1 Topic by burkhardi (edited by burkhardi 2009-01-08 08:05:31)

  • From: Austin, Texas...Y'all
  • Registered: 2008-08-01
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Topic: Chumby and SAMSUNG

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/sams … igiframes/

Whoo-hooo!
Sounds fun!
Reagrds, Matt

Samsung and Chumby Power Always-On, Internet-Connected Digital Photo Frames

Las Vegas, NV, Jan. 8, 2009 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world's leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, and chumby have teamed up to provide a reference design built on Samsung's award-winning S3C6410 application processor for Internet-connected digital photo frames (DPFs). The new Samsung / chumby reference design will enable developers to build powerful Web 3.0 digital photo frames that offer photo and video sharing via social networks, multimedia messaging, games, Internet radio, animation, video clips, constantly streaming news, weather information, RSS feeds and much more. These DPFs provide access to Web services and content from the chumby network, which has over 1,000 Internet applications or "widgets" in 30 different categories ranging from news and entertainment to videos, music and sports.

Samsung and chumby will demonstrate this new reference design at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.'s Meeting Room #N238 in the North Hall and at chumby's booth #14448 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"Accessing Web services and content anytime, anywhere is the promise of next-generation consumer electronic devices," said Richard Yeh, marketing director for Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.'s System LSI Business. "By partnering with emerging market leaders such as chumby, we have an opportunity to dynamically change the way people view and share information in real-time via the Internet."

As the digital photo frame market embraces wireless connectivity, the Samsung / chumby reference design will enable developers to build innovative DPFs with interactive Web capabilities. Rather than just a simple picture frame that

only displays a limited number of photos from camera memory cards, the DPF can now become a connected Internet appliance where users can create and share content with friends and family, easily connect to top Internet photo-sharing services like Photobucket, Facebook and Flickr, integrate photo sharing with audio, and enjoy their photos and music alongside the rest of their favorite parts of the Internet. Users can view and share photos from multiple sources including camera cards, memory cards, and the top Internet photo sharing sites in one slideshow, and use the touchscreen to navigate through over a thousand chumby widgets."Our vision is to bring the Internet to connected screens everywhere, and digital photo frames are an ideal platform for delivering chumby to millions of homes," said Stephen Tomlin, CEO, chumby. "Through our partnership with Samsung, we are taking the digital photo frame category to an entirely new level -- bringing the best of the Internet coupled with chumby's ease of use and unique capabilities to digital photo frames." To be the centerpiece of the connected home, a DPF requires a high-performance, multimedia processor with an optimized feature set that includes interfaces for easy connection to wireless networks, a LCD display controller, advanced memory interfaces for both embedded and card memory, an ADC for touch screen control, advanced graphics capabilities and support for high-level operating systems. Designed using Samsung's high-performance, cost effective S3C6410 application processor, this new reference design leverages an open source network based on a Linux operating system using the Adobe Flash platform.

About Samsung's S3C6410 Application Processor

Samsung's S3C6410 processor has on-chip JPEG/2D/3D hardware for fast and easy Internet picture sharing and graphics rendering. For video applications, the S3C6410 provides on-chip MPEG-4 SP codec, H.264/263 BP codec and a VC-1 decoder, allowing SD-quality video capture and playback at 30 frames per second. The S3C6410 also integrates 2S for 5.1-channel Dolby for stereo-quality audio.

The Samsung / chumby reference design is available now from chumby.

About chumby

Chumby lets users select their favorite parts of the Internet and delivers them in a friendly, always-on, always-fresh format. Over 1,000 widgets in 30 different categories, ranging from news and entertainment to videos, music, sports and more are available from high profile media partners such as CBS, MTV Networks, New York Times, Pandora, The Weather Channel Interactive, AOL's SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks. Chumby also offers user generated content as well as thousands of Internet radio stations, the ability to share photos, e-cards and more with family and friends. Chumby is headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit www.chumby.com.

About Samsung Electronics

For more information, please visit www.samsung.com or www.samsung.com/us/business/semiconductor/news/News_MediaCenter.html

  • From: Perth, Western Australia
  • Registered: 2008-12-28
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

So what does this mean for current chumby owners?

lionslair's Website

  • Duane
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

We'll have more information about this later, but this is what's called a "reference design" - essentially a hardware schematic that we're publishing that a manufacturer can use to create a product that is optimized to run the Chumby software platform.  This particular design is based on a Samsung processor.  There will be similar announcements regarding other reference designs based on other processors over the next few days.

This doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a Samsung-branded digital picture frame product, although Samsung's DPF group may independently choose to do so.

