Interactive Television & Set Top Boxes Throughout the mid-90's, numerous companies wanted to tap into those people that didn't want the hassle of dealing with a full computer, but wanted a simple 'appliance' that they could hook up to thier television and surf the Web and send/receive email with. The WebTV, originally from Philips, seems to have been the most successful of these. Other companies worked on similar systems built around proven operating systems such as OS9 and the Amiga OS. Apple even got into the fray with Macintosh-based systems. Some of the things these systems had in common were that they required the use of a specific service, which rendered the appliance so much junk once the service disbanded, and little to no storage capacity.

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