Chumby One review
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Nov 13th 2009 1:00PM
posted Nov 13th 2009 1:00PM
A quirky, overpriced alarm clock without broad market appeal can only take you so far, though -- someone's eventually got to pay the bills. Enter the $100 Chumby One, Chumby's first attempt to grow up and produce an affordable device that loses a little bit of the Chumby Classic's insanity while carefully staying true to the company's roots. Will this be Chumby's ticket out of the geek niche and into mainstream living rooms and offices?
After playing with the One for a couple hours, our answer is a whimsical "why not?" Let's be very clear -- no one needs the Chumby One, nor does it close any great gap in your tech life -- but it offers enough information and functionality in one small, portable, cordless place to justify the modest price of admission.
Yes, that's right, we said "cordless." The One makes good on perhaps the Classic's most damning shortcoming -- an inability to escape the wall outlet -- by including a space for a rechargeable battery underneath the base. It's not included with the device, but a quick Google check suggests that they can be readily obtained for $10 to $20. Our quick testing leads us to believe that you'd maybe get an hour and a half to two hours off of a charge (better than Chumby's quoted one hour); it's not like you'll want to be away from the charger for weeks on end, but it's good if you normally use it as your alarm clock and want to move it to another room to use as a table radio for a little while, for example.
For hardware, the Chumby One is in many ways a simplified Classic, starting with a complete and utter lack of stuffing (that's a good thing for mainstream users, we'd argue). Besides the battery cover, the base has a black antenna used for FM radio reception; we never bothered to even unfurl it and we were still able to pull in a variety of local programming in crystal clarity. Around back, you've got a 3.5mm headphone jack, power port, on / off button, loudspeaker, and just one USB port, down from two on the Classic -- you won't miss the second, unless you need wired Ethernet and iPod connectivity at the same time. On the right side, you'll find a welcome addition -- a dedicated volume knob, which means you don't need to hop into the control panel anymore and actuate the on-screen slider if the music gets too loud. The top has a Chumby logo button that's used to trigger the control panel; it replaces the Classic's so-called "squeeze sensor" and can be pressed while tilting the One left or right to "slide in" the previous or next widget. Gimmicky, but cool.
Front and center lies the 3.5-inch touchscreen, the same size you find on the older model; that surprised us a bit because the One is quite a bit smaller in person than we'd expected it to be and seems smaller than the Classic, but then again, there's no plush goodness here to plump up the surrounds. The display is plenty sensitive, which is good because you'll need to interact directly with the screen to accomplish just about anything. If we had a complaint here, it'd be that the screen isn't flush with the surrounding bezel which can making touching the extreme edges and corners a challenge, but we didn't find it to be a big deal.
The simple interface is a dead ringer for the Classic; nothing has changed here, and that's just fine by us. In normal operation, your default "channel" -- Chumby's terminology for a particular set of selected widgets -- cycles on an endless loop, and if you'd like to add widgets or channels, you log into Chumby's site to do so (though you can delete widgets and freeze the display right from the device itself if you need to). By entering the control panel, you'll find a night mode that offers a super-dim clock and alarm display for bedside duty, though we wish this mode could be triggered automatically by light sensor (very early Classics had sensors, but for whatever reason, they were later removed). This is also where you'll go to set alarms and play music through any of the impressive variety of services that Chumby supports, including Pandora, SHOUTcast, Squeezebox Server (if you have one on your network), and a handful of podcast services and miscellaneous providers plus iPod, mass storage, and the aforementioned FM radio support. It all works well, and we like the fact that each source has its own customized UI that looks custom-suited to the service it's for (the iPod player, for example, apes iTunes). Once you've started playing your music of choice, you can navigate away and return to your widget channel if you like. We found that the built-in loudspeaker is plenty loud and clear for basic desk duty, and you always have that headphone jack available to you if you're looking for higher fidelity.
Wrap-up
Unlike the Chumby Classic -- which has cost anywhere between $200 and $600 over the past couple years depending on color and cover design -- the Chumby One at $100 is cheap enough so that you can effectively buy it without having any idea what you'll use it for and still not suffer even a fleeting second of buyer's remorse. Out of the box, it's a passable streaming media player, an FM radio, a photo frame, an alarm clock, a weather station, a news ticker, and more; all told, you've got over a thousand widgets available online, and with enough elbow grease, Chumby gives you the tools to make it whatever you want it to be. A miniature do-anything box for a Benjamin that doesn't look like it belongs in your toddler's toy chest? Sounds like a steal to us.
always wanted one...but to expensive when my ipod touch can do the same and more
o ye? try fm radio
@chancekang
It DOES have FM radio, but Apple has yet to unlock it in the Broadcom chip. Bluetooth was always there, and they unlocked that with the 3.0 update.
who still listens to FM radio. stream it dude
Maybe those of us who can't afford 3G broadband on top of all our other expenses because the providers in some of our respective countries are vampires?
new Nano has FM
Congratulations! You don't get it!
