Chumby – willing to listen? Yep.

If any of you visit Chumby’s official site and follow the forums and read their blog, you know that they are committed to helping Chumby be all it can be for their customers.  Post a question or complaint in the forum, and you’ll likely get a reply by a “Chumbian” who is willing to listen to you and offer assistance, even. Read their blog and see that they are constantly working on making Chumby better.  One gripe I hear pretty often is about the power cord.  Well, Chumby is listening, and it sounds like they are working on making Chumby portable, just because it is a frequent request. Amazing. You can’t get support like that and an honest interest in improvements for most “new” products… and how easy, too. Right there on the forum. Makes me love the little Chumby even more. I think he’s gonna stick around.

Chumby’s Initial boot

Setting up your new Chumby:

The first time Chumby is powered on, it allows you to set your time zone and choose an available WiFi connection, and then reboots which takes around 45 seconds. Then, the device settings can be accessed by pressing the button on the top of the chumby (the control panel will be launched).  You can cycle through the installed widgets, mute the speaker, toggle the screen off (night mode), launch the interface, change the time / date settings and also bring up the secondary settings screen.

 
The secondary settings screen displays Chumby’s software version and network addresses.  Volume levels, screen brightness, touchscreen calibration, and reconnect to a WiFi access point can be modified. The new settings are saved in memory, even if Chumby loses power.

Chumby comes with a Black and White digital clock that includes a date display.  Accessing through the control panel, we can set the clock settings such as time, date, time zone, and two alarms.  And there are three alarm sounds to choose from.  Some people replaced these three alarm sounds with an .MP3 file by using the USB port to copy the files into the chumby’s file system. You can customize the alarm duration from 0 to 60 minutes.

The cool thing about Chumby is that you can just touch the LCD screen to turn off the alarm or snooze it. You can also use the top button. It gives a sleepy head like me an easier time to go on sleeping.  Your conventional alarm clock has only one option (press some button).  You can also just ignore the alarm as it will shut off after your set snooze time. The down side of Chumby is that ignoring the alarm is like turning it off (no longer alarming again).  Another neat feature is that you can customize the alarm to ring at different times each day of the week, if want.  (Make it nice if you have a day off during the week!)

 

Chumby gadget vs. iPod

Chumby is 100% hackable and designed to be from the start; unlike Apple iPod, it is user accessible.
The hardware housings can be easily modified and changed to the liking of a hacker. You can also modify the PCB “guts” as they are protected by Creative Commons Licenses not to mention the open source.

I am hoping the Chumby becomes wildly popular, and if it does, I think there will be a lot of accessories available. Already they have screen shields available on Amazon, and charms available on the Chumby website.  I think there will be more add-ons, and I REALLY hope there will be a rechargable battery soon.  I do believe that Chumby will be continually working to keep the Chumby competitive.

iPod may be able to play some videos, but its not customizable and interactive in the way that Chumby is.  iPod has been around for years, and they keep improving it and coming out with new features and it still cannot compare with the Chumby.  iPod price varies greatly, but to purchase one to play video and MP3, they are not cheap. Chumby is a more affordable gadget and, as I have said, does more.

So dontcha want one?