PC Magazine's take on WebTV Plus:
(IMO: This time WebTV/MS got it right.)
WebTV Gets Revamped
A new version, due next month, lets users see TV shows and the Web simultaneously, but the competition isn't standing still.
(09/16/97) -- The struggle to get the Web onto America's TV screens continues.
At a New York announcement today, executives of WebTV Networks unveiled a dramatically upgraded $299 version of WebTV, which will let you watch TV and surf the Web simultaneously for the first time.
Arriving next month, WebTV Plus will allow the creation of special Web pages to go with TV shows or commercials. As you watch TV, you'll get an alert that such a page is available, and you'll be able to bring it up on the TV while the show or commercial runs in a window. You'll be able to visit the Internet Movie Database to learn more about a film or obtain up-to-the-minute stats during sports events, for example, all without moving from your chair or losing the TV picture.
Along with the Rockwell K56flex modem, which plugs into a phone line to bring the Web to the screen, the new box contains a small, ultraquiet, 1-gigabyte hard disk designed by WebTV investor Seagate. The service fills the disk with video clips and graphics overnight; when you turn on the system the next day, full-screen videos and graphics display without a delay. This "video modem" technology receives data embedded in conventional TV broadcast signals at 1 MBps.
Also new to WebTV Plus is an extremely useful TV-programming grid keyed to your local TV listings. As you scroll through the grid, the programs pop up in a window. Another view identifies programs on-screen as you channel-surf.
A wireless keyboard (optional, but pretty much a necessity) will cost $49. Meanwhile the current WebTV boxes (about 100,000 have been sold since last October) will continue to sell, at a lower price of $199, and will continue to get some software updates. Additional rebates may bring the actual cost all the way down to $99. Connections will still cost $19.95 per month for both WebTV "classic" and WebTV Plus.
Analysts expect that Microsoft, which bought WebTV Networks for $425 million this spring, will eventually try to migrate some form of Windows CE into the WebTV box. WebTV president Steve Perlman points out, however, that the goal wouldn't be to turn TVs into PCs but to give developers of online games and other content access to Windows APIs.
Interestingly, WebTV's big announcement comes just days after it found itself under assault from a newcomer that, at least on paper, seems to be a formidable challenger. In early September, Pennsylvania-based WorldGate Communications announced plans to test a new kind of cable-based Web-content delivery in Philadelphia and St. Louis. WorldGate, a service that could cost as little as $12 per month, brings the Web to your TV via a new kind of cable box that replaces your current box--not via the additional $300 box that Web TV uses. The service includes a remote control; a keyboard is optional but (as with WebTV) is probably a necessity, especially for anyone who wants to use the service to send e-mail.
WorldGate's data speeds are said to be up to 192 KBps, about four times as fast as the fastest phone line connections (which Web TV uses). But though the pricing and speed are exciting, both WebTV executives and industry observers are highly skeptical as to whether cable companies can get up to speed in offering the technology.
This week a third competitor, NetChannel, also announced a WebTV-like box and service. NetChannel's service gathers TV schedules off the Web and saves them, letting users program their TV viewing and taping with easy one-click controls. This approach--which is even more TV-centric than WebTV--is backed by some big names, including RCA, which will build and sell the devices under its name.
But for this holiday season, at least, it looks as if WebTV Plus will be the only TV/Internet product on store shelves. -- Don Willmott |
