Crave

The $99 Chumby One ditches the plush look of the previous model and gets a performance boost.

(Credit: Chumby Industries)

The Chumby One (which is technically Chumby No. 2) officially made its way into the manufacturer's online storefront Wednesday, priced at a tantalizing $99.

For those who didn't catch the Chumby phenomenon the first time around, the gist of the thing is a do-it-all, hardware host for Internet widgets. You can use it to check the weather, update your Facebook status, browse your photos on Flickr, tune in to Internet radio, play games, and more. The original Chumby was a blast (I still use one at home for listening to Pandora), but it was a bit of a rich-kid novelty at $179.

Chumby One represents a leaner, faster, cheaper take on the original. Aside from ditching the plush Italian leather and beanbag shape of the original for the clean lines of ABS plastic, the new Chumby benefits from a faster processor (454MHz), a built-in FM radio, a dedicated volume knob, 2GB of microSD memory, and a single USB 2.0 port. They've now made it portable, too, with an optional rechargeable lithium ion battery good for an hour of use.

Chumby One -- photos

Many features haven't changed, which is surprising when you consider the big price drop. You still get a relatively spacious 3.5-inch resistive LCD touch screen, a 3.5mm stereo output, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, accelerometer control, and an AC adapter. Let's hope you can still play Quake on it.

Also, is anybody else thinking this thing is just a camera away from working as a Skype video phone? Come on developers, there's a built-in microphone, a USB 2.0 port, a reasonably fast processor--make it happen, OK?

With Kelly and Lindsey both out Friday, we recruit Brian Tong to help us with the show. You know what that means, right? For the first time in Gadgettes history, the guys outnumber the ladies!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 117

PS3 Home - played it more last night…SUCKS

Excessive cuteness, meet excessive violence (circa 1996)

Project Aiko: The sexy virgin robot built to serve man

The bracelet that can help you swing across a canyon

HTX Helmet lets you feel headshots while you play video games

Shots Gun Drink Dispenser, for trigger-happy barkeeps

Gravity Balans Recliner

Chumby, the future of gamin'? No, but a cool port.

(Credit: Bunnie Studios)

From the "unlikely, but not really unlikely" (especially given the open-source nature of the platform) section of geeky tech comes news that a developer at Chumby has fully ported Quake to the cuddly little system.

The developer posted details of how he did it on the Chumby dev forums. He's even working on getting it networked. Can you imagine a retro LAN party of Quake with everyone using Chumbys? Well I can't, but it would make for an interesting, albeit frustrating, experience--for about 30 minutes until everyone moved to Call of Duty 4.

Bunnie Studios posted a short video of the game in action. You use the accelerometer to move, squeeze the Chumby to shoot, tap the screen to jump. Even though Quake is a 12-year-old game now (geez, I'm old!), I'm still impressed they got it to run so well on a device that it obviously wasn't meant for.

Donald and Jasmine tease the iPod Nano vs. Microsoft Zune Prizefight and discuss a variety of portable audio accouterments, including a pair of headphones, a portable iPhone-compatible speaker, and the best MP3 players for audiobooks.

Also, hear some gab on the new Zune software, and find out who won last week's contest.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

... Read more

(Credit: Chumby)

Owners of the lovable (well, lovable-looking at least) multimedia device Chumby, are getting new ways to listen to music, watch music videos, and get music news.

Chumby announced on Tuesday that its leather-encased Internet clock radio of the same name would now allow users to tune into personalized radio stations using their Pandora accounts. When users indicate a song or artist that they enjoy, Pandora responds by playing selections that are musically similar.

If you like waking up to music, but prefer waking up to music videos, you'll be happy to hear that Chumbys will now be able to use Avot Media's video-streaming tool.

Finally, you'll never have to leave the washroom again, as Chumby can now receive music news from RollingStone.com, as well as UsMagazine.com.

BTW, if you're thinking of clicking on that Us Weekly link, don't do it--unless you want to lose the next three hours of your life.

Chumby Industries, manufacturer of the eponymous huggable touch-screen Wi-Fi widget gadget, announced Monday that it has raised $12.5 million in Series B venture funding. The lead investor in the round was JK&B Capital, but existing investors Avalon Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures also contributed.

A friendly-looking device that you configure online, the Chumby cycles through a rotation of custom widgets from weather to Google Calendar to cult-hit shopping site Woot.com. Many of these come from the Chumby Network, a platform of user- and partner-created applications that can be added to the little gadgets.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET Networks)

It's also, aside from the touch screen, soft and squishy.

