Chumby goes on sale

At this point the only surprise left with the Chumby always-on widget box was when it was going to finally go on sale -- we've seen the specs, gone hands-on, seen the retail unit, and generally gone gaga for widgets with this thing -- so we're pleased to report that the Chumby store is now taking orders for the box, in your choice of white, latte (pictured) and black. $179 gets you the box, but it's how developers and users use this thing that'll really be the story. No concrete word on a ship date, but since "insiders" have been playing with these since last month, we're betting it'll be soon.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[chris @ Oct 16th 2007 11:35PM]

i don't know about this one...

[jessy @ Oct 17th 2007 2:10AM]

oh man i got a chubby to.

[mushrooshi @ Oct 16th 2007 11:36PM]

4kids will sue because the Yu-Gi-Oh GX character name is CHumby even though it isn't their franchise and all they do is make crappy dubs and americanize and keep things rated G. AKA instead of dying they go into the shadow realm.


Um, anyways, Ive been keeping my eye on Chumby. This thing won't beat out the PSP simply because it is way to big to fit in peoples pockets,but this thing is prolly gona beat the UMPCs IMO.

I want one!

[Kurtis @ Oct 17th 2007 1:24AM]

Dude, PSPs, UMPCs and Chumbys are all completely different creatures. No one is going to beat any of the others. They are just different. That's like saying, "Yeah, man, Huffy mountain bikes will never beat out the Toyota Prius, 'cause the Prius has air conditioning. But mountain bikes will be way better than skate boards."

[Nick @ Oct 16th 2007 11:47PM]

Last month? Psh, I've had mine since the beginning of August. It's fantastic.

Also, Mushi... It's not meant to be on the go so comparing to a PSP is like comparing a microwave to a lunch box. Sure, it has a battery compartment but that's for the alarm function. Plus, the games are rather lacking, really only for showing off the features of the Chumby. All I can say is this... It totally kicks Nabaztag/tag's ass.

Also,

But will it blend?

[thethirdmoose @ Oct 16th 2007 11:51PM]

Yes, it will blend. However, it will ONLY blend if it is simultaneously playing doom. When it does blend, it will turn into over nine thousaaaand tiny pieces, all of which will be your robot overlord.

Happy now?

[Charlie Calhoun @ Oct 17th 2007 12:23AM]

you forgot one thing...

In soviet russia, Robot Overlord Doom Blends You!

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 17th 2007 6:51AM]

I for one, welcome them.

[Fubar @ Oct 17th 2007 8:13AM]

All your nine thousaaaand tiny pieces are belong to us.

[Justin E @ Oct 17th 2007 12:22AM]

Anyone want to let me know the secret to how actually ordering one? It seems that the general public (people who haven't registered with the site previously) can't order one yet. Maybe the shopping cart just hates me?

[Brent @ Oct 17th 2007 12:44AM]

I can't order one either... it just takes me to the "notify me when I can order one" page. Sad.

[Justin E @ Oct 17th 2007 1:07AM]

Maybe when I finally get a chumby it'll teach how to proof read my post before I submit it...

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Oct 17th 2007 12:37AM]

I wasn't too sure about this thing, but reading the specs, my concerns are gone. It's actually a pretty powerful little gadget; lots of room for expansion.
Could it be possible to get an Apache server running on there?

Something about the Chumby makes me think of the Weighted Companion Cube, too. People seem to grow inexplicably attached to these...

[Jesse S @ Oct 17th 2007 12:50AM]

I do need a new alarm clock, but not for this much.

[ry @ Oct 17th 2007 1:21AM]

will your new alarm clock have a squeeeeeeze sensor though?

:P

[ThePengwin @ Oct 17th 2007 5:06AM]

Sure does, read the specs!

[Mike @ Oct 17th 2007 1:55AM]

My biggest concern is if the backlight on the display is adjustable (preferrably automatically). My treo will make it like daylight in my bedroom. I'm not going to be able to sleep with a bright screen on all the time.

[Brent @ Oct 17th 2007 2:01AM]

I was thinking the same thing, and some google-ing confirmed that this thing does have an ambient light sensor which will dim the backlight. I would hate for something like that to hold this cool little product back.

