I’ve made no secret of my love for gadgets big and small. It’s something about the unboxing of a new gadget that makes me long for more and more. Am I the only one that blocks extra time on the calendar for Apple keynotes so I can watch it again online? Does anyone else just go to Best Buy for no reason whatsoever? Do you have a room where you retire your old gadgets to? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions then allow me to suggest a new site called, “gdgt.”

If gadgets are drugs then gdgt is your dealer. It’s a social network for gadget lovers done right. You can post things that interest you, questions you have or link to posts that might benefit the community. This plays on an interesting trend. If you’re a fan of Engadget or Gizmodo you’ll notice that the comments get quickly overwhelming. People are very opinionated about technology and more than any site I’ve ever seen, Engadget (in particular) gets a ton of discussion around nearly every post. gdgt seems to channel that enthusiasm into something more tangible. This is no surprise given that it was created by the original founders of Engadget and Gizmodo.

Interestingly, the real potential of gdgt lies in the database of user generated content. gdgt seems more like a distributed blog where the community can create content about their passions. I see it differently than a wiki as so much of the content will be IMO-based.

Engadget says it right in their review:

Look, we’ve found the best way in life to learn about something is to scuttle the user manual and dive right in — we highly suggest you do the same and take gdgt out for a spin. We think you’ll like what you find.

It’s hard to keep up with all the great new devices out there by OEMs who are doing truly innovative things to make the consumer experience better and better. Every day I drool at all the shiny new devices featured on my favorite gadget blogs. It’s nice to see Splashtop showing up on more and more of them. We’re excited to announce a couple of new OEMs using Splashtop to bring instant internet to millions more consumers out there. This week we get to debut two! One by Acer and another by Sony.

The AspireRevo by Acer

This is a great device! This is, of course a growing category - that of the nettop. Nettop gets its name from Netbooks and is the Desktop equivalent. Thus, it’s a great value in a convenient package. I’ve seen a bunch of reviewers stick this thing right on their TV. It features some amazing hardware, some hot design and, of course, Splashtop. On the AspireRevo Splashtop is called, “RevoBoot.” Check it out more here.

Sony Vaio NW Series

Sony makes beautiful notebooks. I remember my very first Sony Vaio - it was super small, thin, light and felt like a piece of science fiction. Sony has continued a great tradition of building awesome, consumer and business focused notebooks that often excel in design and functionality. Just as with Acer we’re very proud that Sony has included Splashtop on a platform such as this. It’s cool to think of consumers powering on Splashtop under the famous Vaio logo.

Although Splashtop is on millions of computers already, instant-on is still a new thing, and we often get asked about how and when people use Splashtop. So we thought we’d share some user stories. Take a look at this photo:

(thanks @chiropractic from http://www.adiola.com for letting us use your photo!)

As you see, this chiropractor in the sunny Los Angeles has an ASUS EEE Box with Splashtop running in his office. You’re probably wondering why would a chiropractor do that. Turns out that he wants to give his patients access to the Internet while they are waiting. He told us: “it’s great for giving public access to net w/o getting on our office network. Runs silent too.”

Besides being instant-on (or off), Splashtop protects the PC from… its users’ inadvertent mistakes. With Splashtop, you aren’t going to break your PC, infect it with malware, or accidentally erase some important file. Of course, you can still spill coffee on the keyboard, but you get the point: no maintenance. And you do not need a Computer Science degree to set it up - it comes pre-installed on the computer.

As for “runs silent”, Splashtop will save you energy, since you can turn it on and off quickly. No need to keep the PC running while you are… working your chiropractic magic. But kudos to ASUS and Intel for designing this energy efficient nettop with the Atom processor.

If you have your own Splashtop stories or photos, we would like to hear about them! You can give me a quick message over at Twitter, @kevintu, or just shoot me an email kevin.tu AT devicevm.com

Yesterday Intel announced that they were buying Wind River, a big name in the embedded OS market whose software shipped on everything from cars to the Mars Rover. Trying to sort out what the acquisition means, I asked a few questions to our CEO, Mark Lee. Before starting OSA (acquired by Avocent) and DeviceVM, Mark had spent 8 years at Intel - so he would know.

