9:30 AM -- In another sign of technology inexorably marching forward, the folks who brought us Caller ID on TV have come up with a new way to keep us couch potatoes even more glued to the old boob tube.

Integra5 Communications Inc. , which pioneered the idea of putting caller ID and message waiting alerts on the TV screen when the phone rings, has now developed the ability to send short text messages from cellphones to the telly. Known as SMS to TV, the service will let a viewer display a text message on the TV screen and then use the nifty TV remote to respond with a choice of pre-set replies.

If the savvy viewer has "personalized" the person sending the text message, the SMS service will even flag the message with a picture and nickname of the sender on the screen, similar to Integra5's already deployed Picture Caller ID service. How exciting is that?

Or the viewer could simply press a button to place a regular old phone call to the talented texter. But that seems sooo 20th Century...

Anyway, Integra5 is now proudly demonstrating its latest techno coup at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. The company plans to make the application commercially available this summer. Ain't progress grand?

— Alan Breznick, Site Editor, Cable Digital News