Chumby and the Ambient Web

We mentioned the Chumby in a blog post last week. Today, Forbes posted an article covering the Chumby, the Ambient Web, and digital frames. The author describes the Chumby and similar devices, as extremely useful but mentions the difficulty new products like this may encounter in attracting a niche of users.

Like any new technology, there is unlimited potential for various uses of the Chumby-WiFi frame, RSS newsreader, music player-but we have yet to see just how new wireless enabled gizmos like the Chumby will be widely adopted by the mass market.

Read the full article from Forbes HERE.

CNET Reviews the Chumby

CNET published a review of the Chumby yesterday. An excerpt is below. To read the full review, please visit CNET’s website.

The Chumby ($179) is a plush, softball-size Linux computer that includes a 3.5-inch touch screen, speakers, and Wi-Fi. An adorable little machine for hosting music, photos, videos, and Web applications, the Chumby distinguishes itself from the world of ultramobile PCs and portable video players with its deliberately simplified scope and approachable, durable design.

With its beanbag shape and soft exterior, the Chumby resembles a computer designed by Teddy Ruxpin. Measuring 5 inches wide by 4 inches tall by 3 inches deep, the Chumby feels like the perfect gadget to place under your arm and take around the house…

The biggest hurdle Chumby faces is its ambiguous purpose. We love that the Chumby can be used as an RSS reader, an Internet radio, an alarm clock, an iPod speaker dock, a photo frame, an IPTV, and countless other things–but it’s hard to decide exactly where it belongs in the house. Whatever use you find for the Chumby, its essential features can be divided into three basic camps: clock, audio, and widgets.

As it stands now, the Chumby isn’t the most practical device, but if you have a general love for the Web, digital music, and new technology, you’ll have no problem finding a fun use for the Chumby in your home.

When You Have A Wireless Digital Picture Frame, People Will Watch It!

We had people over for dinner Saturday night, and as usual, they couldn’t take their eyes off my Digital Spectrum MF8104 wireless digital picture frame.

For one thing, the weather here in southern Indiana has been really strange these past couple of weeks. One day it’s in the high sixties, the next day it’s in the teens, then we’re having a veritable blizzard, and a few hours later the sun is shining brightly. We had an ice storm so severe it brought down large trees, and the next day it was almost seventy degrees again.

Indiana’s quirky weather is one reason I subscribed to FrameChannel’s weather channel. It’s so handy! The weather comes up every few minutes on my wireless frame, and it’s always current because it refreshes itself every fifteen minutes! Heck, the weather on my FrameChannel station is more current than the weather on any internet widget I’ve ever used.

We also played trivia with the quotations channels I subscribed to. Then, we played “Where was this taken?” with the National Geographic channel, and everybody raced to try and identify all the people in the old snapshots that I scanned a month or so again.

In other words, when you have a wireless digital picture frame in your living room, people are going to look at it. Let me rephrase that: when you have a wireless digital picture frame in your living room, people are going to watch it.

They’ll watch it as though it were a television program, starring everybody they personally knew.

That’s kind of how it is, you know.

I can’t walk through my living room without stopping to watch my wireless frame. I love it so much, there are no words.

FrameChannel On Your Computer Monitor!

This is my very own wireless digital photo frame again, just as the picture is beginning to change. See how this particular change is from the bottom up? Each picture change is different!

I stand in front of my wireless frame and stare in wonder for at least five or six pictures’ worth of undivided attention every time I walk through this room.

If you don’t have a wireless digital picture frame yet, but would still like to be able to use the fabulous FrameChannel, you can!

The FrameChannel Google Gadget is what you need!

For Yahoo and Mac users, there is the FrameChannel Yahoo Gadget.

They’re both easy to download and easy to use, and you’ll be able to run your pictures and RSS feeds on your monitor.

You can run FrameChannel on your monitor if you already have a wireless digital picture frame, too. I do.

Can we ever get enough of pictures of people we love? With FrameChannel, we can see them every day!