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The new Chumby is here and it's great! Here are some quick pics! The Chumby is an open source squeezable, Wi-Fi bean-bag computer - Link. Congrats to everyone @ Chumby and special thanks to Bunny for showing all of us what it's like to bring a product to market like this and releasing it (including the patents) in the most open ways possible.
New Chumby is here!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 15, 2007 07:00 PM
Gadgets, Open source hardware |
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So, um, where's the keyboard?
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attached to your computer
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@geekazoid: Perhaps there's a bit of confusion about this device's role in the real world. While yes, this is a bean-bag tabletop computer, don't think of it as some kind of desktop replacement, UMPC or portable computer. Think more along the lines of...
("3Com Audrey" - "Suck") + "Cute" = "Chumby"
In stead of thinking of it's function as being a "dumbed down computer", you should be thinking of it as the ultimate geek's Alarm clock/calendar. That plays music. And acts as a digital picture frame. And reads RSS feeds. And has an open API for writing your own little widgets. And has touch sensors and a touch screen for interaction. And can be made to do just about anything you'd really WANT a small, unobtrusive desktop widget to do. It's almost like Mac OSX Widgets (or Vista "Gadgets"), but for meatspace.
It's kinda cool, really.
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Ok, I have two laptops, a PDA, 3 or 4 working desktops, what do I need this for again?
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I've been thinking about picking up a chumby to replace my aging alarm clock. Is it worth it? I'd like to be able to listen to streaming internet radio (like waking up to SOMA FM etc). Is it capable of an application like that?
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Were is the Chumby? It's not here with me.
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@geekazoid: M'kay. Don't buy it.
@eccramer: Mmmmm... not so much at the moment. It can access a connected iPod and play music from it via USB while charging it. There's also blurb on their wiki about streaming from your computer using a program called "SlimServer" but no 'net radio as yet it seems.
@Marked: Yours is probably sitting in a box somewhere near mine, still in their production facility. I will have one. Oh yes, it will be mine.
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I got my Chumby, and seems interesting, had a few moments of buyers regret though. The fact that they sometimes inject "ads" onto your chumby kinda pisses me off. It has worked well as an overprice alarm clock so far.
I'm looking forward to trying some hacks with this, but so far it seems like a pocketPC would be more bang for the buck.
The size and softness of it are pretty cool, but why it doesn't come with a battery is beyond me.
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If it had voice recognition, I would buy one right now. It's just another useless gadget, or, overpriced alarm clock right now.
"Chumby, what's the weather report?"
"Chumby, when is my doctor's appointment?"
"Chumby, self destruct in 5 seconds...."
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Check out Chumby demoed by its creators on intruders.tv
http://uk.intruders.tv/Andrew-bunny-Huang-and-Ken-Steele-show-off-Chumby_a239.html
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