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David Pogue Gushes Over the Chumby

Posted by timothy on Thu May 15, 2008 02:56 PM
from the don't-mistake-it-for-charmin dept.
Toys Hardware Hacking Wireless Networking Hardware
stoolpigeon writes "IHT is running a David Pogue review of the Chumby. The Chumby is a small computer embedded in a soft case. The Chumby hardware and OS are open, and the review mentions that the device already has a large developer following, cranking out new widgets for owners. Pogue is obviously quite taken with the Chumby and gives a good introduction to a device that may be the inspiration for a new generation of hackers."
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Submission: Please, do sqeeze the Chumby by stoolpigeon (454276)
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  • "Gentlemen!" (Score:3, Funny)

    by SilentChris (452960) on Thursday May 15 2008, @02:59PM (#23423498) Homepage
    "Let us name our revolutionary new open product a name that'll be 1 letter away from 'dick'."

    "Brilliant!"

    Even if this thing were to completely take off, Slashdotters will still be giggling over its name.

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by gardyloo (512791)
      Yeah, and then inspire slashdot headlines about 'gushing over' it.

    • Re:"Gentlemen!" (Score:4, Insightful)

      by compro01 (777531) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:18PM (#23423812)
      Well, the naming thing is working for Nintendo, so why not?

    • Re:"Gentlemen!" (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:19PM (#23423826)

      "Let us name our revolutionary new open product a name that'll be 1 letter away from 'dick'."
      And along with "The Gimp", this too will never actually be used by anyone for anything serious.
    • Is this British or Australian slang for "dick?" Or am I just brain dead from being at work all day?

      Can you give me enlightenment? Or even a hint?

      But it can't be as bad as some auto names. As Danny Krell, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran once pointed out to me, I woudn't want to drive a KIA (Killed In Action).

      They can't sell a Chevy Nova in Spanish-speaking countries. "No va" is Sopanish for "it won't go". Of course, that goes well with their commercials, "Chevy - Like a rock!"
    • I'm not impressed.

    • Re:"Gentlemen!" (Score:5, Informative)

      by Alotau (714890) on Thursday May 15 2008, @04:15PM (#23424690)
      You can begin the giggling by looking at this help page entitled "Handling your Chumby [chumby.com]". Some highlights include:

      How do I clean my chumby?
      Why is the squeeze sensor stuck?

      I won't post the one about children handling the Chumby, because that would just be over the line.

  • NO! Get it away from me. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ColdWetDog (752185) * on Thursday May 15 2008, @02:59PM (#23423500) Homepage
    I'm quite sure that I, along with most of the Slashdot audience, is not part of the target demographic, despite the fact that it DOES run Linux but

    Any photo you send to it appears in the widget rotation, turning your Chumby into the world's most convenient digital frame.

    really doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

    • Um, mind if I ask why that doesn't sound like a good idea? You email your chumby a picture, and it displays it. Am I missing something?

      • Re:NO! Get it away from me. (Score:5, Funny)

        by ColdWetDog (752185) * on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:35PM (#23424046) Homepage

        Um, mind if I ask why that doesn't sound like a good idea? You email your chumby a picture, and it displays it. Am I missing something?

        You trust your "friends" a hell of lot more than I trust mine. Want anybody from Slashdot to email you a picture of "something". That just shows up on a screen. In your living room.

        Maybe it's just me, dunno. I'm still not buying one.

        • Alright, good point. I do believe my friends would send me some genuinely horrible stuff. I think i wouldn't let them in on the email address for the thing.

      • Um, mind if I ask why that doesn't sound like a good idea? You email your chumby a picture, and it displays it. Am I missing something?


        Well, since you had to ask let me spell it out for you:

        goatse dot cx
        tubgirl.jpg
        etc.
        etc.

    • Re:NO! Get it away from me. (Score:4, Informative)

      by One Louder (595430) on Thursday May 15 2008, @05:47PM (#23425984)
      The "email a photo" functionality is implemented by a third party as a widget. If you don't want to receive photos that way, simply don't choose that widget for display on the device. It's not like the device blindly accepts email photos and displays them.

  • I'm Chumby! Dammit! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Sporkinum (655143) on Thursday May 15 2008, @02:59PM (#23423506)
    I could have sworn it said he was gushing over the "Gumby"
  • I'm waiting for somebody to put a Chumby into one of those plush Weighted Companion Cubes that Valve was selling.