Nothing changes for the current chumby owners - however, widget developers will have to start to think about different sizes of screens when designing their widgets.  Fortunately, Flash makes this an approachable problem due to the heavy use of vector graphics.

We also did a demonstration of a Chumby-enabled frame as part of Sony's CES keynote.

I'm sorry I can't go into more depth, but we're obviously still at CES.

Duane's Website

4 Reply by gregf (edited by gregf 2009-01-08 19:55:25)

  • Registered: 2008-03-14
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Thanks for the clarification.
I suspect the term "reference design" is a new one for most of us.
Hope this seed sprouts in the spring.

For those at CES, remember the ads, "What happens at Vegas stays at Vegas".
(unless you have pics wink   )

  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-29
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

I'll do a blog post soon, I promise, on the happenings here in Sin City.  Bottom-line is that it's an exciting show for us.  If you happen to be in town for the CES show, stop by the chumby booth and say, "hi."

Steve Tomlin's Website

  • From: St Ives, Cornwall, UK
  • Registered: 2008-01-18
  • Posts: 435

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Very cool news, guys!

Rock on.

View widgets by gingerbeardman

gingerbeardman's Website

  • From: Austin, Texas...Y'all
  • Registered: 2008-08-01
  • Posts: 269

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Engadget played with the frame prototypes...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/sams … -hands-on/

Link to pictures...
http://www.engadget.com/photos/samsung- … n/1274214/

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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Yeah, the one thing they got wrong was that these weren't "prototypes" of an actual product.  They really aren't - most reference boards come in exactly this form, with the electronics exposed.  That way the board is accessible to the engineers that are using them to develop the *actual* product.  It's very rare for a company to invest in any tooling to make a case for this sort of thing.

We basically attached wooden frames to the boards, and bought plastic plate stands to prop them up.

They're right about the video - we haven't completed the optimization there.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-18
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

I always thought Chumby's flash software would work on any size screen (made 2 forum posts asking for a Chumby Picture Frame). Yay! Finally, super-sized Chumbys I can hang on my wall! But I guess the Tilt sensor support will go way down. I can't image taking a Chumby "Frame" off my wall just to shake it.

Just imagine, it might even be possible to work support into TV Sets.... Wonder how a Chumby TV would interact without a touchscreen? (please insert your wild ideas here)

  • From: Kansas
  • Registered: 2008-01-28
  • Posts: 231

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

gregf wrote:

For those at CES, remember the ads, "What happens at Vegas stays at Vegas".
(unless you have pics wink   )

Good one gregf, but a slight clarification if you don't mind. If "they" have pics, they're still safe. The quote could rightfully read, "Unless 'someone else' has pics!" :-)

  • Registered: 2009-01-05
  • Posts: 19

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

This device from iriver is being compared to Chumby. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/a … chumb.html

I wonder if the new Chumby supported devices will have similar capabilities.

  • Registered: 2009-01-05
  • Posts: 19

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Chumby competitor with Windows? 
Quote from http://www.inquisitr.com/14906/windows- … its-real/:

Of most interest is the Chumby competitor; details were slim but Microsoft includes this spiel:

    “The combination of Fugoo’s platform and Microsoft Windows
    opens up almost limitless possibilities for transforming ordinary household items, allowing them to perform all sorts of new functions and services,” says Steve Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer Division at Microsoft. “Imagine having your alarm clock not only wake you up but also remind you what your first appointment of the day is and calculate how long it will take you to drive to work based on current traffic conditions.”



I like the traffic report idea.  Right now, i don't know of any widgets that give me travel time in the Seattle area (just cameras and maybe traffic flow)

  • From: Kansas
  • Registered: 2008-01-28
  • Posts: 231

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

chumby44 wrote:

I like the traffic report idea.  Right now, i don't know of any widgets that give me travel time in the Seattle area (just cameras and maybe traffic flow)

EVERY town has their, what I call "destination minutes", I've been fortunate enough to live in 15 minute "destination minutes" towns twice, but once I lived in a 30 minute "destination minutes" town and that sucked. But you get used to your town, and soon learn what "destination minutes" town it is!

  • Duane
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Several companies have announced products that have superficial similarities to the chumby.

We're actually quite pleased with this - from a marketing and distribution standpoint, it's very tough to be alone in a product category, and having more products validates it.  As the first product that does this stuff, pretty much *every* article on this type of device is compared with the chumby as the standard.

