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Hands-On: Chumby Classic vs Chumby One

Norman Chan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:30:34 -0600

The newly released Chumby One arrived in the mail today, and we couldn't wait to see how it compared to the original digital connected companion device. The Chumby, in case you haven't heard of it, is a multi-function gadget that can serve as an alarm clock, RSS reader, gaming device, or music player. It connects to the internet with Wi-Fi, and runs user-created widgets to do cool things like read your Gmail or send you Twitter updates. You interact with it through a 3.5 inch resistive touchscreen, but it also has an accelerometer inside, since it's made to be held and encourages user interaction.

We liked the first Chumby an awful lot, and the One doesn't look like it's meant to be a successor or replacement for that. In fact, we're not sure not exactly sure how the Chumby One is being positioned in the marketplace. One the one hand, it's a budget model, sacrificing the original's squishy appeal for a significant price cut. On the other hand, it also adds new functionality that makes it a better device than the Chumby Classic.

First, the ceremonial unboxing ritual. The Chumby One comes in a utilitarian cube-shaped box, as opposed to the cute canvas sack of the original. This may seem like a minor change, but it's representative of the major difference between the two models -- the Chumby one is now housed in a rigid plastic chassis as opposed to malleable Italian leather.

At the top of the device is a large button, which is actually larger than the one hidden under the first Chumby's "skin." Hitting this button takes you to the home screen or turns off alarms. There's also a new physical knob on the right side of the Chumby One, which is very convenient for quick volume adjustment when you're playing music from a connected iPod or Pandora.

Here it is compared to the first Chumby. The One looks and feels much smaller, though without the soft shell, it's not nearly as comfortable to hold in one hand. Since the touchscreen works best when you're gripping the Chumby with one hand and navigating with your other hand, the experience loses a little bit of charm and whimsy. It feels less like playing with a digital pet and more like, well, an alarm clock. Whether that affects your emotional connection with the Chumby is up for debate.

The back of the device has a few minor changes. There's only one powered USB port, and the speaker is positioned above the ports instead of at their sides (a change from stereo to mono). There's still a headphone jack, DC power connector, and power button, but their placement has been optimized to avoid accidentally turning off the Chumby.

On the bottom, you'll find a slot for the removable battery. Yes, the Chumby One comes with a replaceable Fujitsu battery so the Chumby can operate without being connected to a power outlet. We haven't had a chance to test out how long this battery lasts, but replacements sell online for about $15 bucks. Being able to take the Chumby along with use on trips is a definite plus. You can also note the FM antenna cord that comes out from the base of the unit.

For international travelers, the Chumby One also comes with a variety of outlet convertors.

Operationally, the Chumby One functions exactly as the first Chumby does. Since it's powered by a faster 450MHz processor (up from 350MHz), launching the Flash-based widgets, as well as normal menu navigation, feels more responsive. Widgets still take a few seconds to start up, and you still have to set up account-based widgets on the Chumby website. The resistive touchscreen works well enough, but we still wish it was capacitive. Resistive screens tend to "stick" a little when we try to use any kind of gestures -- they're much better for pressing icons than sliding bars.

Even with its faster processor, the Chumby is best used for text and image-based content. Video feeds, like TrailerAddict's widget, still don't seem optimized -- movie trailers we tested weren't silky smooth.

As we mentioned earlier, another new feature is FM radio tuner. You can see the interface below.

Chumby works great as a music player, and come with a wide selection of built-in internet radio feeds. It also plays music off of connected iPods, but won't play from music from an iPhone. One problem we encountered was that we couldn't get iPhone charging to work off of the Chumby's USB port. This wasn't a problem we had with the Chumby Classic, and hopefully it's just a bug.

But the biggest consideration for the Chumby One is its price of $120 (currently on a pre-order sale price of $100). That's about half of the Chumby Classic's $200 price, which put it out of reach for many people. $100 is still a lot of money if you only plan on using it as an alarm clock, but if you're willing to download and experiment with the Chumby widgets, the Chumby One makes the investment a lot easier to stomach.

The Chumby One is available for pre-order now and ships on November 25th.

