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Sound is an interesting issue. The web standards of .WAV and .AU do not play, though the future standards of MIDI and MPEG do. This is probably due to the fact that there is little or no local storage and the previous formats are large and don't stream...MIDI is mini and MPEG streams.(Plays as it downloads.) If you look through the grate on top of the unit you can see the little MPEG chip in there just waiting for some sound loving.

Hardware...it's there. 33.6K modem built in. 100+ Mhz RISC processor. An "expansion port" (I think it's SCSI) which could be used for such add-ons as a hard drive, printer, or...can you say "High Speed Cable Modem?!" There's also an interesting slot in the front of the device that reads "Smart Card," though it was not mentioned in our manual. Can you say "shop till your thumb gives out?"

One downfall of the device is its skimpy 2 megs of RAM for both System and applications. I can only assume this will increase in future releases of the unit. Basically, unless a file streams, it challenges the device which often gives up and gives a friendly message like "The file you requested contains too much information for WebTV to deal with." Swell, eh?

As for security, there are a number of features. Parents can assign levels of viewability for kids. Each family member gets their own personal ID (and email account.) Also, on the commerce front, the unit has 128 bit RSA encryption built in which is so strong that the US Government classifies the Unit as a munition and Philips and Sony must apply for a special export license to sell it overseas. This should prove an interesting battle. Keep your eyes open and give out your credit card number at will.

Does WebTV change everything? Who knows? But I think there is a whole new audience on the way. At about $300 for the unit and $75 for the keyboard, WebTVs have been selling nicely and could well be found under a lot of trees this holiday season. (My mom will finally get to see what I do for a living!) Always wanted to be on TV?

Here's your chance