Worth the Wait: Chumby Lands at a Desk Near You

[FdmNews 0]

The wireless internet widget device Chumby touches down after years in development hell and it's totally worth the wait.

 

Meet Chumby: a wireless gadget that pulls information off the web and puts it on your desktop. Chumby is like a widget box, serving up a constant stream of photos, sports scores and anything else that can be loaded into an RSS feed. There's been a lot of hype about this thing. After years in development hell and numerous false starts, it's been hailed as a revolution in internet access and also slammed as a half-baked gimmick. A gimmick it is not. After plugging in the plush device, we found the Chumby to be the perfect desktop companion, perfect for internet radio and watching eBay.

 

 

Chumby works by patching into your WiFi connection, pulling content from the internet and displaying it in creative ways on a 3.5-inch touchscreen. Content arrives in widget form, and arrives in any flavor you can possibly think of — from news aggregators and stock tickers to Lolcat feeds to something called PandaCam. These DIY web-trawlers serve up a custom slice of internet pie wherever you’ve got a WiFi connection (and a power outlet). A few sites and blogs publish their own stuff, but Chumbyland is as dependent on its user base as it is on developers. Can’t find what you want? Conjure up your flash kung fu and create your own customized widget. It doesn’t run Doom (yet), but a quick search of the extensive forums shows that we’re not the only ones asking.

 

View the full article

[gogoblender 3,071]

It's cool how the internet is getting parcelled out into small appliances like this, the itouch, and phones...before it was like we all needed huge comps to grab it all..now sweet little things like this carve out part of the "signal" (lol, love that ...from serenity ^^) wrap up the parts we're really interested in and then stick it on a stove, kithen wall, desktop, anything...

 

World's achangin

 

 

 

gogo

[Totalimmortal 0]

rofl @ chuck norris joke. I have them pop up every day on my work PC using opera widgets... but besides the point, what a sweet gadget, it's definitely on the *I WANT THIS* list. thanks fetch!

 

-Total

[gogoblender 3,071]

I hope these kinds of appliances get cheaper... I can see myself using all kinds of little bittys like this...in fact if future applicances were all wifi'd, the displays could actually be anything...could actually DO anything

 

 

gogo

[Wankers 0]

looks like I'll have to catch up on what fetch has been posting .. yay for technology ... *hands fetch a scooby snack*

[gogoblender 3,071]

oooh, maybe this new appliance could keep me on the cartoon channel 24/7...

love scooby snacks

 

 

 

gogo