To run the Control Panel Beta on your chumby, select it from the popup menu on the website and reboot your chumby.  To return to the release Control Panel, just reselect "Control Panel" (without the "Beta") and reboot your chumby.

If you are running a previous beta, simply reboot your chumby.

Release Notes:

Version: 2.8.17
Release Date: 2/18/09

Summary: Adds music "sleep" timer, 24-hour clock mode, widget shuffling, screen off options, music resume button for some music sources, alarm fade-in, new alarm actions.

Music:

* for some audio sources, playback can be resumed when stopped.
* adds a sleep timer button that allows the user to specify how long to continue to play the current audio source until shutting off automatically, in 5 minute increments up to an hour. 

Night Mode:

* adds "DARK" button that will turn off the screen completely.  Any touch to the screen will restore the screen to "dim".  Users with 3.7 hardware will see a brief flash when the screen is turned back on - this is normal.
* if music is playing without a sleep timer, entering Night Mode will prompt to set a timer.
* adds a display counting down the sleep timer if running.

Channels:

* adds a "Shuffle widgets" checkbox to shuffle widgets whenever a channel is loaded from the server, either manually or on the normal ten-minute timer.  Shuffling takes place immediately, unshuffling requires a channel reload after unsetting the checkbox.

Time/Date:

* adds a "24 hour mode" checkbox that will affect the built-in clocks, time entry and many of the external widgets that are aware of the flag. (Note to developers - the widget is provided the variable "_root._chumby_clock_format" which will contain the value "12" or "24" - note that the virtual chumby will likely not have this variable, so assume a default of "12" if the variable is not present).

Alarms:

* adds "Screen bright", "Screen dim" and "Screen off" alarm post actions.  The "Screen off" action will be effective only until the screen is touched at which time the device will revert to full brightness.
* audio alarms will fade in over a period of 15 seconds.  If no audio is playing, they will fade in from silence, otherwise they will fade in from the current audio volume.

Translations:

* supports translation key "dateFormat0", which affects date entry in the Settings->Time/Date->Set Date, Alarms->Quick Alarm, and Alarms->Custom Alarm->One Time->Set Date screens.  If translated to "dateFormat1", the editor will use MM/DD/YY format, and "dateFormat2" will use DD/MM/YY format, where all of the fields are numeric.

Easter Eggs:

* additional Control Panel events are supported:

<event type="WidgetPlayer" value="shuffle" comment=""/> // shuffles the current channel
<event type="ScreenManager" value="bright" comment=""/> // set screen to full brightness
<event type="ScreenManager" value="dim" comment=""/> // set screen to dim
<event type="ScreenManager" value="off" comment=""/> // set screen to off

* when a channel is loaded, the names of all of the user's channels are written to the file /tmp/channel_names, which can be used with the WidgetPlayer/setChannel event.

There are two additional changes that will not be accessible until the next firmware update - configuration of wired ethernet (through a USB dongle supporting the ASIX chipset), and support for entry of ASCII WEP passphrases.