
At first take, the Chumby looks like a giant hackey sack. Remember those things? Okay, well I do and it looks like a giant one with a touchscreen on it. I don’t love the look of these things, but it seems a lot of people do. It connects to the Chumby network via a wireless internet connection for tons of personalized content. Oh, and the source code is open.
Ok, first the specs:
The Chumby has to be plugged in - which is a major drawback. But it has tons of widgets you can install - into channels. They have widgets involving stocks, animals, weather, sports, lifestyle, humor, email, auctions, etc. It can act as an alarm clock - waking you up to a music stream or podcast. You can also connect your iPod to it and play tunes. I’m sure future iterations will provide a better touchscreen, a rechargeable battery, and even more great widgets. And it will be interesting to see what hacks people come up since they are encouraging this. Heck, here’s a list of the Chumby’s source code. Gotta love that. And for around $179, these things will do okay in this iteration. I’m sure future ones will be better, cheaper, and faster.
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What does it do when you squeeze it?