The old one was so useless it made you want to punt it across the room, it could only get better, right?
are you kidding? useless? Its the best alarm clock I've ever had....waking up to streaming Pandora every morning, customizable alarms, Twitter, Facebook, weather and news updates.....yeah....useless...
You paid $200 for what essentially amounts to an over-fancy alarm clock with a tiny screen. Sounds like a winner.
Shut up already. I dont' think that $100 for a "fancy alarm clock" is expensive whatsoever. What other product exists that has even CLOSE to this amount of functionality, for less money?
an iPod dock up top would really make this thing dynamite, but I'll have no problem simply connecting it via USB.
The original Chumby retails for $200, not $100.
I've wanted to get one of these to put in my kitchen for a while now, I'm so pumped they have a more affordable version coming out.
It had some bugs, but they fixed it - I'm not sure I'd say it's the BEST alarm clock i've ever had. The UI to set alarms is way to complex, and if you want to set a "quick" alarm, then you can't listen to pandora, etc. I'd like to see that fixed.
Additionally, the screen could be brighter. I have my Chumby on one of my night stands and I have a Sony DPF-D80 digital picture frame on the other night stand. The Chumby screen doesn't come close in terms of brightness.
And some of the early bugs really spooked me. For example, one time I had an alarm set, but it lost wifi signal over night, and therefore the alarm decided to not go off. Whaaaat? So I was late to work that day. So needless to say, I love my Chumby - it works great as a bedside clock and widget player. I love the random widgets like news stories, quotes of the day, etc... I don't find it to be the "best alarm clock" in the world. I pretty much use my iPhone for that, but if I didn't have my iPhone, I'd still rather use my Squeezebox Radio, which offers way more features than the Chumby, and it's an amazing audio device as well. I do like the two USB ports on the back of my Chumby classic (the new version only has one). I keep an iPhone dock connector in the back at all times so I can charge it before I hit the sack at night.
So all in all, the Chumby is a good device. It's not mindblowing or anything, but i mean who can argue with another internet connected device? :-)
It hurts me that Cynical Bastard Dan is a fan of Dinosaur Comics' over-imaginative optimist T-Rex.
Sure doesn't give me a chubby.
Seems about on par with your avatar's joke quality...good work.
He was funnier at 11:30... I definitely agree.
Correction: he was NEVER funny, it's just that at 11:30 people are too tired of drunk to care what's on so they left their TV tuned to channel 4.
Anyone hear the one about Jay Leno going to the beach? He was gang raped by five pelicans.
This seems like a good tech gift (better than digital photo frames at least).
inb4 it gave me a chumby
i know, it's new apple tablet
ah hahaha the wizards will make you disappear
I was one of the early adopters on the Chumby, and still enjoy mine. I'll probably pick one of these up for an alarm clock in the bedroom.
The big thing to understand with the Chumby is that for 90% of people, it's not useful. It's a toy, and as long as you're setting your expectations accordingly you'll be OK. I have 100 different widgets cycling through my main channel - everything from webcams around the world to clocks, weather, news, goofy stuff, games, etc. It sits on my work desk and is a nice distraction over the course of the day.
I'm sure if I was really motivated I could get it to do more cool stuff. But as it is right now, it's a good piece of flexible, open hardware that is easy to justify at $100. That's a couple of bar tabs for me, so it's not such a bad deal for a really cool alarm clock or widget player.
Why is it useless for 90% of the population? Don't understand that statement.
I pretty much ignored the original for lack of understanding of what it was. It seemed highly unlikely that it was a passable WiFi Internet Radio (besides all the other things) at that price, yet apparently, it is.
Stand alone WiFi Internet Radios are generally much more expensive than $100, and those with color screens and touch interfaces ... don't yet exist (or are only just starting to).
For this functionality alone, the Chumby One is a STEAL, and if you think 90% of the population wouldn't enjoy such a radio (of course, 90% of the population has no idea that such radios even exist :-( ), then what planet are you living on?
I have an original Chumby, and use it mostly for Pandora. It does a great job streaming, and the Pandora app is great. Sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, but you can pipe it out to other speakers. Hopefully for the new unit they've put a little more effort into the speaker(s).
Sorry - that comment was more directed at the people who see a screen on this thing and think it's going to be a great media player/home server/Doom-playing machine, etc. It's a very good internet radio box, a pretty good alarm clock, a really sweet piece of hardware if you're a hardware hacker, and fun to look at when you've got the channels set up.