The One: Chumby's Successor Ditches the Squish

Paul Lilly — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:00:46 -0500

Remember Chumby, the squishy Internet appliance with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display and WiFi connectivity? Basically a glorified alarm clock, Chumby could also stream news feeds. stock quotes, photos, weather info, and whatever else could be imagined through widgets.

Well, Chumby's back, this time without the squishy exterior and renamed the 'One.' The new model puts a bigger focus on radio features with Pandora support and the ability to access other internet radio stations. And like the original, you can install widgets, of which there are about 1,500 to choose from. The One touts a faster processor, bumping up from 350MHz to 454MHz, but otherwise the specs look to be the same.

Look for the One to retail for about $100 in a month or so.

Image Credit: Chumby via Engadget

Windows 7 Feature Focus: Desktop, Taskbar and Start Menu

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:45:00 -0500

From a distance, the Windows 7 GUI resembles its predecessor, Windows Vista. However, the closer you look, the more you'll see that Windows 7's take on the GUI is a big improvement, adding more power, more customization, and better ways to open frequently-used programs and files. Keep reading to learn how you can tap into the power of the Windows 7 desktop, Taskbar, and Start menu.

Getting the Most out of Gadgets

Windows 7, like Windows Vista, includes a useful library of desktop gadgets, from customizable clocks to an RSS feed aggregator and a mini-Windows Media Player. However, Windows 7 no longer keeps desktop gadgets cooped up on one edge of your display: it sets them free. Here's how to place a gadget (we'll use the Clock in this example) wherever you want with the display options you need.

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop and select Gadgets.

2. Double-click the Clock gadget.

3. Click Close to close Gadgets.

4. By default, the gadget appears in the upper right-hand corner of your primary display. Click and drag the gadget to the preferred location.

5. To choose options, click the wrench.

6. Use the arrow buttons to select from different display options.

7. Customize the gadget by entering settings as prompted.

8. Click OK when finished.

9. Right-click the gadget and select whether the gadget should always be on top and what opacity it should be. In this example, I've selected Always on Top and 60% opacity.

10. In this example, I configured the clock to display eBay time (US Pacific time zone), and I've dragged it near the top of the browser window.

Follow this same basic procedure to place and customize your preferred gadgets. You can place gadgets on either the primary or any additional displays you use.

Click the Get More Gadgets Online link shown in Steps 2 and 3 to see an assortment of additional gadgets you can download. To choose from over 3000 gadgets, click the Get More Desktop Gadgets link on the Personalize Your PC browser window that appears first.

Pinning Power

"Pinning" (the ability to keep shortcuts to programs and files on a list as long as you want them there) has reached new heights in Windows 7. You can pin programs to the newly-remodeled taskbar as well as the Start menu. And, with a little chicanery, you can use "pinning power" to make frequently-used files easy to find in both places from the new Jump List display of current and recent files.

If you've already opened a program, you're more than halfway to pinning it to the taskbar or the Start menu. To pin the program to the taskbar, right-click its taskbar icon and select Pin This Program to Taskbar.

To pin a program to the Start menu, right-click the program icon from either pane of the Start menu and select Pin to Start Menu. You can also pin the program to the Taskbar from this menu:

Pinning Power for Files

You can also use "pinning power" to make access to frequently-used files easier. Windows 7 supports the Jump List, which is a list of recently-opened files maintained by some programs. To see if you can pin the file to the program that hosts it, start the program and open the file, then close it. Then, right-click the program icon in the taskbar and see if the file is listed under Recent in the Jump List. If it is, move your mouse over the data file listing and click the push-pin icon.

The file is now pinned to the program's jump list

From the Taskbar, you can open the file by right-clicking on the program icon and selecting the file from the Pinned menu. Because the file has been pinned to the program's jump list, it will stay on the list no matter how many other files you have opened (and closed).

Pinned data files are also easy to open from the Start menu's left pane. Open the Start menu. Click the right pointer to display the program's jump list.

Click the right pointer to view a jump list of recent and pinned data files. If you need to pin a data file to the program, highlight the file and click the push pin icon. To open either a pinned or recent file, click the file.

