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chumbysphere forum → Software → Widgets cycling?
When I start up the Chumby, it downloads one widget, then the next, then the next, etc. How can I get it to stop cycling through, and only show the active one from the config screen?
Also, it's frustrating that I can't jump into the config screen while it's downloading.
Thanks,
Paul
At the moment, that's not under user control - that a feature (hopefully) coming soon.
Agreed, the cycle time is a hair too quick.
Would be nice to be adjustable.
How exactly do all the widgets work? Are they just flash applications? And does the chumby actually have a GUI or is all just based off the widgets that the device has? This post somewhat answered one of my questions i think, but i'll ask anyways. Do you get to choose wich widget it displays, and is there a way to swap between widgets? If so is there some sort of GUI used while swaping them?
I think it would be cool if it was made so that you download the widgets and have a sort of "expose" feature like on MacOSX, where you hit some special button on screen and it can give you a bunch of little widget icons so you can choose wich one you wich to view.
Another thing, do you choose wich widgets you are running? Or does it just run all the widgets currently on the system? I think it would be nice to choose wich widgets you have functioning or "on" in order to save CPU on widgets you aren't currently using. Also i am intersted in wether it will be able to run Linux applications, or if it needs to be a flash based widget to run. And is there any sort of built in input method, for text and that sort of thing?
Other cool features/applications/widgets wich would be very useful would be some sort of chat client such as GAIM(assuming there is/can be an input method), a simple web browser, and Skype(assuming that the device is given a mic, or mic support)
Widgets are simply Flash applications.
You configure which widgets you want to show on a chumby from the chumby.com website - each chumby has a unique "key" that the lets the server know what widgets are supposed to show on that chumby.
The widgets are not actually stored on the chumby itself - they are pulled on demand from the serve, although they may be cached. At the moment, the widgets cycle at a default rate of 30 seconds each, although that is configurable on the server.
There is a "control panel" interface, which is brought up by squeezing the chumby, that allows the user to modify various settings on the device, as well as manually advance the rotation of widgets.
The device is hackable to run Linux programs that have been compiled for this processor, but as there is no window manager such as Gnome or KDE (indeed, not even X), you can't run most desktop applications unmodified. At this point, we will not be supporting the downloading of Linux applications through our service.
There is currently no microphone in the device, however, one can be added either through the USB or by a hardware hack.
We do not support a browser, and there is no standard text input method.
In general, the chumby is not designed to be a strongly interactive device, such as a PDA or computer. Anyone that wants to change that is invited to use the freely downloadable tools and hack it to do whatever they want.
The widgets are not actually stored on the chumby itself - they are pulled on demand from the serve, although they may be cached. At the moment, the widgets cycle at a default rate of 30 seconds each, although that is configurable on the server.
Where do I turn this cycling off? I'm concerned that most the things I have planned will require either more than 30 seconds or simply make no sense if they're cycled off of.
You can set the time longer when you upload the widget - we have not yet published an API for stopping the cycling because things are definitely going to change.
The biggest danger with allowing widgets to override the cycling is that it's an opportunity for abuse - authors will always try to make their widgets hog the device in order to monopolize the user's attention.
There will also be a way for user to override the author's specified cycling time, and to manually pause and resume the cycling.
If a user wants to show a single widget now, the best way is to create a channel with just that widget and assign that channel to the chumby.
One idea we've been throwing around is that interacting with a widget will hold off the cycling, and it will resume after being left to idle for some amount of time.
what about overriding the squeeze to access the control panel? It looks like there's an api to the squeeze but I'd also think you can't do that.
I wouldn't get too fond of the bend sensor in its current form - there's a strong chance it will be replaced by a simple switch in production units:
1) It's a single-source item, from a vendor that we're not sure we can count on in the long run
2) It's a relatively expensive component
3) We're only using it as a switch anyway.
authors will always try to make their widgets hog the device in order to monopolize the user's attention.
lol. well, yeah of course that's what authors of widgets would want to do. i know that the thing i'm planning needs to run as long as the user wants. it does have a definable start, middle and end, but it would make my widget useless if it cycled out and reloads.
this is not a complaint by any means, but i'm trying to figure out how best to make use of the chumby, not just produce one quickly developed widget after another.
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