Like I said in the original post, I like mine. I'm probably going to buy at least one more, because I fit into that 10% that have a use for it. But if all you want is an alarm clock there are better options available.
Seems a bit poor that they removed an USB port and a light sensor.
Seems poor also that the review gives NO information about what runs it, and how that compares to the classic, is it slower or faster? (important for people that write code or have some on-the-edge apps on a classic I imagine.)
Not even a link to check yourself :/
Regarding your second point: that's because, through the magic of interweb and previous Engadget posts, you can do it yourself!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/11/chumby-one-now-on-sale/
https://store.chumby.com/pages.php?pID=15
Come on. Put some effort in, man.
As for the first point, most people use only one USB port, and I don't think the OG has a light sensor. At least, mine doesn't seem to.
You can use an USB hub.
Yeah I can also do my own reviews... point is that it's ridiculous to expect people to search old articles in the hopes of finding a link, and if they find one they have to hope it has some data on the specs, then they'll have to find the link to this new one and find the specs on that, if they do all that why do they need sites like engadget in the first place?
All I can say is that I gave up on this.
Or you can just get a smartphone.
Or you can keep your regular phone, buy a Chumby that you can't accidentally leave on a train going to Manhattan, and save $260 in the first year, and $360 every subsequent year if you're on Verizon.
I have to admit, as soon as I saw that thing I kind of wanted it even without knowing what it does.
Regarding the iPod Touch - isn't it just lacking the software to utilize FM radio? The new nanos use the headphone cord as an FM antennae, although I suppose it still needs a receiver. so the iPod Touch has a built in receiver? MY HEAD ASPLODES!!
This is a pretty cool product. I might consider getting one.
Said Travis, looking into his pants.
I thought it just plays engadget that would BE AWESOME!
It's a really nice device. My bosses son is one of the inventors so I expect to get to mess around with this new one shortly. I kind of like the bean bag approach to the old one, but his ones still looks pretty nice.
C'm on, if it's a decent media streamer cum web radio and it shows pics, tweets etc. and it's possible to connect it to some good speakers it's definitely worth the benny.
I have an iGala connected to Harman Kardon's sound sticks and I now I could hardly live without it.
It streams great sounding music from my NAS and PCs , it shows pics from picasa and Flikr few minutes after they are uploaded, shows wheather, infos, play movies, and any sort of media (including mp4 videos) via wifi, usb & memory card, and it's a great calendar and clock or alarm clock. The only reason why I did'nt buy a second one is because it costs too much; but if this new Chumby can do just about the same things for just a Benny I think I can find a place for it in the kitchen or in the bathroom or somewhere else.
I want one just so I can write my own flash widgets. We need a new alarm clock and xmas is right around the corner.
I've owned a Chumby since they came out and never knew you can press/tilt to move between widgets. Cool!
would love to have this for christmas...
Nice that you can write your own tools:
http://wiki.chumby.com/mediawiki/index.php/Scratchbox
Cool, I've always wanted the Chumby but not in its plushy form. I will most likely pick one of these up but I sure wish they put in a little more effort into the chassis design. The Chumby One is reminiscent of something you would find in the 70s
That's a matter of taste, and your opinion's understandable. The design's supposed to look like a slightly updated, cleaned up retro. Sounds like you agree they hit the retro -- just not your cup o' tea. I'm a big fan personally. :P
It would be even better if it had an HD radio tuner in it.
Is there any talk of that possibility for a future model?
HD Radio's a pain and a half for small companies like Chumby -- even large companies have to get big licenses. HD Radio's got huge royalty costs, and those drive up the cost of a small device like this substantially -- not really worthwhile on a device who's purpose is to be an "always on, always connected" device, therefore ideal for internet radio (which sounds better than HD Radio in my area, generally speaking). That's not to say that a small HD clock radio wouldn't have a market -- but one with the feature set of the Chumby would cost significantly more than $100-$120.
Might have to consider getting one of these...
The bezel surrounding the LCD is too fat. Frames surrounding displays should be minimal.
The cube is ugly. It should be a thin device.
I'd rather not know the time, or the weather. Yes, I'd rather go out to work late in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts in sub zero snow than have this ugliness on my table.
Have an original by our kitchen PC...weather, clocks, Pandora, virtual bubble-wrap, and other fun stuff. Just handy info always there. Chumby One is on my Christmas wish list...for an alarm clock, or maybe weather and news in the bath in the morning, or....
If you don't "get it," then don't get it! :-) If you do, you'll enjoy it.
PS - you can also put a virtual Chumby on your website...it looks like your Chumby, and shows whatever is on your real one!
Including the non-removable promotional widgets?