I was skeptical at first about WebTV, the new system that lets couch potatoes surf the Internet. But after visiting the company's headquarters and playing with the system, I'm actually a believer: WebTV will change the Web as we know it, perhaps finally making it the democratizing force some say it should be.
This system - the proverbial set-top box so many industry pundits said was dead - takes the most complicated HTML page and displays it with text and graphics on a normal television that's astonishingly easy to read. This box has a remote control that lets you cruise the Web with little more than four arrow keys and your thumb. It's the first real step toward making the Web truly accessible - technologically, at least - to a whole new and massive world of users.
WebTV is designed for people who have little or no computer experience. Deciding to play the part, I walked into WebTV Network's corporate headquarters a few weeks ago and asked the receptionist: "So, what's this WebTV thing all about, anyway?"
"We bring the Internet to your television," she told me. It was the perfect answer. Simple and straightforward - something the Web is not necessarily known for by the general public.
Inside the WebTV box is a small MIPS-based computer with 2MB of RAM, 2MB of ROM and 2MB of EEPROM. The CPU has special extensions for digital signal processing, which WebTV uses to produce CD-quality sound.
On the back of the WebTV box are two RCA stereo jacks, and two video connectors (both composite video and S-video). There's also some custom silicon that knows how to make really good NTSC video. I was really impressed by the clarity and color of WebTV's text and images. Of course, to get the best video you need to use the system's S-video output; folks who try to watch the Web on channel 3 or 4 through an RF-modulator won't have as much fun.
WebTV connects to the Internet through a Rockwell 33.6 modem chip. WebTV chose the Rockwell chip because it's an industry standard, says Phil Goldman, the company's vice president of engineering. It's reasonably cheap. There's an expansion slot for future products, like a printer port or a cable modem. The slot goes directly to the system's bus, so future WebTV users might theoretically be able to turn their system into a full-fledged family computer.
Although the base unit allows you to choose characters with a drop-down onscreen keyboard using the arrows on your remote control, most WebTV users will probably want to buy the system's wireless keyboard. It's vaguely reminiscent of the IBM PC Jr. - too small for extensive use, since it's an ergonomic disaster.
WebTV has wisely decided against building its own factory and distribution network. Instead, the company has licensed the blueprints to Phillips and Sony. You can buy the boxes in stores today for about US$350, with an extra $70 for the wireless keyboard. The service costs $20 per month for unlimited access.
When you first turn it on, WebTV wakes up and makes a quick phone call to the company's 800 number. A special computer figures out where you live using automatic number identification, compiles a list of some nearby Internet service providers with which WebTV has partnered, and sends them down the phone lines. Your box then hangs up from the expensive 800 number and places a local call to one of those ISPs.
You, the WebTV customer, never realize that you're calling a local ISP and not WebTV's corporate headquarters. That's because WebTV doesn't use the ISP's mail server or Web servers - they just use the ISP's dialups. If one ISP is down or busy, your WebTV unit will happily call somebody else on the list. That gives WebTV powerful redundancy. The ISP gets reimbursed for the use of its modems directly by WebTV.
The magic doesn't stop there. When you surf the Web with WebTV, you're actually surfing through WebTV's smart proxy server. Click on a link, and your WebTV box sends a message to WebTV central, which downloads the page and analyzes it, reformatting the HTML for optimal display on your TV. WebTV also decompresses all the images and recompresses them, generally doing a better job than the pages' original authors.
But probably the best thing about WebTV is the system's good display and ease of use. WebTV could open up the Web to a whole new world of nontechnical users to the Web, Usenet, and Internet mailing lists.
So what's the downside? A WebTV unit can display a maximum of just 25 lines by 100 characters on a typical TV screen (and that's in its tiniest font size, which is legible from about six feet away, tops). If WebTV takes off, then you'll probably see most articles on the Internet getting even shorter, so that they can be read in one or two screens. But even more profound might be the impact of the WebTV users themselves. Remember the Internet's backlash against newbies from AOL? You ain't seen nothing yet.