    • Re:WCC mod (Score:5, Funny)

      by TexVex (669445) on Thursday May 15 2008, @04:20PM (#23424772)
      While it has been a faithful companion, your companion cube cannot accompany you through the rest of the test. If it could talk - and the Enrichment Center takes this opportunity to remind you that it cannot - it would tell you to go on without it because it would rather die in a fire than become a burden to you.

      The Enrichment Center is committed to the well being of all participants. Cake and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you for helping us help you help us all.

  • I have a Chumby... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Darundal (891860) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:08PM (#23423670) Journal
    ...and love it. About the only problem I have with it is the fact that in "My Streams" (an area where you can manually put in net radio stations you want the Chumby to play) long URLs simply cannot be entered in on the device itself, so I have to SSH into it and use VI to add any long URLs for streams manually. It came in a nice burlap bag (which I still use) and alternates between telling me the time, feeding me news, playing net radio, and displaying a friends photobucket account.

    • About the only problem I have with it is the fact that in "My Streams" (an area where you can manually put in net radio stations you want the Chumby to play) long URLs simply cannot be entered in on the device itself ...
      http://www.tinyurl.com [tinyurl.com]

    • Re:I have a Chumby... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by qoncept (599709) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:40PM (#23424108) Homepage
      It looks to me to be just as useful as widgets in Mac/Windows/Linux -- nice enough that I toyed around with them and decided they were unnecessary.

      The biggest problem, in my mind, is that it's showing one widget at a time. Looking at it to find out the information you want is, by design, not convenient. You have to make it a point to watch the thing to see the widget you want to see. Sidebars on computers at least have that going for them.

      The clock widgets seem especially worthless -- if you have a lot of widgets in your rotation and just missed the clock, you're going to end up wondering what time it was when you started watching, waiting for the clock. (If you go to Walmart, you can get a nifty device that does a better job of telling you what time it is for $5.)

      Honestly, dedicated devices for pretty much everything I've heard of the Chumby doing already exist, do a better job, and you could have one of each of them for about what the Chumby costs.

      • Re:I have a Chumby... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by no_opinion (148098) on Thursday May 15 2008, @07:21PM (#23426972)
        I also have a Chumby, and one thing going for this device is that it has a high WAF (or Wife Acceptance Factor, for you single people) if you set it up right. Ours is a clock part of the time, a photo frame, gets facebook and twitter updates so she can see what the family and friends are up to, panda cam & LOL cats for the kids, traffic update, two news feeds (NY times, CBS), a 5 day weather forecast, and a netflix queue widget. For a stay-at-home mom with two little kids, this is a great way to find out what's going on with the rest of the world that doesn't involve turning on the TV or sitting down at the computer.
    • Can't you keep the file local, edit it and just upload that?

      When I SSH inst someplace, the windows cut and past works with VI, it doesn't work on your set up?

    • [It] alternates between telling me the time, feeding me news, playing net radio, and displaying a friends photobucket account.
      16:00 # 3G iPhone to be a tasty triple-band treat? # ...a heart needs a beat but it's nothin' new... # <friend's pic> # 16:01 ...

      I would hope it plays the audio stream continuously

  • Didn't look so hot in Linux Journal May 08 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by notdotcom.com (1021409) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:15PM (#23423762)
    Developing with embedded flash as it's interface of choice, 220x240 scree, having ZERO battery life (9 volt backup only), etc... makes this a device that I would avoid for $180.00.
    • I agree. There are other things in that price range which might be more useful.

      I can get a Dell Axim x5 for about the same price, which has faster screen updates and can be used away from the wall socket. I can also get a refurb of a BlackBerry 8700 [channeladvisor.com] or a new open box Navman PiN 570 PDA with built-in GPS [bottomdollar.com]. If you include specials that are running right now, Geeks.com [geeks.com] has a refurbished Axim x51 [geeks.com] for $180 or a refurbished Jornada 728 for a few dollars more.

      I'm all for the open source angle, the soft shell, and t

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by chappel (1069900)
        I had a dell Axim - windows mobile crashed at least weekly with anything more than the default software - reseting to default in the process, and I waited patiently for over a year for the linux drivers to enable wifi on it before giving up. I have a chumby and am happy with it - it makes a cool clock, wakes me up to MPR, flashes the weather, my google calendar, and hopefully at some point lots more (RSS feed to my online to-do list). Hopefully I'll never again live somewhere that I'd have to worry about

  • Designed by Bunnie Huang (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mollymoo (202721) * on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:21PM (#23423846) Journal
    You may remember on of Bunnie Huang's previous exploits - he's the guy who hacked the XBox. He's a hardware-hacking demi-god and has a fantastic blog [bunniestudios.com] for electronics geeks. You can read all about getting the Chumby manufactured in China, as well as other topics.

