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With all the hype of "set-top boxes" and the seeming death of interactive TV projects countrywide, it seemed these mythical devices were destined for the R&D scrap heap. And then along comes WebTV which has totally blown me and most of Silicon Alley away.

Quite simply, WebTV is a small box that would live comfortably on, say, the top of your television. You plug a phone wire into the phone jack, and the audio and video plugs into your VCR or TV connections. Then push the green WEB button.

That's about as complicated as it gets with WebTV. It automatically dials an 800 number to get a local access number, then dials the local access number and logs you in. You don't have to remember or write down a thing. Once you have entered your credit card (secure, of course) info, you're in. (The service is $19.95/month, unlimited use!)

All surfing can be done with the included remote control and enhanced with the optional infrared keyboard. The folks at WebTV have done a stellar job of hiding the technical jargon that intimidates so many new users. They've even made surfing a little more dynamic by adding dissolves, sounds and transitions between web pages. Also, the "menu bars" zoom on and off screen at the touch of a button, but most of the time the designers have removed the interface to make room for the Web...Bravo.

Whether or not couch potatoes will instantly fall in love with Web surfing remains to be seen, but WebTV also allows up to 5 email accounts per family. This is a major feature. Now Granny can keep in touch with all the grandkids via email. This feature alone may be the most significant draw of the device. Typing via the on-screen keyboard, however, is so painful that one note to Junior will drive most users back to the store to buy the well-designed infrared keyboard. Buy the keyboard on the first trip, it is well worth the extra cash.

While email will keep them coming back, it is called WebTV... so how well does it deal with the Web? In short, remarkably well for a version 1.0 device. The only major browser omission is lack of frames support, but most major HTML tags seem to be handled cleanly. While some colors bleed, we've checked most of our sites and they survive the transition surprisingly well. Microsoft just invested in the company, so expect to see Internet Explorer's engine as the browser very soon.

Text looks pretty good as they have used a sans-serif font and bumped up the size to about 14 or 15 point. You can read most stuff from across the room. Graphics survive the transition surprisingly well and often look more vibrant on the tele!