We have an experimental Control Panel that has the option to display the time all the time - however, it always ends up conflicting with *something*.

There's also a struggle between making it large enough to see from a distance but small enough that you can get some value from the widgets.  We've experimented with translucency, but a similar problem happens - either it's too transparent and gets lost on visually complex widgets, or it's too opaque and, again, destroys the value of the widgets.

The feature is still on the roadmap - just not sure yet how it will be implemented.

Well the issue for me is that the Chumby is on my nightstand right now.  If I wake up in the middle of the night, the first thing I usually want to do is glance at the clock and see what time it is.  I actually don't have "night mode" running alot of times when I fall asleep, so the clock isn't there in this situation.

I would suggest having the option in the control panel to have a clock overlay in one of the corners of the screen while the widgets are playing.  If the user touches the screen to interact with a widget maybe the clock could disappear and then return when the channel resumes cycling. 

Even better would be to allow having this persistent clock as an action in the alarms as well.  In my use, I would have an alarm that changes the channel to the widgets I like to see when going to sleep, and I could have another alarm with an action to put up the overlay clock.

As for seeing clock during the night, here's what I do (and this might not at all be what you are looking for, because I don't use the alarms and don't know if this interferes with those who do) I finish all my reading and browsing, go to the control panel open my clock folder, set the push pin, select either Big Ben (but it chimes hourly) OR the new one called Large Digital Clock. These are two which I can tell time by without putting on my glasses and are not too bright! The Big Ben is not too bright and I can see the analog hands easily and the Large Digital Clock allows you to customize back ground and number colors, so I set mine to black background and grey numbers so it is not at all too bright. You might find other clocks you prefer that you can visually see. Anyway, the widget stays open all night with the pushpin and I can easily tell time any time I look at it.

I guess I don't understand this.  Why should everyone (users and developers) have to compromise on their use of the product and widget design because *some* people want to always see the time?  What if some people insist that the chumby should show weather all the time, or their stocks all the time?

If you want a clock, why not just put clock widgets on it?  I have one at home that does only that - show clock widgets all day, all night.

The chumby is *not* a clock - it's a general purpose computing device that can be treated as a clock if you configure it that way.  By the same token, it's not a picture viewer, but can be treated that way, and it's not an Internet radio, but can be treated that way.

I'm not quite so hard-line on this as Mr. Slave and his fiance.  But I do get his point.  Chumby IS a clock, did you read the marketing for it?  (It may have changed recently, but I found it by searching for customizable alarm clocks, which means it IS a clock).

In counterpoint to your argument above, why should users who bought chumby as a clock, which it was advertised as, have to compromise because *some* widget developers want to shove stuff down our throats, okay, maybe not that severe, but because those particular developers don't care that what *I* bought was a clock, as advertised, and don't want me to be happy configuring my clock to show me the time when *I* want to see it?

What I see as a compromise is one channel (or the ability to activate per channel) that I can have a clock overlay on.  Then *I* can choose to have an overlay all the time if I want, and not pick widgets that interfere with it, yet I can enjoy the widgets that I like that don't interfere with it.

It's all about user choices.  I see chumby as first and foremost and primarily a clock, so I want to choose it to be a clock, but yet I don't want to miss out on anything else fun.  If I was stuck with just a channel with clocks, I'd lose out on all the fun (ie. weather, stocks, a dog that licks the screen clean). 

Bottom line, if I wanted *just* a clock, I'd buy a clock.  But I didn't buy a clock, I bought a chumby!  I bought it because it was an incredibly customizable alarm clock, that would let me wake up to streams and news and all sorts of things that are infinitely helpful first thing in the bleary-eyed AM.  Or last thing before I drift off.

Hope this makes sense.

As I've said, we've been experimenting with this internally - it's really in the hands of Product Management to figure out what to do with it and the art department to make it look as good as possible given the constraints that the overlay hardware imposes.

However, I can tell you that we're not going to beat up the widget developers.

Hehehe...

I would never promote resorting to violence.  Even against developers.

But think of it in terms of all software that thinks that IT is the MOST important thing in the world, puts everything in your system tray without letting you choose, turns your Start button purple (although I might like that one), installs DELL wallpaper you can't remove, inserts registry keys that interfere with the software that you DO want....I can go on, but I think you get my point.  If I paid for it, I should have a tiny bit of say in what's most important, no?

I also get the point of buying something As Is, but I also believe that when I bought it it was still considered Beta.  The point of a Beta is to GET user feedback for development towards a full release, so that's all I'm trying to do, provide feedback.  BTW, I've been in on the ground floor of quite a few products: the original Rio player, ReplayTV, Roku, I can't think what else at the moment but there are plenty of others just counting the consumer products and not software (then we'd be in the double digits).  None of these products (or the products that they later spawned) would have been ANYTHING without feedback and users making requests (note that I say requests, not demands .