The iRiver thing is pretty cool - Ken spent some time talking to them.  There are a couple of things that pretty much every article has gotten wrong about it.  This device is *not* wireless - it requires a wired Ethernet connection, which certainly limits where you can put it.  It appears they were really thinking of this as a VOIP phone, and somewhere along the line (probably because of chumby) they starting piling on some of this additional functionality.  The price seems to be substantially higher as well - some articles list as much as $400, but nobody really knows for sure.  Supposedly they allow people to make new applications for it, but nobody in the iRiver booth had any idea how it would be done, or what capabilities would be accessible to such applications.

I don't know anything about the Fugoo thing. I love the "imagine if your alarm clock..." stuff in the press release - chumby owners don't have to imagine it at all.  Some of the Microsoft folks came by - they told us about some of the web services this device is using - it's quite possible we might be able to make chumby widgets that can exploit some of the same services.

Very few of these new devices allow open development - if you don't like the functionality they've given you, you can't really add anything. I think that's a shame.

Duane's Website

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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Here's a link to Sir Howard Stringer's opening keynote address at CES.

If you watch carefully, you'll see something interesting about chumby.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2009-01-05
  • Posts: 19

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Duane wrote:

We're actually quite pleased with this - from a marketing and distribution standpoint, it's very tough to be alone in a product category, and having more products validates it.  As the first product that does this stuff, pretty much *every* article on this type of device is compared with the chumby as the standard..

I agree completely.  None of these products are going to replace Chumby and all the press comparing them to chumby will just make people aware of Chumby.  The additional products just mean the market for Chumby-like devices will get larger.  Chumby's market share may get smaller percentage wise, but hopefully will grow in numbers.

  • From: Austin, Texas...Y'all
  • Registered: 2008-08-01
  • Posts: 269

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Interseting....
THe weakness IMHO is it does not use the Chumby network. I feel since the Chumby network is going to be opened to non-chumby itmes, I think the Chumby Netowrk will explode!
It was slick looking though; but there is no reasons some other compnay (or even Chumby) could not make a simular device that uses the Chumby Net work.


chumby44 wrote:

This device from iriver is being compared to Chumby. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/a … chumb.html

I wonder if the new Chumby supported devices will have similar capabilities.

  • Registered: 2009-01-05
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Duane wrote:

Here's a link to Sir Howard Stringer's opening keynote address at CES.

If you watch carefully, you'll see something interesting about chumby.

Okay, I've watched the first 17 minutes of the video and my wife is losing patience.  Please tell us what part of the 70 plus minute video to watch.

  • Registered: 2009-01-05
  • Posts: 19

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

chumby44 wrote:
Duane wrote:

Here's a link to Sir Howard Stringer's opening keynote address at CES.

If you watch carefully, you'll see something interesting about chumby.

Okay, I've watched the first 17 minutes of the video and my wife is losing patience.  Please tell us what part of the 70 plus minute video to watch.

Got it, start at 21 minutes and watch from there.

  • From: Austin, Texas...Y'all
  • Registered: 2008-08-01
  • Posts: 269

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Sony and Chumby, now that is awesome!
I will be getting one of those for sure!

  • Duane
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

burkhardi wrote:

Sony and Chumby, now that is awesome!
I will be getting one of those for sure!

Well, this is currently at the "design concept" phase, done specifically for this presentation.  This is not a formal product announcement.

Our hearty thanks go to widget developer McConnell - you'll see his "Big Ben" widget was used for the alarm in that demo!  His clever "Anatomy of a Clock" widget is also used in one of the demo loops running on a TV in our booth.  cbreeze's "ChumbyLand" and Yuzzy's "RoboClock" are being demonstrated very regularly to the press and to visitors to our off-site suite.

People have been extremely impressed by the creativity, quality and breadth of the widgets that developers have created.  It's certainly opening a lot of eyes of the folks that keep their systems tightly closed.

Duane's Website

  • From: Tulsa, OK
  • Registered: 2008-08-04
  • Posts: 657

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Very exciting stuff guys!  The future looks very intriguing for Chumby, and the network.

Keep up the great work!

Cheers,
cbreeze.

Get -> Chumbyland | Joice | Word Up | Newsdom

cbreeze's Website

  • From: North East UK
  • Registered: 2008-03-28
  • Posts: 156

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

A while back (1989 I think) Sony realised something - "it's not about hardware, it's about content" - and they bought Columbia pictures.

I think they're seeing it still - it's still about the content - this time it's Chumby's content.

You have a great service, Chumbians, but whichever of you talked to Sony made them see it too. What a future you have !

quizengine's Website

  • From: Kansas
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Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

QUIZENGINE!! Couldn't have said it better myself!

  • From: Michigan
  • Registered: 2008-04-21
  • Posts: 43

Re: Chumby and SAMSUNG

Wow! Thanks for including my widgets. Very cool to see Big Ben featured in the Sony keynote!
Congrats on a great CES.