Sony Introduces New e Villa Network Entertainment Center

For a time-crunched professional, a family facing an Internet traffic jam at home, or an Internet novice, Sony has developed the e Villa Network Entertainment Center, an easy-to-use yet powerful new device to take advantage of the best the Internet has to offer.
The e Villa model (NTE-D101) is a display, keyboard and mouse bundled with a service that helps users instantly access email; tune into Internet radio stations; view videos and digital still pictures; navigate the Web; and enjoy customized local, financial, sports, and lifestyle information; and more.

"Using the Internet through a PC can be a slow and frustrating process even for the most computer-literate consumer," said Mark Viken, president of Sony Electronics' Personal Network Solutions Company. "Sony's e Villa unit eliminates the common hassles of connecting to the Internet, like having to boot up and dial in just to see if there's new email, or trying to manage multi-media plug-ins. We haven't just made it easier, but we've also made it more fun by emphasizing the audio and video entertainment aspects of the Internet through both the e Villa hardware and service."

Waiting to Boot-up and Dial-in is a Thing of the Past with Easy-on Feature
Users can log-on anytime with unlimited access. Additionally, the e Villa service dials up each night - or at a time the user specifies -- and downloads email and customized information organized into channels like shopping, sports and local news. An indicator light lets the user know if he or she has new email. With a touch of button, email can then be instantly accessed, along with the customized information updates behind each channel - without having to dial in.

The nightly download also automatically updates multimedia plug-ins as they become available to e Villa users so they can interact with popular music, video and animated Web sites. The e Villa service also organizes Internet radio stations into formats, such as country and rock, and makes use as simple as a push-button car radio.

Keep Family Peace with Four Users Per Account and Off-line Mode
For families with multiple email users, the e Villa helps keep the peace by allowing four independent users per account, each with separate email addresses, passwords, bookmarks, and preference settings. And a busy phone line isn't a problem, because the e Villa Network Entertainment Center also allows users to create email, view pictures and videos, and listen to music in an off-line mode.

Same Crisp Clarity as Sony's Wega TVs
The e Villa has a 15" (14" viewable) FD Trinitron display, employing the same flat display technology used in Sony's popular Wega line of televisions but with a twist. The ultra high-resolution display stands in a vertical portrait orientation, to provide up to a third more Internet page viewing area than a typical horizontal PC display.

The unit includes built-in stereo speakers along with an audio-out jack to optimize the digital music from the Internet with external speakers or headphones.

The e Villa unit is also equipped with:

• A Memory Stick slot: Uses removable Memory Stick media for virtually unlimited storage. Memory Stick media allows e Villa users to share and transfer digital photos, videos, music, text and other digital files from dozens of different electronic devices.



• Two USB ports: e Villa supports external Iomega Zip drives for extra storage, and 15 different popular printers for printing out photos, Web pages, emails and more.



• On-line storage: In addition to Memory Stick and Zip disc storage options, e Villa users have up to 10 MB of on-line storage.



• Two ways to connect: The unit has the fastest available dial-up modem, and for future broadband access, an Ethernet port.



• Easy-On/Easy-access: Three buttons on the front of the display take the user to the Web; to their email in-box; or to the e Villa Net Guide, a gateway to seven channels of information updated daily or whenever you dial in.



• Full-size keyboard and scroll mouse: To navigate smoothly and comfortably.

The e Villa Network Entertainment Center will be shipping in April. It is expected to sell for about $500, and carry a monthly Internet service charge of $21.95 for unlimited access.

Additional product specifications:

• Display: 15" (14" viewable) Sony FD Trinitron, 800 x 1024 resolution
• Operating System: Be Operating Systems' BeIA
• Web Browser: Opera (4.0 HTML-based)
• Internet Service Provider: e Villa Service powered by Earthlink

Source: Sony