Nintendo's Wii U tablet controller and the death of your TV's remote control

Turning on an Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 / Nintendo Wii:

Walk to living room, pick up television controller.
Turn on television, select input / applicable volume / etc.
Put down television controller.
Pick up gamepad. Turn on power.
Select profile.
Five steps.
Let's compare this to Nintendo's new console, the Wii U.
Walk to living room, pick up Wii U tablet controller.
Press TV button on controller, power on television, select input / applicable volume / etc., power on console.
Select profile.

[GreenRanger_]

You don't need a remote, you just need to leave your TV on forever, like i do.

[AWBrawler]

zordon does not approve

[ctorretta]

I'm surprised how many people are excited for this functionality.
I mean, it is super nice, but I've had a logitech harmony remote that does exactly this for many, many years now so this is not exactly 'new'. Want to know what my steps are to play the PS3?

Press 'Play PS3' on the remote
Press PS button on controller
Play games

[kneon]

Even with out the Harmony (which I also have) there are easy ways to do this.

Before getting the harmony I had the TV set up such that when I powered on the PS3 it would automatically power up the TV and switch to the right input. Just turn on the HDMI control and configure it, dead simple.

So to play a PS3 game or watch a movie the steps are

press PS button.

[Schawk]

Puts the WiiU at the heart of every livingroom, smart thinking by nintendo and a great feature for free

[Slyfamous]

Hmmm........The same was said about the kinect, wonder how thats working out?

[Schawk]

Kinect was destined to fail the wii U gamepad is were its at
who wants to flaff there arms about when they are sitting down to relax

[inStereo]

This is all fantastic, but my entertainment system is configured rather complexly - is there any word about whether or not the GamePad remote will be able to operate other devices, such as audio receivers? I have all my inputs running through my receiver, so I never have to change my TV's input - will the Wii U be able to switch my receiver's inputs??