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Surfing sans PC!
YOUR PRESENT budget rules out buying a PC. But you'd still love to surf the World WideWeb? Not to worry. These days, a whole new range of `net devices' allows you to do just that — by using your television.
The Bangalore-based Sifybaron Net Devices Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of Satyam Infoway and the consumer electronics company, Baron International, offers one such product. ``Magnet", as it is called, contains a built-in 56K modem and facilitates net browsing using one's television set and phone connection. The telephone line is plugged into the device, which in turn is linked to the TV set using the audio/video input slots, used normally to connect VCRs and VCD players. A wireless colour-coded keyboard is provided to navigate the custom-built browser and e-mail software. The mouse is replaced by the track-ball, a feature borrowed from notebook computers.
A useful add-on of Magnet is the 5MB mailbox that stores e-mails for further use. This means that you can read and write mails at your leisure when not connected to the net. The device also comes with a CD drive, which can be used to play VCDs and CDs in addition to MP3 music playback. A small catch is that once the Internet account expires, renewal can be done only through Satyam renewal packs.
Another set-top box which uses your TV and telephone connection is ``Jadoonet", from Noida, near Delhi, which uses technology from the UK-based MSU Corporation. Initially launched in association with Samsung TV, Jadoonet's `Elite' set-top box can work with most TV models and boasts of a few special features -- like a ``smart card'' reader which anticipates the day when you can use your Internet connection to do home shopping. It also boasts of a `picture-in-picture' (PIP) feature which allows you to keep an eye on a TV channel while surfing.
HCL's offering in this niche is the ``Ezebee,'' almost ( but not quite) a full fledged PC. It comes with a monitor, keyboard and a mouse — the only parts missing are the main processor and motherboard. Instead you can opt for one of the two "flash memory"cards, to store 8 or 16 MB of data. This is a machine for those who want to access Internet and e-mail — but don't want to pay for the other PC features. The downside is that this costs only slightly less than a low end PC — so you might feel, why not pay a little more and have the full works?
Now, it's not only the PC guys who have responded to the new `net devices'. Consumer electronics players too, have joined the bandwagon by e-nabling their TV sets. Initially, Videocon launched its own set-top box called V Net.
But in April this year, its TV model 5704 integrated the Internet features into the main TV, making it the first ever Internet television set costing around Rs 18,000.
Supplemented by a wireless infra-red keyboard, it lets you connect through any service provider, using its inbuilt 56k modem and all that the user needs to do is to plug in the telephone cord and surf using its `basic' browser — basic because you can't access flash enabled sites.
You can also connect certain models of HP inkjet printers into its serial port.
Web Cruiser from Onida is yet another television model which allows net surfing and comes with a flash memory of 2MB.
One slightly different `net device' is the iStation. Conceived by iNabling Technologies Pvt Ltd, this is a compact Liquid Crystal (LCD)-based e-mailing device which needs only a telephone cable to start functioning. Having a storage capacity of 256 KB, the iStation is not based on any particular ISP-- in fact it uses its own unique ISP service from iNablers who have their set up in Karnataka and one can configure up to 5 mail IDs on the device. Currently two versions are available — one, the basic model and the second, with a printer and a PC uplink port.
Though you can't surf the net with it, its notebook-like appearance makes it a handy accessory for on-the-move types. It can read messages in the text format, and does not open attachments — but it can send your mails in local languages like Hindi and Kannada. So, if you are the kind of person who logs in only to check your mails regularly, iStation could well be a good bargain.
As more Indians own television sets than PCs, it makes sense to give them a little extra to access the net on their TV screens.
Right now, this costs anything from around Rs. 6,000 for a set-top box like the Magnet or Jadoonet...to a souped-up television set like the Videocon or Onida, where the price of the TV is increased to include the net-enabled features. May be in near future, Internet access in your TV set will be as common as a `remote'!
A. VISHNU
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