Surfing-WebTV Style
Looking for a great family gift this Holiday Season? Why not give WebTV a try. For under $200 (for the hardware) and about $20-25 a month you can surf the web, send email, even send photos and program your VCR, all without a computer. All you need is an available phone line, a TV with A/V inputs and place to sit down and enjoy a new Interactive TV experience.
WebTV arrived on the scene about 3 years ago, and after a slow start has emerged as a very popular "gadget" in many households across the country. Easy to set up and easy to use, this is the perfect electronic appliance to enhance the home entertainment experience. Also, with Microsoft's involvement, the future of WebTV is very bright.
WebTV comes in Three forms: Classic, Plus, WebTV for Satellite.
The hardware of a WebTV unit consists of components common to many desktop computers. Just like a computer, a WebTV unit consists of a processor, RAM, hard drive(on Plus units), and a modem. But, unlike a PC, the WebTV does not have a Mouse, Graphics Card, CD Rom Drive, Floppy drive, Serial or USB ports. Although a Keyboard can be purchased as an option, the unit comes out of the box with a TV-like remote control, which can navigate all unit functions.
Although WebTV doesn't come with a printer, sending and receiving email would not be practical unless you could print out your important ones, in the new WebTV Classic and all Plus units, a parallel port is supplied which is compatible with several HP and Canon Printers.
The software side of the WebTV unit comes supplied with everything you need to surf the web, send and receive email, participate in chats, set up your own web page, and utilize other features as determined by the WebTV service. All software upgrades come as part of service, so no need to go out and buy new software every few months, it is all downloaded at regular intervals.
The only hitch with the WebTV process is that you are stuck with a single Internet Provider (Microsoft WebTV Networks). However, you can communicate with anyone using another provider and they can communicate with you.
Web TV units are available from Philips, Sony, Mitsubishi, Dish Network (satellite version).
So, if you are tired of the kids taking up all your computer time playing computer games, or if you would like to watch TV and surf the Internet (especially About.com) at the same time, then grab a WebTV this Holiday Season (By the way, WebTV makes a great gift for Grandparents as well)!
For more info and articles on WebTV and related Interactive TV components check out my Interactive TV Netlinks.
Feel free to email me at hometheater.guide@about.com
with your questions and/or comments, or post your comments and gadget gift ideas on my Forum.
