I'm looking for a remote control for my wife and 1 for myself. I am willing to spend about $150 each.

I got my wife a Harmony 650, but I could not program it to turn on the sleep function for her TV; the remote would either go too far down or not far enough down in the menu to pick the right option (There's no sleep button). No amount of twiddling with the settings would work. What is a good alternative? I want a simple to use activity based remote (or at least something that is not too complicated for me to set up).

My MX-500 is getting on in age. What would be a good replacement?

Is your MX500 still doing everything it should? You could get a MX350 for that price, or just another MX500.

You might want to look at the RE Universal IR Remote. It's an application and dongle that attaches to an iPhone or the newer iPad.

I got mine recently as I too wanted an activity based remote. I nearly opted for the L5 but it didn't have other features that I needed e.g. needed to replace my old and 2 lost remotes.

The RE is also portable so I can take it anywhere without setting it up via the PC or internet. Probably the best feature though is the RE's preset IR codes - I think it's got in the region of 1000, so I didn't have to setup any codes or get the unit to 'learn'.

All in all, I'm glad I've moved from the older style universal remotes and picked the RE for my iphone. Let me know what you decide.....cheers.