Nobody likes waking up. Whether you’re getting up to up for work, school, or just to get some early morning exercise, shocking your body out of sleep with loud noises before it’s ready is always an exercise in frustration. Sadly, novelty alarm clocks that chime, shriek, and cluck don’t do much to deaden the pain of this routine, but if you’re an internet addict, a fun new Wi-Fi twist on the old alarm clock just might tickle your fancy.
The Chumby represents a radical departure from every alarm clock we’ve ever seen – so much so that it might really be fairer to call it a “web appliance” than a petty “alarm clock.” Besides displaying the time, which it will do quite handily, the headrest-shaped little box will display anything from stock prices, Facebook photos and weather, to the progress on your latest eBay auctions, new Craigslist items, and e-mail. Goodbye, screeching old rooster alarm clock; hello 21st Century.
By using an ordinary household Wi-Fi network, the Chumby culls heaps of information from the web using a free service known as the Chumby Network, then displays them on its 3.5-inch LCD screen. It’s basically a dedicated box for the sort of widgets that might normally clutter up your desktop screen, allowing you to put them anywhere in the house. At last count, the Chumby network hosted 434 widgets in categories ranging from webcams to weather, and it constantly expands as more developers get on board and produce new ones.
Of course, not all of the Chumby’s features depend on the web to work. It can play music off of most iPods (excluding newer versions like the Touch and sixth-generation Classic), and read MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC and M4A files off of USB storage devices that connect via two rear USB ports. The basic clock can also function without an active internet connection, although access to the web opens up most of its best features.
Besides access to 52 (at last count) different clock widgets through the Chumby Network, Wi-Fi access also allows the basic Chumby alarm clock to play any internet radio station as an alarm, and all of the other Chumby Network widgets can be set to pop up on the screen at the same time. It’s also programmable on a day-by-day basis, meaning you can wake up to classical music and stocks on Monday morning, then Metallica and The Onion on Saturday afternoon.
Although it looks like an LCD screen slammed into the side of a leather beanbag, the soft-sided Chumby actually has a lot going on inside. If you tore it apart, its internals would more closely resemble a PDA than any alarm clock, including a 350Mhz ARM processor, 64MB of SDRAM, 64MB of NAND ROM, and most importantly, a Wi-Fi radio. Although the screen stays on 24/7, the company claims it consumes no more electricity than what might be used to power the clock on a microwave.
While we doubt the Chumby will be making anyone’s 6 a.m. Monday morning wake-up call a treat, all of the options and flexibility it offers will certainly be a selling point for those who like to stay connected in bed, or any other room for that matter. At $179.95, it’s no doubt a lot more expensive than the old Sony Dream Machine, but then again, you won’t be getting real-time Facebook updates and eBay auctions on that neon green LCD display, either. More information can be found at Chumby.com.
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