Q: Mark, why did Intel buy Wind River?
A: Intel is smart to look to move up the value stack, but the purchase of Wind River is questionable. A software business is about the people, the talents. Wind River’s expertise is largely around VxWorks, a proprietary OS that continues to lose ground to open source Linux. The embedded software business model is complex, since Wind River serves many different verticals. There are lots of professional services and complex licensing schemes. Intel’s business model is about scalability. The two don’t jive well together.

Q: WindRiver was also refocusing on Linux, wasn’t it?
A: Yes, but there are many stronger Linux players who have no legacy baggage. Intel has been evangelizing Moblin Linux to different Linux OSVs, like Novell, Ubuntu, Xandros, Red Flag - including Wind River. Now the company in effect is competing with these partners - Intel calls them “fellow travelers”. Ironically, out of all Moblin OSVs, Wind River is the only one without any major netbook or MID OEM wins.

Q: What do you think of the ecosystem impact of the Wind River acquisition beyond Linux players?
A: The majority of Wind River’s silicon partners are non-x86: ARM, MIPS, PPC, Sparc, etc. They are Intel competitors. It is hard to see any of these companies continuing to work with Wind River. Much of Wind River non-x86 revenue and customer base will likely go away. I don’t know nor see any non-x86 device manufacturer will move to Intel Atom just because Wind River is optimized for Atom. If more devices move to Atom, it will be on the hardware merits of Atom, and because of the expanding success of Linux overall. With our Splashtop, for example, we are building a great instant-on Linux platform to make Atom more successful.

Yesterday Engadget (my favorite tech blog) did a great review of LG’s netbook - the X120. As you might remember from CES, Splashtop is one of the prominent features of this awesome netbook. The review itself was a nice hands on with the LG X120 as the writer, Donald Melanson, spends some real time talking about the various aspects of the device. My favorite part:

Like any other current netbook, the X120 gets along well enough with Windows XP, but one of LG’s biggest assets is its Splashtop-based Smart-On interface, which gets its own dedicated power button to allow for quick and easy access. As you may recall from our CES coverage, the interface boots in a matter of seconds and gives you access to a few essential applications, including a web browser, a music player, a photo browser, an instant messaging app, Skype, and even a basic games application that links to some online games.

It’s awesome to be recognized as one of the devices “biggest assets.” This is a great pat on the back for everyone who works so tirelessly to provide a seamless experience for our users. In addition, it’s interesting that people are starting to recognize what we’ve been talking about on this blog for quite a while - that those essential applications are often all you need, especially on a netbook:

The choice of apps is actually quite telling, and is virtually the very definition of a netbook. No word processor or office apps (not even a calculator), no video player or editor, no dedicated email application, no time-consuming games — nothing that requires your full attention or an actual time commitment.

As I mentioned in my recent post, Life with Splashtop, Month 3, I really need only a great web browser when it comes to my netbook. All that overhead of a traditional OS is wasted on a netbook. I swear I haven’t had to boot Windows XP on my Lenovo S10 in months. This Engadget article is a great reminder that the right OS makes or breaks your computing experience. On the outside the LG is quite like a lot of other netbooks. But on the inside it is a cut above. Make sure your next Netbook has Splashtop!

When netbooks first came out, we were looking at them through the prism of the One Laptop Per Child project. They were expected to sell in developing countries, and become the first PCs for people who could not afford a regular notebook. Things turned out very differently.

Research from DigiTimes indicates that 40% of netbooks shipped in 2008 went into Western Europe, while 26% were bought in North America, and 7% in Japan. Developed countries add up to some 73% of netbook shipments. The share of netbooks sold in developed countries turns out to be greater than that of notebooks, reported at 62%.

The implications for netbook usage models are enormous. For most users in developed countries, netbooks are mobile companions purchased in addition to the owner’s primary PC – perhaps a full-size notebook they got from work, or a desktop at home with their media library. Sol, one of our own, swears by his Lenovo S10, although it is not his only PC by a long shot (read more about Sol’s netbook experiences).

Data from a research subsidiary of Yahoo Japan confirms this companion usage: 78% of netbooks purchased in Japan are a second PC for the purchaser. This companion usage, by the way, is exactly what Splashtop excels at – we are an instant-on web-centric complementary environment, rather than a general-purpose OS.

