(FORTUNE Magazine) – INTERNET RADIO kerbango! RCA/November 2000/$299

With countless stations the world over now broadcasting on the Web, the Internet has turned out to be the best thing to happen to radio since FM. But it comes with two drawbacks: One is congestion, or interference on the telephone line, which causes annoying interruptions in broadcasts; the other is low fidelity. Since most people have to listen to Internet radio on their computers, sound quality is lousy. All that is about to change--at least for anyone with a broadband connection and $299. Broadband greatly reduces congestion, and RCA's new Internet Radio allows listeners to access more than 5,000 stations without using a computer. The radio can be plugged into your stereo system just like an AM/FM tuner (it has those bands too). When you turn it on, it connects to the Kerbango Tuning Service, which provides the computer-free access. You can listen to the news on KBS1 in Seoul or hear Indian music broadcast from Singapore on Oli or tune in to "crazy experimental electronic soundscapes" from Riga, Latvia, on Radio Open Zone. You can even sign on to a station called RadioMongo and create your own custom playlists. "We've taken Internet radio out of the PC," says Rocky Caldwell, product manager for RCA. "And we intend to implement it everywhere." --Charles A. Hirshberg

PANJA 1000 entertainment gateway Panja/December 2000/$1,995

The 21st-century living room will soon be incomplete without some kind of "broadband entertainment gateway"--like the Panja 1000. The system will allow you to link up to eight components (TV, DVD, stereo, etc.) and to control all of them from up to 150 feet away using Panja's ViewPoint touch panel remote. But convenience is the least of Panja's advantages: For a fee of $14.95 per month, its integrated controller gives you immediate access to the Internet through a high-speed modem. And its digital music processor can decode any of the more than four million audio and video files available from MP3 and Streamsearch. (Panja hopes to have more services online soon.) Unlike most Internet jukeboxes, which require you to download materials before hearing them, Panja streams them directly from the Web. The music is generally of CD quality. But the grainy, jumpy video is just barely acceptable--or unacceptable, depending on your standards. It's not Panja's fault. Even with a broadband connection, Web experts have yet to solve the problem of compression, that is, how to quickly squeeze voluminous video files through a modem and into your home without sacrificing quality. But Dallas-based Panja is betting that high-quality motion pictures will be available soon. And, the company promises, a Panja purchased today will have no problems streaming the video of tomorrow. --C.A.H.

TRAVEL GUIDE digital passport AT&T/Projected late 2001

The Travel Guide marries the simple compass to decidedly more high-tech features like a Global Positioning System receiver and a broadband wireless network. Using the digital guidebook--a prototype built by Frog Design (left) is still several years away from production--would be as simple as pointing. The GPS records your location, the compass your direction, and the data from both is sent over a regional wireless network. Visitors to the Golden Gate Bridge, for example, could have guidebook information, an audio tour, even video clips delivered to the Travel Guide's round LCD screen. The device could also store airline e-tickets and other personal travel information. Building the guide raised the issue of which technologies will shrink enough and become cheap enough to work in a broadband wireless device. "Would a GPS system be likelier or a cellular location system?" asks AT&T vice president Stuart Gannes. "Would there be a round, color LCD screen? LCD manufacturers said no, we weren't crazy--they were already developing round screens before we'd thought of using one." Adds Gannes: "Everything in this device is feasible in the next few years." --Greg Lindsay

VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION SERVICES soft phone AT&T/December 2000

In this age of frequent flying, teleconferencing, and telemarketing, the word "office" has come to mean any place a person can do two things: hook up his laptop and talk on the phone. But imagine if the two were one--if you could open your laptop, don a headset, and begin making calls, without ever touching a receiver. That day has arrived, with the advent of "soft phones," such as AT&T's Virtual Communication Services (right). Using an ordinary modem, you can log on to VCS Office, and a display appears on your screen that looks much like a telephone keypad. It can speed-dial countless numbers and do anything a regular business phone can do, while at the same time allowing you to work on company documents over the Internet. With a broadband connection, soft phones can do even more. Supervisors can listen in from their laptops as sales agents telemarket from theirs, view the same data, and, using a screen-capture function, make changes from remote locations. With more than three-quarters of American companies already utilizing some form of telecommuting, these may well be the office phones of the future. --C.A.H.

