Cute Chumby packs a robust Web experienceCute Chumby packs a robust Web experience
by Hiawatha Bray @ THE BOSTON GLOBE _ Monday, February 09, 2009
You might think you already have enough Internet-connected gadgets in your life.
You'd be mistaken.
Thanks to cheap silicon chips and the popularity of Wi-Fi wireless networking, it's easy to build Internet access into pretty much anything — even a vinyl-covered beanbag.
The Chumby is quaint, cool and, at $200, absurdly overpriced for these hard times. Still, the smart software that drives it could soon appear on more mundane devices, such as digital picture frames or even living room TVs.
But for now, Chumby software is found only inside a Chumby, a device whose creators devoted themselves to the willful pursuit of cute.
This plump, sacklike device with a 3.5-inch video touch screen contains a low-powered computer and Wi-Fi receiver. The cushy padding makes it squeezable, especially when you push down on the top of the device. A hidden button activates the central control screen, where you can select favorite Internet features and how they'll be displayed.
It has a motion sensor like Apple Inc.'s iPhone's, so you can play games by tilting the device back and forth. There's even a built-in microphone. It doesn't do anything yet, but Chumby hopes to offer software that will let the device respond to voice commands or act as an Internet-based telephone.
You need an Internet-connected computer to set up the Chumby and a Wi-Fi hot spot to get it online. There's a blessedly simple procedure for registering the device and making it your own. Once you do that, you go to a Web page that lists hundreds of Internet service widgets. Pick the ones you like with a few mouse clicks, and they're installed on the Chumby.
There's lots of good stuff here: headlines from The Boston Globe and The New York Times, weather information and lots of entertainment links, such as to YouTube videos and recent Top 10 lists from David Letterman. You can make travel arrangements through Priceline, check out Facebook pages or skim the latest job listings at Monster.com.
You can set Chumby to scroll the widgets across its screen or "pin" favorites so they're on constant display. When a particular item catches your eye, touch the screen to read a news report or watch a video. Or you can just listen to music.
The Chumby makes a decent Internet radio; its small, pudgy frame conceals a pair of surprisingly good speakers. The software allows access to hundreds of Internet radio streams through preselected services such as Shoutcast. Chumby recently added access to Pandora, the online service that lets users create personalized streams of their favorite musical genres. And with two USB ports in back, you can hear music from an MP3 player.
All in all, Chumby is the kind of stylish gadget that might have had a chance with upscale consumers a year or two ago, when people still had money to spend on such frivolities. But these days, it wouldn't seem to have much of a future.
That's fine with Chumby Industries Inc.'s chief executive, Stephen Tomlin, who doesn't want to make digital hardware, anyway. Indeed, the company publishes the Chumby's design specifications on its Web site, to encourage amateurs and business rivals to copy the product.
"We were kind of hoping somebody would rip us off," Tomlin said.
How could he prosper in a world full of cut-rate imitation Chumbys? By selling the Internet service that makes the device work. That's his real business model; the company built the Chumby only to get the attention of other electronics firms. And it's working.
Consider the digital picture frame. At first a relatively dumb device, many now feature Wi-Fi circuitry to let users display pictures stored on home computers. Why stop there? Tomlin said the frames are ripe for Chumbyization.
"An 8- or 10- or 12-inch photo frame gives us a lot more real estate," he said, making them excellent Internet-access devices. So Chumby worked with Samsung to develop a basic design for Internet-savvy picture frames. They're supposed to land on store shelves before the next holiday season.
Tomlin predicts Chumby widgets will pop up on TVs this year, as well.
He'd better hurry: A host of companies are adding Internet capabilities to TV sets, including giants like Yahoo Inc. But any company that can create a high-tech beanbag surely has a fighting chance.
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