  • Sounds good, but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lonedar (897073) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:46PM (#23424192)
    You know, this sounds like a neat little thing to play around with when you have some free time. However, this quote on the manufacturer's website made me wary:

    Access to the Chumby Network is FREE. No subscriptions to pay, no plans to sign up for. It's paid for by Chumby Industries and by sponsor companies who will be sending you widgets such as music, games, movie previews, customized alarm clocks, and special offers for products and prizes (called "Chumbooty" -- coming soon), and who knows what else the future holds? Chumby Industries is 100% dedicated to keeping your widget channels new, intriguing, fun and FREE.
    The "sponsor companies" part could mean that they intend to include advertisement widgets in a future update. Definitely made me think twice about getting one.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Lonedar (897073)
      After digging around in their website it appears that they do include ads among the standard widgets. From their FAQ:

      # Why are there widgets in my channels that I didn't add?

      These are special Chumby Network widgets from Chumby Industries (like tips on how to use your chumby) and from partners with offers on music, games, movie previews, new products, and more. Sharing these promotional widgets with you is how the Chumby Network stays FREE. If you delete a promotional widget, another one will be deliver

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by hack slash (1064002)
      I've been lent a Chumby for a while, you're right they do currently insert 3rd party advertisment widgets into your own channels you can't remove, but that's only half the annoyance because the other half is I'm not in America and the adverts are currently targeted at Americans.

      One would hope eventually you could pay for a widget subscription that stops any 3rd party advertisment widgets from being inserted into your channels - this would be especially useful for companies who want the content on Chumby's

      • Re:Sounds good, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by SuperKendall (25149) on Thursday May 15 2008, @04:24PM (#23424836)
        It's Linux man, and has an sshd backdoor that is built in to let you do what you like.

        Furthermore the designer has instructions on his blog for doing things like ripping it aart to add a larger screen, or add a WiFi sniffer.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by mollymoo (202721) *
          Not only that, the hardware is open too - you can get complete schematics and it has an expansion card designed for easy addition of your homebrew electronics. You need an account (no Chumby required) and to agree to a not-too-onerous license to get the hardware docs. It's intentionally designed to be easy to hack, both hardware and software.

  • I hate to say it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pugugly (152978) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:51PM (#23424282)
    It's only about twice the price of a radio alarm clock I've been darn near desperate enough to get (With a separate alarm every day), with a *lot* more features.

    Cutesy - yeah. But cutesy in a reasonable way, not sickeningly so, and with a nice feature set. I may wait till it gets reviewed for the technical aspects by someone I trust like consumer reports - can it take being knocked off the bedside table, does it wear well, if you have a power outage how long does the battery last, et al.

    But, if it's put together well, I'm probably going to buy this or something like it. Not till I get some other stuff paid down. But It's a good idea, all around.

    Pug

  • Needs more hackers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stickyc (38756) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:54PM (#23424324) Homepage
    Pogue hit it on the head: "The widgets are the biggest draw, though. So big, in fact, that the Chumby is filled with hardware features that pretty much do nothing at the moment."

    It's got a reasonable CPU, accelerometer, 2(!) USB ports, wifi, touch screen, runs an acceptable linux environment, and hacking is encouraged. Here's to hoping Pogues + /.'s coverage turns a few more folks on to it.

    Out of the box, it's still kinda .9 software - I'd hoped to use it as a smart clock-radio, but the software UI just isn't as easy as a dedicated alarm clock. The good news is, someone with decent skeelz could write an excellent replacement alarm clock.

    It should be noted that you can create a "virtual chumby" on the company's site to preview all the widgets 'live'.

  • I feel... (Score:5, Funny)

    by owlnation (858981) on Thursday May 15 2008, @03:57PM (#23424408)
    ...I am not alone when I sincerely say, "I will never, under any circumstances, say the word Chumby."
  • since it's vinyl, Dave was able to clean up after gushing all over it with minimal staining.
  • and a microphone.

    The perfect sit on your desk video phone.

