Getting Your Hands on a WebTV Box

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WebTV set-top boxes are popping up at electronics stores like kernels jumping out of a popcorn popper. Many stores already have the boxes made by Sony and Philips. Others are planning to hop on the WebTV wagon soon. If you like to pick and choose, you don�t have to settle just for WebTV. ViewCall offers an interactive TV channel that�s wrapped in Internet televisions, such as Sega NetLink, which plugs into the cartridge slot of Sega�s Saturn game machine. Diba�s NetVision is a television that comes ready to surf the Web, and Teknema sells a network computer called Easy Rider for Web browsing. Teknema�s design could also display on television, as well as a computer screen, whereas Bandai�s Pippin is a stripped-down Macintosh that comes equipped with a CD-ROM drive, infrared keyboard, and printer and modem serial ports.

Regardless of where you get the boxes, you can count on a real deal. The following list indicates the prices of WebTV set-top boxes.



Akai

12-14 Higashi-Koyiya, 2-Chome

Ohta-ku, Tokyo 144

Phone: 03 (3745) 9880

Fax: 03 (3745) 9560

http://www.akai.com

Less than $300



Bandai�s Pippin@World

1421 E Firestone Blvd., Suite 210

La Mirada, CA 90638

Phone: (310) 404-1600

Fax: (310) 404-1900

http://www.bdec.com/m-fst.html

$599



Diba�s Internet Information Appliance

3355 Edison Way

Menlo Park, CA 94025

Fax: (415) 482-3400

http://www.diba.com

Less than $300, available in the second quarter of 1997 through Mitsubishi.



Sega�s NetLink

P.O. Box 8097

Redwood City, CA 94065

http://www.sega.com

$199 for NetLink and less than $499 for NetLink and Saturn.



Teknema�s Easy Rider Internet Appliance

535 Middlefield Road, Suite 220

Menlo Park, CA 94025

Phone: (415) 833-7910

Fax: (415) 833-7919

http://teknema.com

Less than $500



WebTV Networks

305 Lytton Avenue

Palo Alto, CA 94301

Phone: (800) GOWEBTV

Fax: (415) 326-5277

http://webtv.net

Less than $400