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Chumby Video

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Chumby
Created: 02/25/2008
Video description: Chumby is an adorable and adaptable gadget for bringing bite-sized Web content into your home.

Chumby Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:02

>> Hey, I'm Donald Bell, Senior editor for digital audio and MP3 and today we're taking a First Look at the adorable Chumby. The Chumby is -- it's hard to describe. It does three things very well. First and foremost, it's like a physical Internet widget, works over Wi-Fi to pull content down. The second really great use for the Chumby is as an Internet radio. There's speakers built into the back here. You've got two USB ports. You can use the Chumby as an audio device for tuning in Internet radio, podcast, streaming music from your home computer. The third great use for the Chumby is as an alarm clock. There's a little button on the top, a soft little squeezable button that you can use for the head and snooze, you can set an alarm, you can wake up to Internet radio, you can wake up to your iPod. You've also got this little metal knob on the side here, which is there for you to accessorize your Chumby with a flare. Also, on the very bottom there's a little access port here. One could easily imagine in the future that people will be adding battery supplies to the Chumby, so that they can make it a completely portable device. Right now, it has to be plugged into the wall in order to get this thing booted out. The Chumby in essence is a small Linux- based computer with very limited memory that boots up, uses Wi-Fi to search for your home Internet connection and then it pulls down the widgets over Wi-Fi to the Chumby and then you've got all your different Chumby applications. Now, you can configure those online at chumby.com that seems like a RSS Reader, a photo viewers, games, all kinds of stuff and it's being actively developed by Flash programmers. You've got a Wi-Fi connection and you wanna take advantage of it and you wanna have a really cool very adaptable tech toy to play around with, the Chumby is just the thing. So, I'm Donald Bell and that was the First Look at the Chumby. ^M00:01:51 [ Music ]

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Chumby (black) Review

The good: The Chumby is an adaptable, fun, wireless multimedia device made to bring bite-size Web widgets and streaming Internet radio into your home.

The bad: The Chumby's versatile features paradoxically make it hard to figure just what to do with it. The required power adapter limits its portability. If your home lacks Wi-Fi, then the Chumby is just a cuddly brick.

The bottom line: Whether you use it as a digital photo frame, Internet radio receiver, an advanced alarm clock, or some Web 2.0 task of your own devising, the Chumby is an extremely fun tech toy for the wired, modern home.

Read full review

Chumby (black) Specs

Manufacturer: Chumby Industries
Part number: CHBABLK3NXXXX

Product Specifications
  • Product Specifications

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Chumby (black) Prices

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In stock $199.95