Remember how brutal life was before they invented the TV remote control? One had two choices; use a steady hand and a long snooker cue to hit the buttons on the set, or else actually get up off the sofa and push them oneself. But then, oh happy day, civilisation took another giant leap, and flipping channels became a recognised Olympic sport.

But, as usual, society forgot those with special needs. Take beer drinkers for example. A typical beer drinker can sit on the couch, drinking beer and channel surfing for many hours. But while flipping stations is a low-maintenance activity, beer drinking involves removing the caps from bottles at regular intervals. Even with a bottle opener on the couch, the beer drinker will have to drop the TV remote - and stop flipping channels - in order to hold both the bottle and the bottle opener.

Working day and night, the top engineers at Philips have come up with a remarkable new device. It's a fully-functional TV remote control, capable of working almost any brand of television. But protruding from one end of the remote control is a fully-functional bottle opener, capable of removing the cap from almost any brand of lager, stout or beer.

Now one's life can be one seamless, channel-surfing, bottle-popping extravaganza - not for nothing is the Philips slogan, "Making things Better".

The Philips TV remote control and bottle opener, £12.99, is available at most electrical outlets.