Chumby: An application gadget

Here’s an interesting idea, what if you could take the best bits of being online and put them into a device to play with offline? Yes, kind of like a smartphone… without the phone.

Well some imaginative people have thought that this is a good idea, and the result is Chumby.

Chumby is a wireless device that allows you to download widget-like applications for use whenever you want. This means your Chumby can have the functionality of an alarm clock or a flickr photo viewer.

According to the makers: “Chumby takes your favorite parts of the Internet and delivers them to you in a friendly, always-on, always-fresh format. It’s a window into your Internet life that lives outside your desktop, so content like weather, news, celebrity gossip, podcasts, music, and more has a place to play away from your world of documents and spreadsheets.”

To use, simply connect Chumby to your wireless network, and set-up your choice of widgets onto the device. There are over 1,000 applications in more than 30 categories to choose from, and new ones are constantly being created.

After you’ve decided between sports scores, video clips, games etc. just sit back and Chumby will stream everything you’ve chosen onto its little screen.

Chumby comes in a few colours including latte, varsity blue, pearl, basic black, and limited editions: cardinal and amethyst.

For more information on this gadget, check out chumby.com