We have not seen good world-wide data on netbook usage patterns yet, but here are a few comparisons between netbook and notebook users in Japan:

• 40% use netbooks in cafes (compared to 4% for notebook users)
• 28% use netbooks while commuting (compared to 1% for notebooks). Remember, this is a country with good public transport.
• In the living room, on the other hand, 61% of notebook users do their thing, but only 43% use netbooks. Kind of makes sense – living room couches are stationary, you are not in a rush, and the power outlet is near.

Given how much of netbook usage is mobile, things like 3G connectivity are a big deal. Today we are welcoming into this world a new 3G-enabled netbook from Lenovo, the S10-2, which has Splashtop-powered Quick Start feature, and will ship worldwide. Whether one sells in Europe, the US, Asia Pacific or, perhaps, the “rest for the world”, we are happy that people will be enjoying the instant-on connected experience of Splashtop in the cafes, on public transport, and in their living rooms.

(my netbook looks just like hers)

Three months ago I got my first real netbook - A Lenovo S10 with Splashtop. I blogged about it here and tried to share some pointers about how I was using Splashtop. Well, three months have gone by and that Lenovo has become my best friend. I don’t know about you but I’m constantly place-shifting. I go to the office in Cupertino, I work out of my house in Santa Cruz and work in just about every coffee shop in-between. I travel a bit here and there and when I’ve had to much coffee you can find me sitting in my car right outside the local Starbucks “borrowing” some wifi. It’s amazing what the right netbook with Splashtop has done for me.

What do you do on your netbook?

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a rambling man - I don’t like to sit still. I’m in a lot of coffee shops. Whenever I see a netbook (which is every day lately) I ask people, “what do you do on your netbook?” This has been a fairly informal poll - I’m no scientist but I’ve probably talked to close to 50 men and women, mostly in Northern California about their netbook usage. Again, I’m not claiming that this is the right target demographic for a study but these Valley-types tend to be early adopters and technically proficient. Without exception every individual I’ve talked to with a netbook is using primarily their web browser. You’re thinking that this is obvious, right? I mean, we are all primarily using our web browser for most things?

Clearly this is true - but if you dig a little deeply you’ll find out that this is all people use on their netbooks. They *might* use Skype in addition but they are emailing, watching video, facebooking, tweeting, reading news, chatting and studying all through their web browser. On our normal computers we might spend a lot of time in the browser but we’ll have a whole host of other applications open. Netbook users seem quite content just using their browser.

I’m in the same boat. I can blog, email, chat, tweet - do everything I want through my browser. I don’t have any other applications open because I don’t need anything else. To be honest, I have another OS (that shall remain nameless) on my Lenovo. I haven’t started that OS in over a month. I just don’t need it. Splashtop gets me online instantly, doesn’t waste a ton of battery when I’m not using the S10 (instant off) and works ridiculously fast. It doesn’t have all the overhead of a full-blown OS. It starts faster from a cold boot than the other OS does out of sleep or hibernate.

The Lenovo S10 was the first device with Splashtop that I could buy in the US that matched my needs. I pledged 3 months ago that I would start using it every day. The more I use it, the more confident I am that the simplicity of Splashtop will appeal strongly to computer users. More than that, even, I find it an essential element of any netbook.

See you in a coffee shop soon.

You know we love us some Twitter! One of the reasons we love Twitter is because we get to more easily connect with people that are using Splashtop AND we get to be real and actually develop awesome relationships. A few of us marketing types are on Twitter from Splashtop. You should follow us because we’re cool, good looking and have our own idiosyncrasies which make us endearing (like an old stuffed animal). Here’s the rundown…

follow Sergei!

Sergei is our fearless leader. He’s like the Marketing MacGyver, plays hockey with reckless abandon and keeps tabs on all things Splashtop. Sergei keeps the ship pointed in the right direction. He really cares a lot about Splashtop and making instant internet something that everyone can enjoy. Follow Sergei!

follow Kevin!

