Samsung / Chumby prototype digiframe hands-on

The Samsung / Chumby digiframe was on hand at CES in a very, very early prototype form. In fact, the demo units didn't even have a back plate covering up the innards. We were told that Samsung's contribution is the processor within, and plans are to release it to market before the end of '09. Our early impressions? The widgets were liquid smooth and lookin' good; the video playback, however, was less than acceptable. Have a glance below for an early look.

Gallery: Samsung / Chumby prototype digiframe hands-on

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[Verythrax @ Jan 9th 2009 7:50PM]

Too little, too late?

[KilgoreTrout @ Jan 9th 2009 9:38PM]

I bet that Samsung and Chumby ran to hide away this thing away in shame once they took a look at what iRiver has been able to bring to the show.
Who is gonna want this (or anything else for that matter) once it will be possible to buy iRiver's super-uber-megacool "Wave-home" ?
I can't wait to be able to bring one at home.

[Templarian @ Jan 10th 2009 12:06AM]

My bosses son is one of the developers, so he got to mess with the thing. From what he told me, I'm very surprised they showed it off.

Either, way cool to see its getting an update, too bad to hear about the performance, but really it didn't sound ready to be shown off.

[Arvind Ganesh @ Jan 10th 2009 2:47AM]

This looks great! Chumby is great for internet feeds and connected music. I hope it comes with a remote.
Didn't Sony announce a similar product as well?

[ZSX @ Jan 10th 2009 8:14AM]

I really can't see the advantage of a Chumby over something like the Nokia internet tablets for widgets, feeds, email, web browsing and connected music. The hardware is better on the NITs and the development community is more active too. There isn't a huge difference in price either, although I guess the Chumby is cuddlier!

[whoster69 @ Jan 10th 2009 2:54PM]

The Chumby is about $200 and the NITs are about $400. That's a BIG difference in price. If they were around $250, I'd agree with you.

[Carlos @ Jan 10th 2009 3:00PM]

Are we talking about money ?
... well, that is exactly the reason why i started www.mojocafe.net!
Why shall i buy just another digi-frame that shows me information if i can bring that
on my allready-bought mobile device !?

Let these things support Flash and a WiFi connection and sooner or later i will
port the Mojocafe to it :D

[jyee @ Jan 11th 2009 9:37AM]

the chumby has wifi and all of it's modules are written in flash.

it also runs linux under the hood and has webserver and other software available... it's far more powerful than a simple mobile device.

[carlos @ Feb 13th 2009 1:34PM]

What i tried to say is that just in case that you allready own a mobile device
and would like to have fullscreen widgets "around you" then you won't need
to buy just another gadget for that.

And concerning the chumby: i LOVE the device. It's awesome but unfortunately
a) i can not afford it
and
b) 95% of the widgets offered are made by the community what

b.1) is very nice as open minded
but
b.2.) aweful as most of those widgets do not offer a minimum of bold design aspect

That's also the reason why framechannel.com and similliar "app stores" won't work out
from a certain amount of applications on.