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January 8, 2009 10:10 AM PST

Chumby grows up, dates Samsung

by Rafe Needleman
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Chumby gets framed by Samsung.

(Credit: Chumby)

The cute little beanbag-encased, open-source Chumby (my review), an Internet display device, is growing up through a partnership with Samsung. The original Chumby software makes the device into a good digital photo frame functionally, but the hardware is too small and bulky to compete with other dedicated frames. This partnership will get the Chumby software into more consumer-friendly hardware--eventually.

The Samsung product is a reference design, not a shipping item. I do hope we see Chumby-powered full-sized photo frames this year. The Chumby architecture makes it easy to upload photos to your device from a photo sharing site like Picasa Web or Flickr, as all the work is done on a PC in a browser and updates go to the display device over a home's Wi-Fi.

The Chumby platform can also deliver other widgets to a display device: weather forecasts, RSS feeds, and so on.

Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
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by rityjo January 8, 2009 10:45 AM PST
This is the most exciting thing I've seen so far out of CES!
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by cpfort January 8, 2009 11:05 AM PST
flicker? really?
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by January 13, 2009 10:19 AM PST
I'm still fighting with 10"frame to get bugs out. Small for old man's eye's.
How to camera ( mini drive or chip) to TV
Barry Lowe
Enjoy Cnet learned a lot? THKs
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