Now K2 (we call him K2) is a trip. First of all, the man changes computers more than anyone I know. And he doesn’t just buy a new computer every 3rd day…he also configures them, hacks them and buys special stickers for them. Also, little known fact, he has a webcam on his puppies so he can keep an eye on them all day long. He’s good at all things marketing and is a pretty handy product designer. Follow K2!

follow Sol!

Sol is clearly the best looking of the three. He writes the blog (shocker) and loves to update his Twitter using video (he’s vain that way). Sol, too, loves gadgets and anything that makes the consumer experience on a PC better. He’s an expert badminton player and schools the rest of the DVM employees during company outings. Follow Sol!

I have a tech job. And, like the throngs of other people in Silicon Valley we all have parents who don’t even try to understand what we do because, you know…it’s technical. “Oh he works in technology,” my Mom would say to friends and family at holidays. No other details. She never tried to understand. Well all that changed last week when NBC came into the DeviceVM office to do an interview. I’ve tried to explain a thousand times what Splashtop does because I think it’s easy enough to understand. But, my mother just says, “that sounds real nice honey.” I know she doesn’t get it.

Why is it, then, that when Scott Budman, NBC news correspondent, talks about Splashtop it suddenly makes sense? I guess that’s why he’s on TV and I write a blog. After this aired last week, my Mom called me excitedly, “Scott Budman says that Splashtop can get you online in seconds!” Thanks, Scott, for giving my Mom something to talk about at Maj Jong next week.

Here’s a link to the article.

Here’s the video…

netbook image courtesy of Wired

One of my friends (and co-workers) Sergei, alerted me to an article in Wired about netbooks and how their popularity points to a truth in computing - we don’t do all that much with our computers.

The article first talks about the evolution of the netbook starting with the OLPC project, whereby in order to make an ultra cheap $100 laptop for children in developing nations many of the bigger, better, faster features that we had gotten used to in a new PC had to be eliminated. After the OLPC was released there was actual, sincere consumer interest in a cheap, light but sturdy laptop. The following quote refers to Mary Lou Jepsen, the designer of the first OLPC.

But Jepsen’s design trickled up. In the process of creating a laptop to satisfy the needs of poor people, she revealed something about traditional PC users. They didn’t want more out of a laptop—they wanted less.

Consumers wanted less. This is an interesting take on netbooks and human behavior in general. Here in the US we’re always told to want “more.” More features, more power, more! I think this argument falls a little short as most people I know who have a netbook use it as a second machine, “a coffee shop laptop.” Maybe this is a trend in the US? I don’t have scientific data to prove this but my gut tells me that netbooks are a second machine for most owners. This weekend I was at our local Costco where they were selling the Acer Aspire One (a nice looking machine). I asked a few people standing around if they were considering replacing their machine with a netbook? The overwhelming response was “no.” The price point was low enough to purchase a second machine.

I digress a bit, however, because ultimately I agree with the statement the author makes - consumers want less. I might write the statement a little differently, though.

Consumers want simplicity.

I say this because, well, it’s obvious, but also because netbooks are a study in how a simple value proposition can change an industry. The netbook value proposition is: surf the web on a small, sturdy machine that doesn’t cost very much. Focused simplicity wrapped in an economical package. That’s the netbook in a nutshell.

Splashtop is the same way - which is why it’s changing the industry. Here’s another quote from that Wired article:

It turns out that about 95 percent of what I do on a computer can now be accomplished through a browser. I use it for updating Twitter and Facebook and for blogging. Meebo.com lets me log into several instant-messaging accounts simultaneously. Last.fm gives me tunes, and webmail does the email. I use Google Docs for word processing, and if I need to record video, I can do it directly from webcam to YouTube. Come to think of it, because none of my documents reside on the netbook, I’m not sure I even need the trash can.

We’ve made no apologies for keeping to our core competencies. Splashtop is there to provide the fastest, most efficient web browsing-focused operating environment. 95% of what an average consumer does is through a web browser. We think that you shouldn’t have to wait several minutes to get to what you’re looking for (the internet). In a traditional operating system, the consumer pays for the overhead of all that computing power with wasted, frustrated time. Like the netbook we cut that away and give you simplicity.

The combination of the two (netbooks and Splashtop) are incredible. Check us out on the Lenovo S10 as well as the LG X120.