you mean control a pc or something?

or do you mean have user-controllable widgets like a web browser?

What we'll probably so is let you switch "profiles" - collections of preconfigured widgets.

So, for instance, you could tell your chumby to be in "alarm clock" mode, where you've set up you favorite widget to wake you up.  Once you're up, you could then switch it to "news" mode, where it starts playing back news headlines.

You would be able to create as many profiles as you want, add whatever widgets you want, but you'd still have to do that on the site.  You would be able to switch between them from the chumby.

We're also looking into full configuration from the chumby, however, that's a ways off.

The chumby already uses XML for all of its data transactions to/from the back end server.

Modifying the configuration through web server in the chumby would be no different than doing it from the display - neither knows about the contents of the widget database, which lives on the server.  If you're going to open a browser on a PC anyway, why not open it onto the chumby web site instead of the chumby itself?

This issue is one of balance of functionality - configuration of widgets is/will be a somewhat complicated process for some widgets, and we end up with the "enter freeform text" problem discussed in another thread.

Again - it's not impossible, it's just a lot of work that is lower priority than all of the other things we need to do.

Well once you get the widgets in memory, they should be able to stay there unless you had a prolonged power outage and the backup battery died.

I could also see widgets as important as the alarm clock widget being stored persistently in the Flash ROM, as there is some room left over (just not a great deal, but an Alarm clock widget shouldn't require much room).

I would imagine that in the future it may also be able to modify widget configurations locally (as in, your PC) and uploading the configuration packets to the Chumby website as soon as an internet connection became available (for, as far as I understand, it's just a modification of an XML file, which could be done in a web browser using either an "Ajax" application, or XForms, or a specialized Flash application), but I would agree that the refinement of that process is of much lower priority than actually getting the unit's hardware finalized and getting the OS itself on firm ground.

still, a bit of swap space wouldnt hurt. i know most people are interested in some solid state memory for chumby, so why not format a memory card with say 20% swap and 80% content? it might increase chumbys performance ever so slightly. and open up a whole world of more memory intensive apps such as games etc.

how do you plan on letting devs use their widgets? do you upload the stuff to the chumby server, and back down to the chumby? or is there another way?

its good you have the backup protocols in place.

Duane, the profiles idea sounds great. That is what I was hoping could be done because I'd like to have just a night time clock widget on a chumby, if it was on my nightstand. I'd actually like an even duller version of what is available, as I mentioned elsewhere, because the cycling widgets can be a little like trying to sleep with a TV screen on...which is magnified by my having mirrored wardrobe doors and a large glass sliding door in my bedroom which bounce the light everywhere.

I lost my wireless connection for while the other day and chumby reverted to the simple digital clock face widget. So it was still functional as a clock but didn't have the other content appearing. It would have still worked as an alarm. If mains power also went out, it would maintain its clock function by using the backup battery.

would you ever consider releasing the chumby server code to devs? cos say in an apartment complex, it would be much easier to have a bunch of chumbys runnin off a local server, using very little bandwidth, than pullin off an external server.

it doesnt really

i just thought it would be good for devs to be able to tinker with things, and for say an apartment complex, the widgets could be coded for specific things.

can i have a chumby to get qtopia running on it ?

damn, was worth a try.

The current plan is to offer free access to many widgets, subsidized by advertising, or the user can choose a subscription to get the widgets without advertising.  There *may* also be some "premium" widgets offered by some third parties that may be "pay to play", but that's up to those third parties, and we'd prefer them not to do it.

As I mentioned in this and other threads, we *are* a business, and we have investors that have poured substantial capital into the company, and certainly $150, which is basically our cost on the hardware, is not going to pay the bills, if you're *also* using our back-end service.  If you choose to use the chumby to *not* use our service, which we've provided ample documentation on how to do, then you won't be paying us anything after your purchase. If you like, we've even given you enough information to make your *own* chumby, so you don't have to pay us *anything*, ever.   That's entirely your choice.

I can certainly understand that you might consider advertising a burden - just don't expect us to pay all the expenses for your use of our service, because that's a burden on us.  We are indeed "free" (except for the Flash Player, which is licensed from someone else), but more "free-as-in-freedom", not "free-as-in-no-cost" - just like the GPL.  We've given you the ability and freedom to hack the device as you wish.

Certainly, this may not be "free" or "open" enough for some people, and fully we accept that.

Well, there will be software upgrades, mainly to fix bugs or add features.

And there *will* be a security layer in the production units, but the purpose is not DRM, but rather to protect *your* data.  After all, we can't expect you to trust the chumby with your stock portfolio, your eBay account information, your MySpace account, if anyone can spoof your device and capture all of your personal information, or leech off your subscription.

The Flash Player also has a security sandbox that protects the user's data and reduces the possibility of chumbys begin hijacked to perform DDOS attacks.

I know other companies spout a lot of rhetoric about "protecting the user" while actually protecting themselves *from* the user, so I can imagine some of this is being met with scepticism from some quarters.

The issue or whether or not to *force* software upgrades is a tough one.  If you have known bugs out there (as we currently do in our prototypes), such that both the service and the user suffer, then as a business, it's expensive to have obsolete devices out there.  The problem is that certain major players in the industry have perverted the meaning of "upgrades" to actually refer to "downgrades" where the user's ability to use the device is reduced rather than enhanced.

But here's the thing - you don't really have to trust us. The software for all this (again, minus the Flash Player) is *open* - if you want to look at it and see what we're doing, you can.

The wiki is currently the best source of information about the device.