For those not familiar with the Harmony line, these remotes are special, primarily because of the software that backs them. The remotes themselves come in a variety of forms and styles with some even geared towards very specific setups. While that's good, if it wasn't for the software that easily allowed a user to program in not only what devices you have, but also what actions and activities you want to perform, the Harmony series would just be another universal remote.
The Harmony Touch actually breaks away from its predecessors as far as the software is concerned. In the past, a desktop application was used to setup and configure your remote controls, but for the Harmony Touch, you log into myharmony.com and use a web-based application.
Despite the changes in the general look of the web-app, the software still behaves the same as before. You tell the software what hardware you want to control with the Harmony Touch and you tell it what kind of activities you want to perform. This can be everything from watching TV, to playing a game console, or listening to music. The software knows about pretty much every retail device with an IR sensor and is fairly intelligent about how to use it.
One of the big positives with any Harmony remote is the fact that the remote remembers what devices are powered on and what they are set to. This means that the transitions between two activities only perform the steps that are necessary. For instance, if you are going from one game system to another, the remote knows your TV is still on and that it just needs to change inputs and power down the old system. But that's all the software, and even with the Harmony Touch, that hasn't really changed much.
As for the Harmony Touch itself, it feels like a middle ground between the Harmony One or 900 and the Harmony 1100. It retains the standard remote control shape, but it sports a larger touch screen and fewer buttons than the other similarly-shaped devices. The larger screen gives the remote the ability to show more activity or device-specific buttons much like the 1100. These can be anything from DVD controls to even game-system specific controller buttons like the Xbox's face buttons.
The Harmony Touch can also display a list of favorite channels like icons on the touch screen when you are watching TV. This is yet another feature that is taken from the 1100 that feels right on the Touch's larger screen and wouldn't fit right on the other remotes in the Harmony line.