Easy surfing and e-mail

3Com's Audrey:
Feed me data

With Ed Curran, Technogadgets

(CNN) -- I really like Audrey and I don’t care if my wife finds out. She really likes Audrey, too.

The folks at 3Com have brought us an Internet appliance that the public may actually care about. Internet appliances have not yet seen the hot sales many people predicted. But Audrey is a smart combination of features that makes it great to use with your existing computer and your Palm OS personal digital assistant. It's even a way to tie family and business together.

QUICK VOTE
	Several companies have planned or introduced Internet appliances but their commercial viability seems iffy. What about you? Can you see a place in your operation for an Audrey or other Net appliance? Yeah. I don't need full functionality at all locations in my office or home, so a Net appliance for e-mail and some browsing is perfect. Maybe. I just have to make sure an appliance has enough capability to handle what I'm doing at each place I have one. No. I still think full computers, while more expensive, are better at each location in an office or home than appliances. View Results

Some Web appliances have been aimed at people who don’t have computers. But, surprise, if they don’t have computers they probably don’t want computers. Computers have gotten very inexpensive -- there are used computers out there and you can probably get Uncle Frank's old Compaq because he just bought one with a 800mhz Pentium III. Internet appliances also need to serve folks who already have computers.

Some of these appliances make sense. The Gateway Internet Appliance hooks you up with AOL and can be integrated with your home computer. It’s a nice appliance. I like some of the MSN appliances, like the Compaq unit.

Audrey is different. Audrey is a nice complement to your existing computer and works with your current ISP, in many cases. Audrey has a 56K built-in modem and can also hook up nicely to your DSL or cable modem to give you fast Internet access. It even blinks when you have e-mail.

One touch retrieves that e-mail for you. To send e-mail, you can scribble a message by hand, type or speak a message and send with the tap of a stylus.

Audrey is the kind of appliance I always picture on the kitchen counter. Holding my calendar and my wife’s calendar, downloaded from our PDA units. That’s right, it’ll accept both our calendars and display them so everybody who uses this family nerve center knows what’s going on.

Convenient access to favorite pre-selected Internet content is as easy as changing the channel on a television. Scroll through the content with a turn of Audrey's channel selector knob.

Add a wireless keyboard that hides out-of-the way on Audrey’s backside and you have one impressive little machine.

Audrey, with its rather retro design, is $499.

Ed Curran, backed by the not-at-all-retro Mrs. Curran, has covered the world of high-tech for more than a dozen years and is the publisher of Technogadgets® -- www.technogadgets.com In addition to his weekly column here at CNN.com/career, watch for Curran's reports on CNN television.

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