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Thoughts on the MSN Web TV Device?
elmore asks: "I was watching television tonight and saw a commercial for the new MSN web TV device. Normally I completely dismiss anything Microsoft comes up with but this seems pretty nifty. I like this device because my grandparents and my mother are fairly...'challenged'...when it comes to the internet. Sticking with my gut, I'd like to ask the Slashdot community what web TV devices you've seen and/or given to your internet 'challenged' family or friends."
I found it here the other day, but I haven't seen any real advertising push for it yet...
I bought a WebTV for my grandmother. Its great, she can get on and send email around, surf the web, shop for her antiques on ebay and do cool stuff.
The downsides : No local storage for images or emails. She has to re-download stuff every time. And her email gets purged after a while, so she can't save that new grandchild picture forever
No games (not a big deal for my grandmother, but dont buy it for your 15 year old cousin!)
No wordproccessing/excel/etc. My grandmother would have some use for Word, so she could write letters to her lawyer, or to different companies/groups, but she doesnt have this.
The deal with WebTV, is know what you are buying, and what you need. If its just for email, and surfing, its great. If you want more than that, go buy them a 300$ computer at best buy, or (shudder) a mac!
Oh, and make sure you buy the keyboard, it makes everything MUCH easier than typing with a remote control
My siblings and I bought a Web TV for my parents, both in their 70's, both raised Amish, so they aren't the most technologically able people. It works very good for them. It's simple, they can surf and get e-mail, and because there is no hard drive and no "real" OS, viruses don't affect them. Sure, its uses are limited, but as long as you know exactly what you're going to use it for, it works quite well.
We got a Phillips WebTV unit for my husband's parents about 3+ years ago. (If my understanding is correct the new MSN ones are just the latest incarnation of the same machine). It works great for email and simple web surfing, which is about all they need it for. I don't like using it because its frustrating as hell not to have control of what's going on and to be able to multi-task, but for people who've never used computers and have no desire to, it's great.
:-) I guess they think going off to use the computer by yourself in some small room isn't as desirable as doing it socially and both getting to read the messages together. (That social aspect, and everyone seeing what you're looking at, could be very undesirable for some people).
The thing they most like about it, is that it appears on the TV. Since they have a very large TV, its very easy to read. Also, they said if they had a computer they'd have to go off into another room or office to use it, rather than doing it from the comfy chairs in the living room.
As another person has said, definitely get the keyboard. Using the remote is a pain. The only major thing we've had a problem with is that the keywords seem to be somewhat fragile or break easily. We've already had to order them a replacment once, and it looks like we might have to again.
My biggest frustration is the page size limit. When visiting a page such as E-Bay that has dozens of listings, the page cuts off and displays a warning about the page being too large. You can't get to the end of it then! I don't know if this problem is caused by the physical viewing size of the page (since webtv resizes things and makes pages much longer), or the time it takes to download. Same problem with Hotmail, but there at least I could limit the messages per page for them so they could see them all.
All in all IMO the device has its uses, but isn't for everyone.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.