I think this thing is AC powered not battery (although I hope battery back-up) so a universal remote as it's "platform" would be rather silly ;-p
"The device normally operates from a standard 12V wall wart, but includes a 9V battery to keep the clock alive during power outages. Under full load (display on and everything), the 9V battery lasts around half an hour. The chumby can detect if it's running on the internal battery and currently shuts off most of the power-hungry hardware.
We made a "portable" chumby for Foo by connecting two lantern batteries to the main power connector. We needed it to test the 14 or so wifi base stations we spread around O'Reilly's building for chumby users. That will last a *long* time.
The wifi is on all the time."
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=13
So It it has to be plugged it you need to find a "plugged in" style function for it. In a bedroom you typically have 3 plugged in features.
1.) Light
2.) TV
3.) Alarm Clock.
Everyone has a bedroom and spends time in there... rarely does it have existing high-end tech... so that is a great room to target for technology.
While a TV could be a great spot to start upgrades... the screen size is cost prohibitive... I mean alot of us sport 20" TV's or bigger in there... so just for the LCD alone you are talking like $150... now upgrade it to touch screen and the cost jumps again PLUS the thing is too far away from where you are sitting... I don't have a 20" TV within arms reach that's bad for my eyes.
A light... well you can get upgrades for those... nothing fancy but pretty much everything that can be done HAS been done on bedroom lighting.
So you are back to the alarm clock.... a piece of equipment that can't even tell you what day of the week it is... it's usually ugly and most of them can't play CD's or MP3's so they wake you up with a god-awful buzz.
This little piece of hardware is what you start your day with... look at it like this... when people buy a PC I tell them "don't skimp on your monitor, keyboard and mouse... the machine can be fast as hell but if your mouse is not optical or your keyboard has keys that stick you will feel like you are on a $20 piece of garbage."
It's all about the interface... and an alarm clock is basically your interface for the morning... a bad morning can quickly spiral out of control and become a bad whole day once you get into a foul mood.
If you can be awakened to music you enjoy... without remembering on sunday night to turn the alarm on... and without a power spike or something resetting your clock (IMHO it should be set via atomic clock and have battery backup) and it tells you the weather etc... so you pack your umbrella.. and it knows what day of the week it is and maybe informs you it's your dad's birthday...
Well... that's a damn fine start to the day... the chaos and evil buzz that a typical day starts with might fade away and we could be left with a much more civil and up-to-date life style.
I mean it might all sound like making a big deal out of a clock... but seriously how annoying and "dumb" is your current one?