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(....continued)   When you turn on the Teknema Internet TV, you get the initial Teknema welcome screen from which you can choose to go to the Internet or check your email. Since I got the box straight from Teknema and not from an ISP, I had to set up my ISP account information so I can log onto the Internet. I pressed a key combination to get into setup and inputted my account information including account user name, password, and POP server information for email accounts. I also had to input a DNS numerical setting where I ended up using the DNS number address for my website. I don't think this was right but it worked. There were also some other settings for user, dialer, and printer that I did not bother with. If you get the box from an ISP, you may not have to bother too much with the settings. ISPs get access to a customization kit they can use to customize the unit for its customers as well as a toll-free number for automatic activation. (With the ISP customization kit, an ISP can customize the ISP logo that shows up in the welcome screen, specify the home page, and set up the search scripts; I would have to report on this later as an addendum to this review.)

After you have your account information set up, you use the mouse button on the remote control to move the mouse pointer to "Internet" which you click to go online. You get a status panel that pops up on the screen to tell your progress in logging onto the Internet. The status bar at the bottom of the screen below the menu also tells the status including what speed you logged in at. Once you're logged in, you go to the ISP's logo screen. Since I have not tried the ISP customization kit yet, I went to the Teknema Easy Rider demo home page where there were links to the typical pages you would go to on the Internet. Then I went off surfing the Internet with the Teknema Internet TV.

Surfing with the Teknema Internet TV is different from surfing with a WebTV. It is more like computer surfing in that you have to use the mouse button on the remote control to manuver the mouse pointer on the screen. On a WebTV, when you move a cursor block using your arrow keys around the screen, you would highlight a clickable link by putting a highlight box around the link. With the Teknema Internet TV, if you put the mouse pointer on a link and it becomes underlined like on a computer. With a computer web browser, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can set text links to always show up as underlined text, but with the Teknema unit, the link becomes underlined when you pass the mouse pointer over it.

For those computer webmasters out there, you all should know that the web pages you design on a computer monitor do not always look the same on a TV (but if you design for a 14 inch monitor and it should look okay on a TV). WebTV does a good job in trying to make web pages fit a TV screen. The Teknema Internet TV instead has a different spin or rather an additional scroll. The Teknema Internet TV's browser can scroll horizontally and not just vertically. (The WebTV scrolls vertically up and down but not horizontally; the WebTV has to squeeze wide web pages into the horizontal dimensions of a TV screen.) If a web page extends beyond the right side of the TV screen, you can press the 6 button on the Teknema remote control to scroll right to see the rest of the page (and you can press the 4 button to scroll back to the left).

The Teknema Internet TV makes the text fonts larger for the TV (so does the WebTV). The Teknema Internet TV does not handle text the same way the WebTV does in that the Teknema Internet TV puts all the text in a Serif style. Serif meaning that you have the trailing tails like with courier text. WebTV uses a Sans Serif style ("sans" meaning without the trailing tails) for something that looks more like block text for lack of a better term. Serifs are used in publishing books, magazines, and newspapers to help people follow text along a line without actually putting a line under the text. You normally don't read text on a TV screen. So the serif acts as trailing "line" to help guide the eye in reading text on a TV screen. For some this is a "style" thing whether to use serif or sans serif and for others it does not matter. (FYI, I use a combination of a serif default font and a sans serif arial font here at this website). The folks at Teknema tell me that more fonts are on the way and they should include different size fonts.

The Teknema Internet TV unit has basic email functions. You can set up four different email accounts for four different email servers. So, if you can get four email addresses from your ISP for members of your household, you can set up the Teknema Internet TV to receive the email for those accounts. For those computer people out there with multiple email POP accounts (I think I have seven email accounts at last count), you can set up the Teknema Internet TV to access those multiple accounts, but only up to four accounts. For most people, you'll probably only have to worry about setting up one account and your ISP, if you bought the unit from an ISP, will most likely set it up for you.

Okay, where can you get one of these boxes? According to Teknema's information sheets, Teknema marketing strategy is directed towards OEMs, VARs, Telephone companies, ISPs, Distributors, and Retailers worldwide. The Teknema Internet TV unit is in Italy and in Sweden. In Sweden, the box is marketed under the name of @Hemma (like @Home here in the U.S.). The Teknema has also been tested by banks in Spain and should be ready to be deployed soon for online banking. The banks will be giving away or selling the units at discounted prices to get bank customers. It would be like opening a bank account and you get a free Internet TV too. Plans are also in the works for the introduction of the Teknema Internet TV unit in other European countries and in Latin America. According to Teknema's information sheets, the Teknema Internet TV unit is available in Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Catalan languages. In emphasizing a difference between the Teknema Internet TV unit and other competing non-WebTV Internet TV boxes, Teknema's Business Development Director Luis Lajous stated, "There is no royalty or monthly fee to us like there is with other supposedly open-architecture set-top boxes." Unfortunately, the Teknema Internet TV unit is not being sold in retail stores in the U.S. at this time. So for the folks in the U.S., you have to ask your ISP or telecom company about whether they offer the unit to their customers.

As for the future, the Teknema folks tell me that IRC Chat is on the way as well as off-line browsing. And they are working on a new version of their box. The Teknema Internet TV unit as it is right now is a basic Internet browser and email client.

Click here to see Teknema's official website information for their Internet TV unit. Teknema's website is located at http://www.teknema.com.

Happy Set-Top Surfing!
Ruel

P.S. I've received various email messages asking about and commenting on various set-top boxes including the Teknema. For instance, several companies (both U.S. and foreign) were looking at demo units of various set-top boxes. If you are interested in the Teknema Internet TV box, or any set-top box, you may want to give a serious look at a demo unit before making your very important purchasing decisions.

P.S.S. Looking for configuration information? Try clicking here and here.