Is this subtle trickery legal?

I think what they are guilty of is having copy editors who are technically illiterate. This is what I suspect they should have described:

Universal 6-in-1 wireless remote...
This remote controls six machines in one wireless IR device.
It also has UHF that allows iPod control from anywhere in your home -- up to a 300 foot range, even through walls and floors!

(Note: The 6-in-1 control of your home theater is by infrared (IR), which is line-of-sight.)


It may have an LCD too for all I know, but UHF is the feature that allows universal remotes to operate devices that recieve UHF signals through walls, floors, and up to 300 ft away.

 

Actually, the Wiimote uses the sensor strip for the pointer only - everything else is transmitted wirelessly via Bluetooth... Since bowling doesn't require the sensor strip (it's controlled by the D-pad and the accelerometer) it makes sens you could do that.

As for the OP... that's standard advertising practices, unfortunately. They strive to avoid telling straight lies (because that's illegal) but playing on individuals misconceptions is pretty much par for the course. I do, however, agree with NoMo's assessment... the iPod control does seem to be listed as a separate feature from the 6-in-1 control.

 

Isn't that one of those catalogs full of stuff nobody would ever buy for themselves, but which appeal to people who feel an obligation to buy a present for someone they don't know well enough to actually think of something that person might want?

If people celebrated Christmas by inviting a homeless person to supper (very much in keeping with the mandates and teachings of Jesus) rather than by an orgy of greed and consumerism, catalogs like that, and the companies that make the crap they sell, would go out of business.

 

But, if the companies go out of business, then the workers would be out of work, and possibly homeless...

...okay, I just had to say it, is all.
I don't buy crap either.

 

Actually, you touched on one of the reasons why capitalism will destroy us: Capitalism depends on people spending money they don't have to buy crap they don't need or even want. If they keep spending, the economy collapses in debt; if they stop, everyone's out of work.

We need an economic paradigm in which work is done only to produce things that are actually useful, and in which everyone receives a fair share of what is produced, even if the total labor needed to produce what we actually need only occupies each worker for ten hours each week.

 

That's nirvana, Daniel.
I hope that someday humankind can get there, too.

And I was being facetious with my previous post, btw.

 

I know you were. But the sad part is that it's true. Capitalism is a lose-lose system because it requires the production of mountains of crap that is useless at best, and extremely harmful to people and the environment, at worst.

I do enjoy looking at all the weird stuff in the Sky Mall magazine during the hour or so between when they let us on the plane, and when the plane leaves the gate. (Once it's moving I cannot read. Then if my seat-neighbor is not a conversationalist I twiddle my thumbs until they let me turn on my iPod to listen to an audio book or Teaching Co. lecture.)

 

A lot of people were tricked into buying the ionic breeze air cleaners.

Which later I discovered that they are a hoax (per consumer reports who said they "do no better than gravity in cleaning the air... and increase allergy causing ozone").

I wouldn't believe anything in a sharper image catalog.

 

These sorts of catalogs (not just Sharper Image) should be read as you would read a comic book or the Weekly World News: they can provide some amusement, but should not be taken seriously.