Yellowknife (July 28/03) - Don't expect to be checking your e-mail on your sunglasses anytime soon.

Jim Grant a part owner and consultant with Tamarack Computers said computer screen sunglasses, as seen in the movies, do exist, but their just isn't the software to support them yet.

"That hardware is the easy thing to create, it's the software that is difficult, because that's what makes it work," he said.

Grant said the current software isn't savvy enough to avoid vertigo and other annoyances, and new software development could take years.

As for computers on the market, Grant said black coloured flat screens are all the rage.

When computers first came out, the screens were much like the box-shaped early television sets, but as computer games, the Internet and DVDs advanced, the screens had to keep up with them.

The going rate for new flat screen monitors, which boast higher resolution, ranges from $700 for a 17 inch screen to $12,000 for the new 22 inch monitors.

With most of the new computers equipped with advanced video cards, which provide excelled visual quality, Grant said the number one reason people buy faster computers or bigger screens is to accommodate their video game fix.

Grant said video cards are advancing so rapidly that soon the block-headed cartooned Mario Brothers games will be replaced by crystal clear images.

"To get a video card doing full animation and graphic detail is almost as good as real life," Grant said.

The going rate of video cards can range from $400 to $800, with the more expensive ones equipped with digital recording technology.

Grant said using cable Internet access makes watching television on your computer a snap.

"I watch television on my computer at home right now, while I'm browsing the Web," said Grant.

The other big thing on the market is wireless shared Internet connections.

For larger families who don't want to run wires through their house, Grant said they can place a wireless access point where the cable modem is and then anyone can use the Internet from anywhere in their house.

"That access point would be worth a few hundred bucks," said Grant.