TECHWATCH

MY CAR IS SMARTER THAN YOUR CAR

Dashboard navigation systems may be all the rage right now, but they're just a hint of what the wired car of the future will do. Last week IBM unveiled a "Network Vehicle" that can read E-mail aloud, find local hotels and restaurants and deliver both TV programming and full Internet access. But don't trade in that Lexus just yet: these dream machines won't hit the road for at least five years.

1 An antenna built into the roof provides crystal-clear satellite-TV reception (with up to 200 channels) and high-speed Internet access.

2 A heads-up display projects driving instructions and E-mail notices directly onto the windshield. When the driver says, "Read E-mail," the car reads the messages aloud.

3 The driver's touch-sensitive control panel includes options for selecting music, checking stock quotes, consulting road maps, paging and faxing.

4 Larger screens in front of each passenger seat provide individual controls for browsing the Web or watching TV.

5 By plugging a hand-held computer into a slot on the dashboard, the driver can review appointments and look up phone numbers and addresses.

MODEMS ON THE MOVE: RESTLESS AND SPEEDY

If you still can't afford a high-speed ISDN line, the old modulator-demodulator still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Acer's Wireless PC Connection ($200) uses 900-MHz spread-spectrum technology to permit notebook users to stray up to 500 ft. from their phone jacks for backyard or poolside computing. Meanwhile, SuperSonic II ($200) from Diamond Multimedia yokes two modems (and two phone lines) together to bring the effective bandwidth up to 112 kbps (kilobits per sec.). If someone calls while you're online, the system just cuts the speed in half until you hang up the phone and then kicks back into full double-barrel bandwidth.

TIRED: WIRED

No one has hyped the digital revolution more unabashedly than the geeks at Wired Ventures. But even as Silicon Valley's high rollers were partying in Las Vegas, the way-new media upstart was laying off staff: 33 in all. There were also reports, denied by spokesfolks, that its cheeky Webzine Suck would be next, or that the whole company was on the block. It was, in Wired-speak, a reality check.