The Chumby “One”

A while back I posted on twitter (@scottjanousek) about the release of the “Chumby One” from Chumby Industries.

I have a long relationship with the Chumby device and platform (i.e. creating content, presentations, etc), so it’s interesting to see this new development.

A little known fact is that Chumby was one of the first devices to support the Flash Lite 3.0 player (it was actually unveiled at a Adobe MAX 2007 session).

Today, the device supports more than 1,500 applications. Of course, it’s like the iPhone, the Chumby content catalog quality really varies, but I have to say there are some real gems in the Chumby content catalog (all of it currently free, of course, which is not ideal for content channel developers, at all).

Among my chumby-like Flash enabled devices, I personally have 2 Chumbies. One for work (i.e. passively watching news feeds, etc) and one for personal use (i.e. my alarm clock) at home. Both are the 1st generation, “squeezable” models (aka Chumby “classics”).

The previous models are $199, but this new rigid body Chumby One device hovers in at $99 for pre-orders (regularly $119.95).

Of course, it’s been easy to pan the earlier device for it’s price point (i.e. too expensive for “what it was” or “wasn’t”), but this new model almost seems like it hits the mark … except, personally, I’m not a big fan of the form factor (see below on building from a kit to make your own enclosure).

Here’s a breakdown of the features of the new device.

Features:
“it’s an internet alarm clock”

• Pandora Radio internet music service
• heartradio, SHOUTcast, tens of thousands of internet radio stations with digital clarity
• Podcasts including NY Times, CBS and Mediafly
• Programmable alarms
• Fall asleep to music or nature sounds
• Music from iPod and memory sticks
• FM radio

“it’s chumby”

• Create custom channels with 1,500+ apps
• Wide variety of news, weather, sports, gossip, games, clocks, and much more
• Facebook photos and friend updates
• Your photos from Photobucket and Flickr
• Twitter tweets
• Play YouTube and TV clips, movie trailers, sports highlights, and other video
• Send customized e-card greetings
• New content added all the time

Here are some of the specs of the device, which appear to be the same or very similar to the original Chumby.

Besides the obvious change in form factor, it also has a rechargeable lithium ion battery, volume knob, FM radio turner, has USB ethernet capability, 2 GB internal microSD card to name just a few of the “upgrades”. Here are the specifications.

Specs:

• 3.5 inch LCD color touchscreen
• Access to free chumby content
• Uses rechargeable lithium ion battery (not included)
• USB 2.0 high-speed port
• Stereo headphone output
• 2W mono speaker
• Volume knob
• FM radio tuner
• Accelerometer (motion sensor)
• Wi-fi connectivity (802.11 b/g)
• USB ethernet compatible
• Over-the-air software updates
• Dimmable backlight
• 454 MHz ARM processor
• 64 MB DDR SDRAM
• 2 GB internal microSD card
• AC adapter included
• 3.5″ wide x 4″ tall x 3.5″ deep

Chumby “Guts” kit from Makershed
Another interesting development with the Chumby … is that Makershed actually has a Chumby kit you can order (limited quantities for around $139), in which you are free to assemble your own Chumby to your own form factor and configuration. Pretty cool, especially if you’re into the hardware hacking scene.

MakerShed Chumby Guys Kit

I’ll be posting more on the new Chumby One as soon as I’m able to. Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Chumby Industries, Chumby widgets, Flash Lite, Flash Lite 3.0, Flash Lite Clocks, Flash Lite Game, Flash Lite UI, Flash Lite application, Flash Lite widgets, chumby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.