Saturday
Chumby One review

Let’s be honest: it’s really hard to dislike Chumby. In fact, you feel almost compelled to root for any company bold enough to put out a product as unapologetically wacky as the original Chumby, a device that somehow managed to marry a soft, cuddly vinyl sphere with WiFi and a touchscreen. It didn’t make a lot of sense, and as far as we can tell, the company didn’t really intend it to — they basically threw it out there and said, “hey, so we’ve got this… uh, thing… now let’s see what you can do with it.” It was an open platform, Chumby encouraged hackers to dig in and understand the guts, and over time, a small-but-vibrant community of users and developers emerged with several hundred widgets capable of doing everything from showing the time to cracking a few Chuck Norris jokes.
A quirky, overpriced alarm clock without broad market appeal can only take you so far, though — someone’s eventually got to pay the bills. Enter the $100 Chumby One, Chumby’s first attempt to grow up and produce an affordable device that loses a little bit of the Chumby Classic’s insanity while carefully staying true to the company’s roots. Will this be Chumby’s ticket out of the geek niche and into mainstream living rooms and offices?
Gallery: Chumby One hands-on
Continue reading Chumby One review
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Chumby One review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
All entries filed under Miscellaneous Gadgets
no responses - Posted 11.13.09
While it may not sport the same egregious number of buttons and blue and white aesthetics as last week's affront to ergonomics, Sony's VGP-BMS80 VAIO Bluetooth Laser Mouse certainly doesn't offer much better looks. It does, however, allow for wireless control of either a PC or a PS3 and, with ...continue
no responses - Posted 11.11.09
The Augmented Reality issue of Esquire has hit the newsstands, and our fears have come true: when this magazine comes in contact with your webcam, Robert Downey Jr. is unleashed! Aside from dangerous levels of the Academy Award-winning actor, however, the video (after the break) really highlights how silly the ...continue
no responses - Posted 11.10.09
digg_url ='http://digg.com/design/HP_Create_Amazing_ad_tilt_shifts_our_hearts'; Okay, so we're total suckers for tilt-shift perspective manipulation, and since we've run a fair number of snippy attack ads lately, we thought we'd try and clear the air with this impressive new spot from HP. Part of the relatively-new "Create Amazing" campaign, it's a miniaturized ...continue
no responses - Posted 11.08.09
Tell us, readers -- haven't you dreamt deeply about shoving your hand into a toasty, moist hamburger at work in order to warm your digits without cranking the thermostat and irritating the Antarctica-born top brass? And tell us, haven't you always wanted a USB hub that doubled as an airplane ...continue
