This isn’t really news about a mini gadget but it is kind of interesting.

LG announced that they are going to release some HDTVs that can connect directly to Netflix to stream videos.  I love Netflix and I would really love an HDTV but I will not be rushing out to buy one of these specifically for that reason.

A few concerns come to mind right off of the bat:

• Getting an Ethernet jack to the TV.  Most houses don’t have Ethernet jacks all over the place and very even fewer have them anywhere near there TV.
• Lack of videos available for streaming from Netflix.  The DVD inventory is amazing.  Their streaming inventory is not.  Until their streaming library gets much stronger, buying anything special to be allowed to stream the movies just doesn’t appeal to me.
• Bandwidth caps.  The ISPs would love nothing more than to limit the amount of bandwidth we are allowed.  Watching streaming movies on a regular basis would eat up a lot of bandwidth.
• Tied to one computer.  I think a better option would be a box that did the streaming that could send the signal to any of the computers or TVs in the house.
• Netflix’s future.  What if Blockbuster or some other competitor like Amazon become the new, popular streaming movie provider in the next year or so.  I would prefer for the internet connection to be a little more generic than just plugging directly into Netflix if it is going to be embedded into the TV.

I like gadgets but I’m not really a huge fan of combining them into one big expensive gadgets.  I’ve never been a big fan of TVs with build in DVD players or computers that cram all of the hardware into the monitor.  That’s just a personal preference type of thing but I’d much rather easily replace a cheaper DVD player, for instance, when something newer comes around or when the old one breaks than have to decide whether it is worth it to replace the whole system.

One positive that could come out of their Netflix’s Watch It Now being used on more devices than just computers is it could finally give them a strong reason to vastly increase the amount of videos available for streaming.

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This year I purchased to very different devices that would both fit my definition of a mini net gadget. An Apple iPod touch and an ASUS Eee PC.

They both are very small and portable and they both easily connect to the internet. Those would be my two primary rules when determining whether something is a mini net gadget and those are two extremes of the gadgets that I’ll be talking about on this website.

The iPod Touch is an amazing gadget for the amount of functions you can accomplish with something that is smaller than a wallet. I use it for eBook reading, music, podcasts, internet, to do lists, and an ever growing variety of functions.

The Asus Eee PC has become my laptop of choice outside of work. The featherlight weight and relatively powerful processor allow me to do anything from writing stories to installing and upgrading blogs and allow me to handle all of these tasks on my couch or at a coffee shop without lugging around a full size laptop of hiding in the computer room on the desktop computer.

In addition to just reviewing these types of gadgets, I also plan to talk about the software that runs on them and ways to get the most out of them.

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