Formally, the new Chumby cash will be used to "accelerate growth of the company, and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based Internet connected devices." Does that mean they'll make a Chumby kitten or a Chumby penguin?

"We are pleased to receive this financing, which will enable us to execute our vision and grow distribution of the Chumby Network," Stephen Tomlin, founder and CEO of Chumby Industries, said in a statement. "As the next step of our strategy, we will focus on establishing relationships to broaden distribution to other screen-based devices such as digital photo frames and LCD TVs."

Oh. So much for the touch-screen penguins.

To see our Chumby photo gallery, click the above photo.

Looking like the lovechild of a Tribble and an iPod Touch, the Chumby is an adaptable little do-anything box that can stream internet radio, browse YouTube videos, serve up newsfeeds, wake you up in the morning, and generally distract you from doing anything productive with your life. In short: the Chumby is a blast.

Want the full low-down? We've got our own Chumby photo gallery, along with the official CNET review.

Valentine's Day saw a sweet gadget arrive at Webware HQ: The Chumby. It's a little touch-screen Web appliance that can display a changing lineup of personalized widgets for you: Clocks, photo galleries, Twitter feeds, and so on.

The Chumby gets its data over Wi-Fi, and you control what widgets it displays on the Chumby.com site. Setup is a snap (unless your Wi-Fi access point requires a Web-based log-in, in which case forget it), and the site makes choosing widgets easy.

Chumby says: Better run.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)

I quickly set up my Chumby at home to display the time, local weather forecast, the minutes until the next bus arrives at the local stop, a photo gallery from Picasa Web Albums, a list of upcoming appointments via Google Calendar, social feeds from Twitter and Facebook, and the CNET News.com feed. Configured this way, it's a great companion at my breakfast table.

Chumby also has an alarm clock and an Internet Radio. It will wake you up to Internet music and podcasts. There's even a dark "night mode" if you want to use it as a clock radio. Which it would be great at, if a bit expensive for the purpose.

Physically, the device is just plain cute. The 3.5 inch display is enclosed in a padded leather beanbag that can be smushed to sit at different angles. In addition to the touch screen, there's one switch at the top and a 3D accelerometer in the unit, which some games use. The device also has two USB ports, for users who want to hack it; the BIOS and schematics are open source and the product is based on Linux. The Chumby site even encourages people to take apart their unit and reassemble it in new ways.

On the downside, there's as yet no way to easily advance through the widgets in your lineup; each displays for a set amount of time and then the next comes up. There's no browser, either, which isn't a terrible omission until you need one to authenticate to a corporate Wi-Fi network. Finally, despite the device's expense, it's still advertising-supported: You get widgets you didn't ask for in your lineup. They're what pays for the bandwidth, the Chumby site says. On the flip side, there's no recurring fee, like there was on those ridiculous SPOT watches from a few years ago.

At $179, the Chumby is not an unreasonable purchase for a geek looking for a fun Web-based toy, and real nerds might have fun hacking at its hardware and software. See also: Bug Labs: The Lego of gadgets.

It's not a must-have device, but few gadgets I've used are as delightful.

The Chumby is available now, although the official launch isn't until later this month. CNET gadget guru Donald Bell is working on a full CNET review.

Managing widgets is done from Chumby.com.

(Credit: Chumby Industries)

Chumby, the snuggly hybrid of stuffed animal and widget device, will be introduced next month to a small group of beta testers willing to shell out $179.95. The device, which has been in private testing for the last 10 months, lets its owners add and access all sorts of Internet-enabled widgets, including weather information, sports scores, horoscopes, and even Flickr slide shows. The team plans to make it available to everyone else later in the year.

According to Chumby's creators, part of the launch delay has been due to the inclusion of video, which required getting Adobe's Flash Lite 3 software to run on the device. Don't expect videos to look spectacular though, as resolution is only 320x240p, which on the device's 3.5-inch display is just a half inch larger, and the same resolution, as Microsoft's Zune.

Despite Chumby's somewhat cute exterior, there's some pretty slick tech packed inside, including two USB 2.0 ports, an accelerometer, touch screen, Wi-Fi, and speakers. Users will also be able to "trick out" their Chumby with future accessories and customization options, including limited-edition colors and upholstering.

[via ThinkTank]