Coming to a TV Near You: Motorola's Interactive Wireless Web Pad

Motorola and Macromedia are developing the perfect product to help couch potatoes get more out of your TV-viewing experience: another TV.

Well, sort of. It is the Motorola Evr-8401 Enhanced TV viewer, a handheld wireless Web pad that lets television viewers skim the Internet while watching TV.

Motorola is integrating Macromedia's Flash Player into the device, which will allow users to view content in the kind of dynamic, broadcast-style presentation that is more akin to watching a video than merely clicking around on a desktop computer.

Users will be able to look up information while watching TV -- news, weather, stock quotes -- and visit sites with interactive features specifically designed for certain shows.

So when that announcer with the nice hair says, "for more information, go to CNN.com," a viewer can do just that -- without having to get off the sofa. A sports fan can check whatever scores are not already crawling along the bottom of the picture; a nostalgia buff can order from Amazon that mid-eighties rock hit that plays at the fade to commercial. Game-show enthusiasts can play along with the online version of whatever prime-time game show is airing.

News source: News Factor - Coming to a TV Near You: Motorola's Interactive Wireless Web Pad