Your Technology

RADIO FREE MICROSOFT The latest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer doesn't push Web browsing to any new heights, but it does offer a few bells, whistles and radio knobs. Yes, radio knobs. A new toolbar lets you set up direct links to your favorite Internet radio stations--a trick taken straight from . The browser and radio are free (you can download them from ). And sticking with the business practice that landed the company in court, Microsoft plans to sell a new edition of Windows 98 with IE 5.0 bundled in.

REAL CHEAP PCS It doesn't seem that long ago that a good deal on a computer meant a new PC that sold for under a grand. Now the cheapest PC practically pays for itself. The $299 Webzter Jr. desktop from Microworkz Computer Corp. packs a surprisingly powerful punch with its 300-MHz Cyrix processor, 32 megabytes of memory and 3.2-gigabyte hard drive. Like every other sub-$1,000 PC, it comes without a monitor, but it does give you one year of free Internet service from Earthlink, a $240 value.

OUT OF SIGHT Speakers for TVs, stereos and multimedia computers have been getting pretty thin lately. Now NXT has taken this anorexic trend about as far as it can go: to invisible. The company, based in London, has developed a way to make speakers so transparent that they can overlay any flat surface--PC monitor, TV screen, picture frame, even car windshield. A prototype covers a laptop with a vibrating sheet of clear plastic and produces a stereo sound that seems to come right out of the screen. No licensees yet, but with tech this cool, it's only a matter of time.