Using Live Thumbnails

Because taskbar icons can represent both currently-running programs and pinned programs, there are two ways to tell which icons represent currently-running programs:

Currently-running programs are highlighted

When you hover your mouse over an icon, live thumbnails of each program window are displayed. If a program has two or more windows open, you will see a live thumbnail of each open window:

To see a full-size preview of a program window, hover your mouse over its thumbnail.

To open the program window, double-click its thumbnail.

Unpinning Programs and Files

To unpin a program from the Taskbar, right-click the program icon and select Unpin This Program from Taskbar:

To unpin a program from the Start menu, right-click the program icon and select Unpin from Start Menu:

To unpin a file from a program's Jump List, click the inserted push-pin icon.

Changing Start Menu and Taskbar Settings

As with previous Windows versions, Windows 7 provides many options for customizing the Start menu and Taskbar. To get started, right-click the Start button and select Properties. Click Customize (arrow) on the Start Menu tab to change its default settings:

The Start Menu tab's combination of checkboxes and radio buttons enables you to create your own combination of fast access to frequently-used features while hiding features you don't use very often.

In this example, I changed Control Panel to a menu and added Homegroup, Downloads, Recorded TV, Administrative Tools, and Run to the user's menu:

If you don't like these changes, click the Use Default Settings (previous figure) button to reset the Start menu.

Customizing the Taskbar

Click the Taskbar tab to customize taskbar location (1), icon size (2), locking (3), and auto-hiding (4).

By default, Windows 7 always combines taskbar icons and hides labels, relying on live thumbnails to show you the details. If you prefer a more Windows XP-style look, select Combine when Taskbar is Full or Never Combine (click Apply, then OK to use new settings).

Customizing Notification Icons

Notification Icons often seem to have a mind of their own. In earlier versions of Windows, you could sometimes enable or disable icons through a management interface provided by the program's developer. However, in Windows 7, you can now manage all notification icons. To get started, click Taskbar tab's Customize button. You can now decide to show icon and notifications, show notifications only, or hide both icon and notification on an individual basis:

Click the Turn System Icons On or Off link (highlighted) to select whether to display system icons such as Clock, Volume, Power, Network, and Action Center:

As with Start menu customizations, you have an escape hatch if your changes are not improvements. Click the Restore Default Icon Behaviors link (arrow) to reset notification area icons to their defaults.

Creating Widescreen Wallpaper

In a previous Windows 7 Feature Focus article on Displays and Projectors, we told you how to configure multiple displays and how to select your favorite wallpaper or wallpapers as part of a theme. But, what if you want to have a single wallpaper image that fits across multiple displays?

First, you must determine the total size of your desktop (horizontally and vertically): add up the width (in pixels) of your displays and use the largest height setting from the displays. For example, if you have two 1440 x 900 displays, your wallpaper needs to be 2880x900 (1440+1440).

Second, create your wallpaper from a single photo or a montage. If you have displays with different vertical sizes (in pixels), see our own Will Smith's article on creating multiple-display wallpaper.

Third, crop your wallpaper (if necessary) to the size you determined earlier.

Fourth, open the Personalization menu and select Change Desktop Background. Browse to your wallpaper file and select it. Choose Fill as the position type:

Click Save Changes. Save it as part of a new theme.

When you return to your desktop, you should now see your wallpaper across all of your displays.

Conclusion

Windows 7 offers plenty of desktop, start menu, task bar, and wallpaper customization options to help you work (and play) more efficiently than ever before.

One Wall Charger, 5 USB Charging Ports

Justin Kerr — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:37:45 -0600

Gadget lovers have a device for everything. We often have 15 different ways to check the weather, 10 for email, and at least 5 with built in cameras. What we don’t have is an unlimited supply of USB ports, and we often struggle to keep our army of doohickey’s charged and ready to go. This can become an even bigger challenge when we’re on the road.

