The Prismiq MediaPlayer best features currently sit at the usability end of things. The public release of the on board software is only 6 months old and yet offers a great front end already. The user interface is via one of two possible remote controls. The first being the standard remote control and the second being a full sized keyboard. For everything but the web interface and chat engines the small TV remote is perfect. The reason I found the larger keyboard better for these applications is that it was just that - it is a full sized keyboard. The full sized keyboard used to be a free addition to the Prismiq unit but now trades for $49.95 and is an option.   It should be known that the full keyboard was only originally offered for free as initially it wasn't possible to use the small remote on the browser and chat client. That has now changed and it is possible to use the small remote in a very similar manner to how you send SMS text on a mobile phone. There are some differences to that of a mobile phone which hopefully will change in the future.				Data based on a review completed in June 2003. In other words - things do change!
For example:   When you look at your mobile phone you will see on button '2' the following letters 'a,b and c'. When sending a message on the phone if you press the '2' button once it will produce an 'a'. On the Prismiq even though you are using a text screen, it will produce '2', you have to push it twice to get to 'a'. By comparison to a mobile phone in a text mode: Button Press Cell Phone Prismiq Remote       1st push a 2 2nd push b a 3rd push c b 4th push 2 c Now while this isn't really a problem is does reduce productivity, after all, to enter the website http://www.the-brit.com adds 23 button pushes! Now consider that in a chat client or in a web based mail client - phew!   The other thing I found myself doing is pressing the tab button instead of the '#1' button (the dot used in the web addresses is gained by pressing the '1' button twice). It would have helped if these control keys looked different than the alphanumeric keys, either by shape or by colour of the rubber membrane.     The TV GUI >>>