Kurt Stephens

I got a Chumby as a holiday gift; it’s really cool and really hackable.

The good:

• Hardware and software is open-source.
• Runs Linux.
• Very easy to hack: SSH, BusyBox, lighttpd, Ruby, etc.
• Two USB ports.
• Audio out (internal speakers sound amazingly good for their size).
• Built-in microphone (haven’t figured out how to use it).

• Can play FLAC files from USB drive.

The bad:

• It’s very difficult to get it to show pictures off a USB drive. The only way apparently is to install a local HTTP server and use a widget: http://www.discarded-ideas.org/chumby/photoframeusb
• Flash widgets/apps only — Flash is not open-source.
• Switching between widgets and channels is fiddly.
• One button is not enough considering widgets take up the whole screen modally.

• It needs more RAM. 64MB is just barely enough.

Below is the “Virtual Chumby” showing my “Clocks” channel:

Overall it’s a very cool device. Right now it’s in the bedroom but it’s too useful to sit there as an alarm clock.

At some point I’d like to try to interface a small webcam to it.