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Move over, couch potatoes; your mouse mates need some elbow room. The newest network on your TV is the World Wide Web, thanks to a new gadget called an Internet appliance that's almost as simple to use as a toaster. Just connect the box, which is about half the size of a VCR, to your TV and to a phone jack, and you're ready to surf the Web with your remote control or dash off e-mail messages with a wireless keyboard. To top it all off, Internet appliances are inexpensive-prices range from $329 to $499, just a fraction of what you'd pay for a fully equipped computer that's probably no faster for getting around cyberspace.
If your television has picture-in-picture capability, you can call up the Net in a corner of your screen while you watch a TV program. For instance, as Michael Jordan leads the Chicago Bulls down court, you can look up his latest scoring stats on NBA.com, the official home page of the National Basketball Association. Then, instead of zoning out during a commercial break, you can bring up your e-mail program on the screen and send a sarcastic note to your brother-in-law, who had the audacity to predict the Bulls would lose the game.
While companies have been talking about "soon-to-be-released" Internet appliances for nearly 18 months, only five devices were ready for holiday shoppers in December-and for our review. We looked at the Baby Bear, Philips Magnavox Internet TV Terminal, Pippin@World, Sega Saturn Net Link and Sony Internet Terminal. More than a dozen others, including devices from Boca Research, Daewoo, Scientific-Atlanta, Toshiba and Zenith, are scheduled to roll out this spring and summer.
Other nontraditional options for surfing the Web are in the wings: Cable giants such as Time Warner hope to offer direct Internet service, and it looks like the long-awaited Network Computer-a stripped-down PC without a hard drive or software, which can use your TV as a monitor-is ready to debut (see box on page 78). Not surprisingly, TV manufacturers are primed to offer "Internet-ready" sets. And your next telephone may be equipped for e-mail and Web browsing (see box on page 76).
Web-ready TVs may finally bring the Internet into many of the 60 million U.S....