  • I have a Chumby... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 15 2008, @04:19PM (#23424746)
    And I have to say its one of those impulse tech purchases I've regretted.

    Its mediocre at a lot of things and not good at anything.

    The alarm clock is awful, there's no timed dimming of the screen, its a massive bandwidth hog (because it has no local storage and it always redownloading things).

    The streaming music is cool, but its not as good at it as a dedicated streaming music receiver.

    It makes a lousy photo frame -- the colors are bad on the display and it has no local caching so its always redownloading everything.

    Maybe it'll be better in the future, but honestly its sort of a waste of money right now.

  • $180? (Score:4, Informative)

    by grammar fascist (239789) <neil.toronto@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Thursday May 15 2008, @04:43PM (#23425074) Homepage
    For $40 more, you can snag yourself the Nokia N800 Iternet Tablet [amazon.com]. The N810 drove its price way down, and the only differences are a built-in GPS, slide-out keyboard, and a 2GB SD card. The rest of the hardware is identical, and you can flash the latest N810 OS on the N800. The thing is highly hackable, with as much open-source software as Ari Jaaksi [blogspot.com], Nokia's open source director, could get them to embrace (about 2/3 of the base system). With a very bright 800x480 display, Firefox and mplayer, it renders everything almost perfectly. It's got a thriving open-source community behind it with a bunch of apt repositories and ports. It's also the nicest e-book reader I've ever used.

    I don't work for Nokia. I just love mine. :)

    Consumer-oriented reviews tend to emphasize its lack of pre-installed PIM apps and synchronization, but that's not a problem for your average technophile [slashdot.org].

    To give you an idea of how hackable it is, I hacked the init scripts to set up swap and mount my home directory from an SD card's ext2 partition. I SSH into it when I want to do this kind of stuff.

    Parts of the hardware (and thus some of the drivers) aren't open. If you're a purist, this might put you off. Which brings us back on topic: the Chumby is completely open. Maybe this'll push Nokia to open more. Ari Jaaksi has even said that the open source software on the N800 is of far better quality than the in-house stuff - it's just convincing the suits that embracing it is a good idea that's difficult.

    • You are missing the point. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jotaeleemeese (303437) on Thursday May 15 2008, @05:08PM (#23425464) Homepage Journal
      The Nokia tablet is ugly and does not combine with your furniture. Any furniture.

      The Chumby could in theory fit nicely with how you decorate a room.

      Their aims are different, the problems they solve are different, why you are comparing them is a monument to the lack of practical sense of most technical people.

  • Not a Product but a useful platform (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MarkKnopfler (472229) on Thursday May 15 2008, @04:50PM (#23425198)
    It is my personal opinion that if Chumby tries to market the thingy as a consumer product, it just might fail completely. What this product seems to be good for would be a platform product which could be sold to other OEMs, who could then use it as a platform for the development of small and smart consumer appliances. The customers of Chumby therefore would save a bunch of time and money by having to do away with the basic product design and schematics and work on the value addition via the idea. The would however would have to package a powerful development environment with their product.
    If they wanted to just sell a Chumby as a standalone product I do not think that it would fit in anywhere. Neither is an internet tablet and neither is it a phone. It is not mobile. I really do not see the use for this thing as a standalone consumer product..

  • Bought one for the wife (Score:4, Informative)

    by JoeCommodore (567479) <larry@portcommodore.com> on Thursday May 15 2008, @07:11PM (#23426864) Homepage
    Got to play with it a maker faire and bought one the same day.

    She currently uses it to listen to news and music streams and get weather reports and such. I don't think she's discovered the alarm features yet.

    Nice and small and is excellent for the bedside, easy to operate, comes on quick and the touchscreen size is good for its purpose. The widgets are getting better more information feeds and stuff - even slashdot articles (not reply chains though)

    I too wonder what happens if the parent co goes under what would be left, though I know it is flashable, as upon first power up it downloaded and installed a system update.
    • It's been in development for a while. Apparently this version has only been sold to the public since February '08.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Darundal (891860)
        Earlier than that, actually. February was the official launch, meaning they had the software (Firmware/Control Panel) in what they considered to be a state which was stable and feature rich. You could buy one earlier, it was just made clear that your device was not running final software (although the update was painless).
    • Rule 37: There are no girls on the internet....ever .

      perhaps you mean Rule 34?
      Rule 34: If it exists there is porn of it. No exceptions.

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