WebTV Networks Inc. will release software upgrades for its set-top devices that offer JavaScript compatibility, Usenet newsgroups and Chat services by the end of April.

In a scheduled March 10 upgrade, the Palo Alto, Calif., company will issue the Usenet capability, along with a new feature called Around Town that lets users check weather, movie and television listings, and other entertainment information based on a ZIP code, CEO Steve Perlman said today.

In April, WebTV plans to release the JavaScript and Macromedia Inc. Flash compatibility features along with software upgrades that let users print information on Hewlett-Packard Co. printers.

Chat features also will be offered in April.

In the summer, the company plans to announce a new method of sending data that "solves a problem no one thought could be solved," Perlman said.

"You're going to see WebTV associated less and less with the Internet and more as an extension to television," he said.

The new method will offer virtually instantaneous transmission of data through a pipeline that is not yet fully tapped, said Perlman. He would not comment about the pipeline, or how WebTV would be putting it to use.

Perlman said WebTV will continue to be successful, despite competition from PCs with integrated television and gaming devices with Internet capability.

"There will be game devices using WebTV," he said. "It's not just a matter of putting the Internet on television, it's doing it in a simple way."

PCs with integrated television, such as Gateway 2000 Inc.'s Destination PC or a PC developed under Microsoft Corp.'s Simply Interactive PC standard, are not competitors, because people "don't want to watch television 9 inches in front of their face," Perlman added.

Source: PC Week