You’ve pretty much got to have e-mail these days. Otherwise, people will think you’re weird. Or, at least, standoffish and out of touch.
Until recently, however, you couldn’t get e-mail without buying a PC–a major purchase and something many people don’t need or want. Half of all U.S. households, in fact, don’t have a PC.
Now things are changing. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, a dozen manufacturers touted new devices offering e-mail and at least limited Internet access for as little as $99 to as much as $3,299–without buying a PC.
They call their new machines Internet “appliances” because they want you to think of them like toasters: inexpensive, user-friendly and easy to set up and operate. They’re meant for the kitchen counter or the coffee table in the den where the family congregates, not for the isolation of the study, where the expensive PC lurks and crashes.
Some give you only e-mail, with no Internet access; others give you limited Internet access to little Internet packages of information preprogrammed to your tastes; others give you the same full Internet access you’d get with a PC–all the way to streaming audio and video and instant messaging. You get what you pay for.
The new machines are actually the second generation of Internet devices. The first generation–the iOpener from Netpliance and others–slumped because companies failed to catch the attention of their target audience, the non-technological half of the population, says Milosz Skrzypczak, an industry analyst with The Yankee Group. But these may do better, he says, because they vary so dramatically.
Here’s what’s new:
– The Mivo 100 Mailstation, by Cidco Inc: One of the smallest, cheapest Internet appliances, it’s a 6-by-2.25-inch screen with a two-thirds-size keyboard that sends and receives e-mails but provides no Internet access. It’ll store about 400 e-mails and can hook up to a printer. Price is $99, with Internet service available for $9.99 a month.
The Mivo 200, at $129.99 and a monthly service fee of $12.95, provides e-mail plus limited, personalized Internet access. The Mivo 300, at $179.99 and a monthly fee of $14.95, provides e-mail, more comprehensive Internet service and a digital photo album that lets you send and receive photos.
– The Icebox, by CMi Worldwide: This combines e-mail, Internet access, cable-ready stereo TV, DVD, audio CD and home monitoring in a single, 20-pound unit that sits on kitchen counter or hangs beneath a top kitchen cabinet. The name stands for “Information Communication Entertainment Box.” It’s operated by remote control or wireless keyboard, both called “kitchenproof” because they can be rinsed under a faucet.
The under-cabinet model has a thin LCD screen that flips out of the way when not in use.
The countertop model is $899. The flip-up model is $3,299. The Internet service is $14.95 a month.
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– The Intel Dot.Station Web appliance: This provides e-mail and full Internet access and also acts as a phone and answering machine, with address book and calendar. This is a major machine with a hard drive, which lets you store e-mailed photos.
Unlike some smaller machines, it has a 14-inch color screen that will display full Web pages, and it supports Web plug-ins such as RealAudio, Java and others to let you download audio and complicated graphics.
The Dot.Station links to the Internet by phone line or broadband connection and has a port that links it to a printer. The Dot.Station won’t be sold in stores. Instead, Intel is making it available to Internet service providers, banks and other firms that would make it available to their customers under a variety of plans.
– The New Internet Computer, by NIC: Created by Oracle Corp. Chairman Lawrence Ellison, it gives you e-mail and sophisticated access to the Internet. It calls itself a computer, even though it technically isn’t, because it doesn’t have a hard drive. Instead, this muscular machine runs a Linux-based operating system from a built-in CD-ROM, and it has a 266 megahertz processor and 64 megabytes of RAM.
Unlike most Internet appliances, the NIC is “ISP agnostic,” meaning you can sign up with any Internet service provider instead of being stuck with one from NIC. See www.thinkNIC.com.
– Audrey, by 3Com Corp.: This stresses one-button access to e-mail, Net channels, calendar and address book. It lets you send e-mail by voice, scribble or keyboard. You can type in a message as usual.
Audrey is $499, plus $14.99 a month Internet service.