• Registered: 2007-12-26
  • Posts: 115

Topic: On the fence?

Hey guys Are you on the fence? Thinking about a Chumby? Will it fit in your life?
Think it is Too expensive? Screen too small?
Well...
More resolution doesn't really help a device like the chumby. It isn't a HI Def TV.
I doubt that the price of the Chumby will be dropping anytime soon unless you buy a used one.
Used ones sell for a premium on e-bay (go figure).
If the chumby becomes a "hot" item you can bet that the Chumby company will look for ways to RAISE the price in order to maximize the return on each unit.
When you look at the price of a chumby and compare it to say an Internet radio (just one of the functions of the Chumby) ...Internet radios sell for around $200. That is for a single function device. Add to that any kind of alarm clock, Ipod playback, memory key playback, Game player, and even a Linux computer which is OPEN source to play with and the cost of the Chumby all of a sudden doesn't seem like it is too high. Heck it might even be too LOW. It really does a heck of a lot. Clock, radio, games, information, calendar calculator.
The number of Widgets (I look at them as information windows) available is staggering and growing EVERY DAY. I love the web-cams. I have one channel which has web-cams from all around the world. I get a world tour in about 15 minutes. I

A Chumby in hand is worth 20 in the Wherehouse.

2 Reply by huckfinn (edited by huckfinn 2008-02-16 14:05:39)

  • From: Chicago, IL
  • Registered: 2007-11-11
  • Posts: 235

Re: On the fence?

I agree with you yaesumofo. When I first told the wife I wanted to spend $180 on a bean-bag with a screen, she thought I was nuts. The wife is definately not a gadget freak, so she was a hard one to convince. So I cleared off my nightstand of my alarm clock and pictures, which caused another groan from her, and plopped down the Chumby. As soon as I started streaming music off the web while having pictures of us and the kids scroll by that started to change her mind. Then the next morning when the weather forecast was right there and we did not have to wait for the TV news casters to get around to the weather she was convinced.

I am not a Linux or Flash author so I will only ever use it with the widgets and features that are published, so this is not only for a "hacker" that is going to make use of the open source nature.

These are only a few of the things I use my Chumby for - all from a little bean bag on my nightstand.

-Streaming internet radio
-News, weather, stocks at your finger tips
-Digital photo frame
-Check your email, myspace, etc.

I think the screen size and resolution are perfect for a device of this size. The cost may seem high, but when you start looking at all of the functions the cost seems pretty reasonable to me.

-HuckFinn