Fine Tuning

SCREENING THE DEBTORS

Qube, Warner-Amex's two-way cable service, is just shaking down in Dallas, but there is some apprehension that it may be too good to resist. Customers pay a monthly $9.95 for access to 80 channels and the Qube system, then an additional fee for each of the five subscription channels. There will soon be hundreds of pay-per-view attractions each month that could turn a video freak into an unintentional deadbeat. In conjunction with the Dallas city council, Warner-Amex has discussed setting a debt ceiling for customers. In Columbus, Warner-Amex officials already have a plan for cable-holies. When the tab exceeds $25 extra in a given month, they "give you a call as a friendly reminder," says one W-A official.

FADE TO BLACK

By comparison, General Electric seems to be concerned not with how much is spent but with what is watched. Thirteen top-of-the-line 1983 GE televisions will include a home censor for parental use. Just punching in a private code and a channel number will keep Junior from leching after Morgan Fairchild. It will, in fact, keep the entire channel off the set for twelve hours. If Junior learns the code, however, he can retaliate by wiping out, say, Little House on the Prairie. This may introduce a whole new version of family feud.

BLESSED EVENT

Born: To the Sony Walkmans, first family of portable tape decks; an heir. Name: Watchman. Weight: 1 Ib. 3 oz. Height: 7% in. Thickness: 1% in. The offspring is bigger than its forebears: the Watchman is a television--and a flat one at that. Using a new 1 1/4in. black-and-white picture tube that looks like a pygmy canoe paddle, Sony has turned out a set that is more streamlined and less bulky than existing tiny TVs. The Watchman, with a 2-in. screen and sleek metallic finish, not only looks good everywhere but can work just about anywhere too, from a dentist's chair to a box at the opera. It can be powered by batteries, household current, even a car's cigarette lighter socket. While the list price of the Watchman, scheduled to hit U.S. stores this fall, is around $250, Sony does not include collision insurance.

AMERICAN GRAFFITI

You can make a will on video. Send a valentine. Take an inventory. Now you can even go back to high school. Video Entrepreneur Ted Brown of Torrance, Calif., specializes in the high school market: his small company shoots 110 hours of a school year, then edits the footage down to a tidy 60-min. Videoyearbook. Price per cassette: $60. No lunch money, please.

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