That's why we were so enthusiastic when we stumbled across the Super Travel A/C USB Wall Charger. This $25 adapter can power up to 5 devices at once with the 4 built in female ports, and sports an additional 5 pin male connector for smartphones. I just ordered one for myself, and devices like these remind us why we here at Maximum PC are such big fans of devices that charge via USB.

Is Sony Preparing for a Corporate Metamorphosis, Job Cuts?

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:00:07 -0600

Beleaguered Japanese electronics giant Sony is mulling drastic changes to its corporate structure, according to the Times of London. It is on the verge of shutting down many of its Japanese factories and important divisions. The world is gradually becoming inured to hearing about job cuts – if not job cuts themselves - as the global economy sinks deeper into an apparently abysmal financial quagmire. And it is very likely that the next major news of job cuts will come from Sony; it had announced last month that it was going to hand pink slips to 16,000 employees.

Sources within Sony told the Times of London that Sony’s Japanese operations will bear the brunt of the radical changes. The changes might take effect after the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in the profligate city of Las Vegas. But analysts, especially who have been calling for an overhaul for a long time now, fear that the changes might just be too late in the day.

They want Sony’s boss Howard Stringer to enjoy greater power, if the company is to extricate itself from its old ways. The road ahead is pocked with impediments for the company as it will also have to outmaneuver the global financial crisis.

Image Credit: Ftd.De

IBM Develops Stand-alone USB Device for Secure Online Transactions

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:48:22 -0500

Malware-infected PCs have for long betrayed their users’ most precious financial secrets to internet robbers. But researchers at IBM have developed a USB device to ensure that online banking transactions remain unaffected by malware infections. The device, which is called Zone Trusted Information Channel, can also repel man-in-the-middle attacks.

It secures online transactions by establishing a direct channel to a bank’s online transaction server through a computer’s USB port. As the transaction at the user’s end is made on ZTIC’s own hardware - no reliance on any PC-based software, it is not vulnerable to malware or man-in-the-middle attacks. The prototype is now ready to undergo trials.

Although the idea of a stand-alone security/authentication solution isn’t entirely new – Paypal already offers a stand-alone security device to its users, IBM’s endeavor is slightly different as it looks to be keen on offering a universal solution.

Toshiba and Matsushita Ready to Mass Produce 2.5-Inch OLEDs

Paul Lilly — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:23:56 -0500

For the all the benefits organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have to offer, high costs have kept the technology from becoming commonplace. And when OLED devices do emerge, they tend to command a premium, putting them out of reach for mainstream consumption. But while the world waits for a breakthrough to bring low-cost OLEDs into the marketplace, Toshiba and Matsushita (Panasonic) might already be there.

According to a report from Japan's Nikkei BP, the two tech giants say they are poised to become the first Japanese companies to mass-produce OLED screens. Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co. (60 percent owned by Toshiba and 40 percent by Matsushita) appears ready to churn out 1 million 2.5-inch organic screens per month by fall of 2009, and will target mostly handheld devices like mobile phones and GPS navigators.

The 2.5-inch screen size remains the sweet spot for many portable devices, and if the two companies' claims turn out to be true, we could see a deluge of OLED devices rolled out in a very short time period starting in late '09.

Image Credit: Akihabaranews.com

What Will the Post-iPhone Cell Phone Be Like?

Paul Lilly — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:15:33 -0500

Cell phone technology has come a long way since it was first introduced and just, as we can't help but snicker when catching a glimpse of the old beige bricks that started it all, it won't be long before today's mobile phones will be considered equally rudimentary. But even with the rapid pace of technology, it took Apple's iPhone to change the game, ushering in what's sure to be a new era of nifty must-have functionality. But what exactly will the post-iPhone cell phone be capable of?

Popular Science whips out its crystal ball so you don't have to, and what they've come up with are five different features that are all destined to come to future cell phones no later than 2009. More than just a wishlist, Popular Science explained the reasoning behind each category and which companies are at work on each technology. PC-grade computing and graphics by late 2009? Sign us up! The list looks sound, but one must-have feature noticeably absent is Sprint's crime deterrent system.

What features would you like to see in tomorrow's cell phones?

Image Credit: Popular Science