably been holding your breath about what would happen to the team. It looks like this is going to be a happy marriage because the Duet seems like a very cool device.

There are two parts, the squarish remote unit and a dumb base station. The base station plugs into your speakers, and you can put as many as you want around your house. They cost $150 apiece, and the Duet is $399 for the remote and a single base station.

The 'remote' is actually the guts of the machine, a full blown Linux box, and it pulls your music off the net via WiFi. It is basically a wireless file browser and MP3 player. You pick your songs and playlists, and it magically streams them to the base stations. You can control as many base stations as you have stereos, and there is a lot of intelligence to go around.

Overall, I like what I see at Logitech. There was very little of 'next-model-in-the-line-itis' in their booth, two of the three things shown off were basically new categories of products, the third was significantly revamped. The mystery fourth product? A new set of speakers, but that you can look up on your own. µ