[Yan @ Oct 17th 2007 11:33AM]

I have a chumby, and I'm pretty sure the ambient light sensor was removed from the production version. I think it's in the changelog somewhere. One of the requests made by users was the ability to set the brightness of the backlight according to the time of the day.

[Damian Shepherd @ Oct 17th 2007 2:42AM]

OK I want one.. Have C Card in hand.. site says not available? what you guys smoking engadget? Been waiting for months,,, this is too cruel!!!

http://www.chumby.com/store

[huarng @ Oct 17th 2007 6:20AM]

i signed up for their insiders club like a month ago and like 3 weeks ago they sent me an email saying that i could order one by entering a secret code at the login screen. this is old news.

[Dan @ Oct 17th 2007 6:43AM]

I too got the emails last night saying that the Chumby is on sale - however, to purchase you need the password they sent you (or forgot to send you, in the first email). All I'm interested in is when the thing is going to ship, I ordered mine 20 mintues ago.

[Damian Shepherd @ Oct 17th 2007 7:15AM]

hmm i signed up 3 months ago.. no email.. no password... :(

[Jeremy Schultz @ Oct 17th 2007 8:14AM]

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHUMBY-Internet-Alarm-Clock-1st-on-eBay-iPod-RARE_W0QQitemZ290170539830QQihZ019QQcategoryZ294QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It took a week for mine to come, dropped shipped from China. It turned out not to be my cup of tea for the moment, so it's on eBay. The reserve price will be going away, so we'll let the market decide how fast someone wants this.

[Yan @ Oct 17th 2007 2:06PM]

The current bid on eBay is $86 more than the price originally paid (and the original price of 179 included shipping). I already have a Chumby, but if I were still looking for one, I'd wait until the official launch because it'll be pretty soon anyway and the current firmware release is missing a lot of features right now. It's simply not worth paying extra for a used Chumby.

[Marcos @ Oct 17th 2007 8:18AM]

Nice. For $99, it'd probably sell a lot. For almost $200... I don't think so.

[Spastic @ Oct 17th 2007 8:50AM]

I got one of the insider Chumby's a few weeks ago. Overall, I like it. There are still a lot of little things that annoy me though, which I hope they fix.

The production model doesn't have an ambient light sensor, as someone noted. They replaced it with a mic. If you want to dim the screen when you go to bed you have to put it in night mode, which is very dim and only shows a simple clock widget.

My Chumby has already frozen up a few times. That worries me a little for something that is supposed to be an alarm clock.

They put ads on it. I guess to support the bandwidth costs of streaming all the widgets to you (it has no local storage, so every time you view a widget it gets downloaded). I've seen a video PSA thing for childhood depression a few times. It doesn't play unless you click on the icon though, but still, kind of lame.

Some minor ones, the screen gets hot and the touch screen isn't the most sensitive (a software fix is promised for that).

The good, there are already a lot of cool widgets, and I'm hoping many more will be made. I've been getting a lot of use out of the stock ticker, and Google news and Engadget ones. There are a lot of fun ones too, like one that shows Chuck Norris "facts". I'm a big gadget fan, so the Chumby is worth it for me. I don't know if it currently would be for the general public though, maybe after some of the promised fixes and upgrades (and a price drop).

[Mike @ Oct 17th 2007 10:52AM]

Someone noted that it DID have an ambient light sensor. If the production units don't, it would be a deal breaker for me. Though might be cool for my parents so us kids can push photos to them. Waiting for a google picasa widget...

[Saurabh Agarwal @ Oct 17th 2007 12:53PM]

If anyone has a store invitation code and doesnt need it, could they please email it to me?
saury316 (at) yahoo (dot) com

[skhawaja @ Oct 20th 2007 5:21AM]

After reading the comments, there's 2 URL's here:

http://store.shumby.com

http://www.chumby.com/store

Wait it out and just goto http://www.chumby.com

Make sure you watch for HTTPS to show up!

[J @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:32PM]

Yeah that sucks that it has Ads, wow that could be a deal-breaker. I would rather pay a subscription than have ads! Why can't someone do something like this in a DS form factor, thereby beating the PSP, Chumbly, AND UMPC/ipod for streaming Apps in one swoop?