In Brief

By Wilson Rothman

VIDEO-GAME VERITE Video games are pushing the boundaries of realism--and budgetary constraints. By the time Sega's Shenmue for Dreamcast hit the U.S., it cost the company nearly $80 million. Part of the challenge was to create an interactive version of a city--in this case, Yokosuka, Japan, ca. 1986--in which you can knock on virtually every door on every street. What's next? Maybe your front door.

PAGING DR. PALM Websites that will store your medical history are spreading like rashes on the Internet, but do you really want to have to go online just to see if it's time to take your allergy medicine? WellMed www.wellmed.com thinks it has a less painful way to nag you. It's launching a wireless service that can send both routine and condition-specific notices straight to your Web-enabled phone, wireless PDA or alphanumeric pager. The free account can keep track of your daily health regimen and your full medical history, which can be automatically faxed to your hospital in case of an emergency.

NAB THAT TUNE If you're tired of all the digital-music mumbo-jumbo and wonder whatever became of radio, we're happy to report that it's alive and well--and ready to be plugged into your PC. A free program called SongCatcher www.songcatcher.com records your favorite broadcasts to your hard drive. Overnight the program separates the music and chatter into tracks you can load to an MP3 player or burn onto a CD. Next from the SongCatcher folks: a talk-radio version, so you can take Dr. Laura in tolerable doses.

--By Wilson Rothman