And to toss a quirk in an already quirky product, if the As Is thing applied here, then I wouldn't be arbitrarily subjected to ads that didn't exist when I bought it.  If you're going to allow developers to modify someone's product, then you also have to let the person who paid a big chunk of $ have a bit of say about what happens in the future too.

Anyway, I feel like I'm beating this topic dead...hey, full circle, VIOLENCE!   

Duane, I know you guys said you're working on it, but I also kinda feel like since it's something important to me, then if you say, "Hey, well it's not that important" then I kinda have to give my reasons why I think it's important.  I do appreciate that you listen, and I also value others' opinions that might not agree with mine.  But an opinion is just an opinion, and until I learn to build my own Chumby, hardware software & all, I have to work with what I've got.  And it ain't all that bad

Okay, artlady (or should I call you Mona?), WHERE did you find Streaming Beatles AND the possibility of winning a T-Shirt???  I'm soooo jealous! 

Very cool, thanks for the Beatles tips.

As for the email survey, I didn't get one, maybe they don't like me complaining about clocks

I'm outie! Me, my chumby and the dog are going to bed and with any luck we will have no storms tonight for the dog to wake me up every ______ 5 minutes all night long!

I have mixed feelings about the clock conundrum, and thought I'd post my thoughts.

First, the only bit I think that isn't touched on enough in this thread is this:

I think if the clock overlay is forced on, not only should it be an option, but it should be a per channel option.  This way, if I like the idea, but don't want it all the time, I can have 2 of the same channel, one with, and one without the overlay.

Second, I did NOT buy Chumby as a clock, not mainly a clock, not partly a clock.  If you're rich (or crazy) enough to spend $180 on a clock, more power to you.  I bought my Chumby because it's an open source gadget to play with and see what fun can be done with it.  I see many uses besides widgets like being a UPnP control point, baby monitor, surveillance control point (arm/disarm, look at cameras, etc.), open source GPS device for the car, mini-wardriving machine, the list goes on.  I work with embedded systems in a Linux environment and love supporting companies that develop with an open source agenda because the possibilities are countless.

I bring up that I did NOT buy the Chumby as a clock because the people posting in this thread are implying that most people bought their Chumby primarily for a clock.  I would bet that there's a lot of people like me who didn't and just aren't here posting about it.

My big clock issue isn't the "must be displayed at all times" issue, it's that I'd like to see an option to use community widgets (not built in to the control panel, but use an API to call in/out of the control panel) for alarms, music, and other control panel "closed" things.  That's an issue for another thread (which I've actually mentioned in other threads).

HAH.  Now you got me pissed.

My back at ya is if you're RICH ENOUGH to spend $180 on a TOY, more power to ya.  IMNSHO, THAT is more of a waste of money, rather than buying it to fulfill a NEED.

I bought Chumby as a CONFIGURABLE alarm clock that would allow me to enjoy a variety of early morning and evening media.  THAT is what the advertisements said when I bought it.  I can wake up to an alarm on the days I want at the CONFIGURABLE times I want and have NO alarm when I want so that I can sleep in on my mondays off without having to remember to reset an annoying clock.  Sleep is PRICELESS, definitely worth more than $180, while a toy is worth $0.95.  Not everyone works 9-5 every day of the week.  AND I can throw my ipod in it and wake to a song or a streaming radio station (radio reception sucks where I live) and be able to see the weather, etc.

However, NEVER once did I imply that "most people bought their Chumby primarily for a clock."  You inferred that, but you got it wrong, buddy.  What I said was, if you read the advertisements, THAT is how it's being MARKETED, and that is why *I* bought it.

After all, as you stated in your post, you are NOT a primarily END user, you are primarily an experimenter and developer.  Sure, it's a valid use of the product, but how many people in this world do you think have experimentation and development of such a technical product as their primary purpose?  I have users who still can't send a freaking email from Outlook--and unfortunately, these people outnumber people like you and me in our society by the gazillions.  IMNSHO if someone in the real world would consider buying Chumby it would be because they'd read the marketing and say, Oh, hey if I get this thing I can set it to let me sleep in on the weekends and wake up to my ipod.  Those other uses that you mentioned are GREAT but they're not easily usable for J6P at this time and will take a bit to get there, and they're also not going to say Oh, hey I can learn to program flash and do linux development, what a cool toy.

I'm not saying that people who buy the Chumby for tinkering and development don't exist and that their needs aren't important too, but the reality is that you're more likely to find THOSE people here and the normal J6P NOT here talking about end user issues.   

You might not have a clock conundrum, and that's fine.  I do like your idea of community widgets for more configurable control panel options.  Now why couldn't you have just suggested that instead of being all insulting to someone who is just trying to request a solution to an end user problem?