TECHWATCH

SURFING FOR MADISON AVENUE'S DOLLARS

So some Website banner ad invites you to "Click Here" to learn more about "Blah, blah, blah," and you think, "Not even if they paid me." Are you sure? What if reading a sales brochure, filling out a survey or making a purchase actually paid down the balance on your VISA card?

CyberGold, based in Berkeley, Calif., has spent the past year creating what CEO Nat Goldhaber calls "the first market for human attention," offering Web surfers CyberGold "coins" that can be transferred into their bank account, turned into the online currency Cybercash, or, as of this week, credited to their VISA balance.

The rewards for obeying CyberGold marketers range from 50[cents] (for, say, accepting two free issues of Wired magazine) to $5 (for letting a company called Atrieva back up your hard disk), with larger prizes on the way. Moving your winnings to your bank or VISA card, though, requires a password and a valid address, phone number and E-mail logon--safeguards that, along with the fact that each user can win a given reward only once, should prevent tech-heads from hacking the system. Such security will be crucial to Goldhaber's goal of making CyberGold central to the world of online commerce. "Attention must be paid!" cries Willy Loman's wife in Death of a Salesman. Perhaps it's about to start paying really well.

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL WITH FORCE FEEDBACK

At last there's more to virtual reality than those dorky-looking headsets. New force-feedback joysticks let gamers actually feel the action in sports, shooting and flight-simulation games.

Here's how they work: small motors inside the base of the sticks send jolts and vibrations to the handle in synch with the action onscreen--from the bumpy roads in Activision's Interstate '76 to the shudder of a quarterback sack in ABC's Monday Night Football.

Flight sims and air-combat games like LucasArts' new Shadows of the Empire: Battle for Hoth, shown above, use force feedback to the fullest. Gamers can feel the resistance as planes pull out of dives, the recoil from missile and machine-gun fire and, for those less fortunate, the shattering impact of an unexpected crash.

More toys are coming. Thrustmaster will release a new steering wheel early next year, and by Christmas there should be some 40 games with force-feedback effects.

ON THE MONEY

CALL ME A decade ago, with just two carriers allowed in each U.S. city, cellular-phone rates were boosted by a lack of competition. But dozens of new carriers and the arrival of cheap personal-communication-service networks have pushed rates down. Today's 56 million users pay 34% less per minute than in 1987. The drop, say experts, is likely to continue.

Source: Herschel Shosteck Associates

SCORECARD

FEARLESS In Disney's fare for kids, the world is usually a bright, cheery place. So the firm's latest CD-ROM is a departure, bristling with nightmares such as dentists' chairs and graveyards. But it has (no surprise) a happy ending. Also, no scenes involve Mickey, Goofy and an ax.

PROGRAM: Nightmare Ned from Disney Interactive. AUDIENCE: Kids age six and up. PRICE: $35. RATING: [Four stars]