REB1200 e-ducational RCA/November 2000/$600

The end of treeware as we know it? RCA's REB1200, equipped with a 56K modem and an Ethernet port, could do for the electronic book what Gutenberg did for the Bible: With the Ethernet port, the two-pound e-book can download 100 pages of text in 60 seconds through a broadband network, cable modem, or DSL line. The paperback-book-sized device features a back-lit, easy-to-read LCD touch-screen and 8MB of memory, enabling it to store up to 5,000 pages of color pictures and text. Users will be able to access thousands of titles from more than 70 publishers through Gemstar's electronic bookstore, creating both user and publisher security. They will also be able to store books on an electronic library shelf after they've read them. Most titles will be offered below bookstore prices ($20 for Stephen King's Bag of Bones, compared with $28 for the hardcover edition). Some newspapers and magazines will also be available via automated electronic delivery, including the New York Times ($30 for a six-month subscription) and FORTUNE ($3.50 for a single issue). --Feliciano Garcia

ADVANCED DIGITAL CABLE set-top wwwurlitzer Philips/2001

Imagine watching your favorite game show, answering e-mail, checking your stock picks, and burning CDs--all at the same time via your remote control and TV. Combining access to services such as digital cable, personalized television, and the Internet, the new Philips DCX6172 set-top box will enable viewers to experience high-speed, interactive television through broadband cable service. Equipped with a DOCSIS cable modem and a powerful 1,000 MIPS processor, the box serves as a full-blown home entertainment center, enabling users to simultaneously stream Internet video and audio content to other devices, including stereos, Web pads, and TVs (like the 42-inch Philips FlatTV pictured). Viewers will also be able to download music or movies into an attached hard-disk drive and print data directly onto disks through a CD or DVD writeable plug-in. In a partnership expected to spur innovative competition within the broadband cable set-top market, Philips and AT&T Broadband plan to offer the new set-top line in the U.S. next year. Also, keep on the lookout for Motorola's DCT-5000+ advanced interactive digital set-top box, which offers similar features and will be made available through cable providers. --F.G.

PLAYSTATION2 game over? Sony/October 2000/$299

There's a reason the processor at the heart of PlayStation2 is called the Emotion Engine: Its graphics are so powerful they can make tears look astonishingly real. U.S. fans are practically crying in frustration as they begin the countdown to Oct. 26, when the game console hits shelves here for $299. (It has been selling in Japan for almost a year.) Sony has said it expects to sell ten million PlayStation2s worldwide by next March, which would easily make it the most popular broadband consumer electronics device ever made. But that depends on when Sony plans to connect the PlayStation2 to the Net. Although the company has talked up the console as the hub of its broadband strategy, eventually connecting to other Sony devices, like MP3 players and digital video cameras, the PlayStation2 will ship without a modem. Sony is staying mum on the subject, but experts guess that the company prefers to wait until broadband pipes are more universally available, and thus avoid building in--and building up the price with--slower connections. When that day comes, expect to see more games available, like Sony's own EverQuest, the popular PC fantasy game in which thousands of gamers play alongside each other. Sega's competing Dreamcast is already on the market at half the price ($149.95) and includes a 56K modem. Even more potent rivals, like Microsoft's X-Box and Nintendo's GameCube, are expected to arrive in time for Christmas 2001 with high-speed Ethernet connections and competitive prices. --G.L.

KID BALL rolling phones AT&T/Projected 2003

The Kid Ball will be the first phone you can swat, fling, even guide by remote. One of a group of AT&T Broadband concept products developed by Frog Design, the Kid Ball is intended to introduce toddlers to the telephone. "The idea came from a designer who had a baby at the time," says AT&T vice president Stuart Gannes. "Every time he would give him the phone, the kid would freeze up and have nothing to say. So we said, 'Let's imagine how we could make the phone something that enters into a child's life.' " The Kid Ball is a phone in the shape of a ball that includes a video screen, a camera, a speaker, and microphones. A child would be able to see the caller's face on the screen and hear his or her voice on the speakers, while both voice and picture were transmitted back, all data moving wirelessly. A gyroscopically balanced inner sphere keeps the screen level at all times, while motors in the outer sphere can propel the ball across the floor. "You could press *7 on your phone and have it spin in place or run backwards," says Frog Design's Kevin Coulihan. Every piece of the Kid Ball could be made cheaply today, except for the home broadband wireless network needed to stream all that video and audio data in both directions. "This is a way for kids to have fun with the phone instead of be scared by it," he says. "And if the kid's not interested, he can always swat grandpa away." --G.L.