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March 1, 1996
Web posted: 3:50 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Brian Nelson
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Internet. To get on it, money is the big hurdle -- money to buy a powerful new computer, and money to pay monthly access charges. But there are some cheaper alternatives.
A device to turn your television into a computer is now being tested in Atlanta and elsewhere, while in San Francisco, Oracle software has unveiled a bare-bones computer called an NC -- short for Network Computer.
"This is the cheapest network computer we could come up with," said Oracle chairman Larry Ellison. The NC is his brainchild -- in flamboyant fashion, he gave the press a sales pitch for the machine he believes will revolutionize computing. (893K QuickTime Movie)
It has no name yet, and no announced manufacturer. But the Oracle chairman vows it will sell for less than $500 by next fall, and may be given away, like cellular phones are today, when new networks launch aggressive marketing strategies.
Ellison adds that the NC is simple to use, and will have some resident memory by no hard drive, floppy drive, or CD-ROM. As such, it promises cheap access to the Internet and to huge private computer networks for millions.
There, users will find e-mail and an abundance of software and games for on-line rental, rental storage space for personal files, and high quality pictures and sound.
The new television model, being tested by ViewCall America in Atlanta, also features music selections as well as on-line recipes, real estate, traffic and commuter news, lists of baby sitters and vacation ideas.
ViewCall President Alan McKeon said that ViewCall will sell the television computer for about $300, but adds that it's top feature is the ability to compute from the comfort of the living room couch.
"We believe people want to be connected," McKeon said. "They want to be on the information superhighway, but they don't want to pay the price." (102K AIFF sound or 102K WAV sound)
But McKeon thinks consumers will pay his price, and marvel at the ease of simply plugging into a phone jack and the back of a television -- launching a whole new generation of couch potatoes.
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