Apparently several Chumby's can be connected over a network so users can share widgets but as we only had the one that's not a claim we could verify.
With an eye on its target audience – affluent Americans in their early teens, we suspect - the Chumby comes with two rather nice Hessian storage bags and a selection of rubber 'charms' that you can attach to the unit's lanyard eye.
Designed to appeal to folk in their Gap year?
We say 'affluent' because the Chumby retails for £140, which seems a lot for an alarm clock radio - a cheap-as-chips one will cost you six quid from Argos - even one that can present internet-sourced info. Doubly so since the smartphone you already own will probably do all this already.
Before you all charge off to the comments section to tell us the Chumby Classic has been available in the US for 18 months and that the new – but monophonic and altogether less cuddly – Chumby One is now available, yes we know, but the Classic has only just made it to Blighty so it will just have to be added to the list of things that took a while to cross the pond like the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and morbid obesity.
Verdict
It would be quite reasonable to dismiss the Chumby as a toy or as the answer to a question nobody asked, but that would be to wilfully overlook its good points and misconstrue its purpose. Think of it as a network connected radio alarm clock with some social networking thrown in, and a plethora of subsidiary and whimsical stuff added for good measure, and it begins to make more sense. Unlike a lot of off-beam gadgets, it also just works. Our only real reservations are the price and the fact that the widget content is rather US-centric. ®
Thanks to Firebox.com for lending us the review unit
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Chumby internet-connected alarm clock
COMMENTS
"It would be quite reasonable to...
... dismiss the Chumby as a toy or as the answer to a question nobody asked""
I think i'll do just that
Grammar 101
>"2. Please link to that (in a useful manner) internet enabled Argos alarm clock for GBP6."
That's not how you read English. Here, let me show you:
>We say 'affluent' because the Chumby retails for £140, which seems a lot for an alarm clock radio - a cheap-as-chips one will cost you six quid from Argos - even one that can present internet-sourced info.
The bit in the middle there separated by hyphens is an interjection. It's like putting something in brackets; it stands alone as a separate but related comment, and the main sentence should be read on through as if it weren't there. Think of it as an inline footnote:
>We say 'affluent' because the Chumby retails for £140, which seems a lot for an alarm clock radio(*), even one that can present internet-sourced info.
>(*) a cheap-as-chips one will cost you six quid from Argos.
See? The sentence only says that a cheap-as-chips alarm clock costs six quid; it's saying that £140 quid is a lot for an alarm clock, even despite the fact that (*unlike* the six quid jobbie) it can "present internet-sourced info".
Pip pip old bean!
No BBC radio
..... makes it reasonably useless as a clock radio replacement.
No BBC? No hope
As you say, a wireless that won't get test match special is not worth having.
Adverts
I was looking into importing one of these from the US quite a while back, what turned me off of the idea was I found out about the adverts that are placed on your chumby. Yes, that's right, adverts which you cannot turn off right there on your night stand! I'm surprised the reg did not mentioned this. Of course the adverts may be localised to the US only - though even so I feel it is a point worth mentioning. As I feel that potential purchasers may like to hear that in the future chumby may turn on the "feature" to add adverts to their device, to which one cannot opt out. The line that chumby take is that if you use their widgets then you have to put up with their adverts. Check out the chumby for more.
