Filed under: Fun, Internet, Features, Linux, Open Source, Beta
Chumby makes alarm clocks so last century
by Kristin Shoemaker Dec 18th 2007 at 9:00AM
Every morning, your alarm clock wakes you. Throughout the day, it tells you the time, and maybe plays some static with a little bit of music thrown in. If it's real high tech, maybe it wakes you with tunes from your mp3 player, piped through tinny-sounding speakers. When it comes down to it, an alarm clock is a lot like a toaster. It's an appliance. It is cold, and impersonal. It has no soul. And it certainly can't do what a Chumby can.
Chumby is an internet gadget disguised as an alarm clock. It's a small, potato shaped computer that plays widgets (small programs). Because "Chumby hacking" is encouraged, users having access to Flash can make widgets for their own use, or make them publicly available on the Chumby website.
We've had a chance to play with a production Chumby for about two months now. We love the little spud, in spite of the fact it wakes us up too early in the morning.
There are currently some killer widgets available for Chumby. When Chumby is "officially" released in early 2008, we expect that Flash programmers will have a field day.
Some of the more useful Chumby widgets include a fully customizable RSS feed reader, as well as pre-programmed feeds for sites like Digg, Slashdot, Slate and Engadget. Mniml Slideshow shows images from Flickr (we recommend Mniml over the Flickr Photo Viewer, which tends to display only the most recent photos). For video junkies, the YouTube and Anime Kiosk widgets are a must. For those social types, keep track of your friends on Facebook and Twitter.
In the time waster department, the game Chumball is a winner. Using the accelerometers built into the Chumby's casing, you need to physically move your Chumby to keep a small ball on a path. Beautiful in its simplicity, frustrating as sin, and addictive... most definitely.
Chumby Industries, in preparation for the widespread release of the Chumby next year, began beta testing their new Control Panel this month. Currently on version 2.6.49, the Control Panel shows great promise in the direction Chumby is heading.
The new Control Panel brings better audio features (music can now be played from flash drives and iPods, and podcast and streaming radio support has been added). SHOUTcast and Radio Free Chumby can be used as alarm sources. Because this is a beta release, expect a few hiccups -- the most dire being the fact that on rare occasions Chumby sleeps through an alarm (so keep that old yucky alarm clock around as a back up till at least RC1).
Chumby uses open source software (with the exception of Flash) and the source code is available on the website. Also available are Flash templates for various widget types, so those who have even a minimal amount of Flash experience can learn how to get started creating their own widgets.
Chumby Industries seems to have struck a rare balance: The Chumby is fun and useful for hackers and non-hackers alike. It can become what you want it to be with a few mouse clicks, or, if it's what gets you going, a few hundred lines of code. It can be a social networking tool, a game system, or news reader.
And of course, it's an alarm clock.