Chumby Widgets

I was glad to see a bunch of widgets appear in a new chumby “widget laboratory”. How do I learn about new widgets, and add them to my chumby? Sadly, it’s harder than it could be.

There are bunches of feeds and even a widget showing the freshest additions (“recent widgets”). But to add widgets, you need a computer. That makes chumby great for pushing info to somebody else (photoframe style) but not suitable for computer-free use.

On the chumby you can:

• delete widgets
• switch between your own personal ‘channels’
• rate widgets
• receive widgets from your ‘chums’

You need a computer to:

• add widgets
• configure widgets
• change the order of widgets in a channel
• create a new channel
• comment on widgets

So far there are a roughly 200 publicly-available chumby widgets. Some picks:

• Post Secret
  Oddly mesmerizing. Better if you increase the time. Pleased a teenage friend on Thanksgiving Day.
• Chumby Chat
  Why I love it? I got wished “Happy Thanksgiving from Michigan” by an utter stranger.
• Flash Lite Chumb-ilities
  Chumby was the first Flash Lite 3 device to market, and I’m hoping this list of chumby’s abilities will bring us more content quick. From Flash developer Scott Janousek.

Want to make a widget? Here are some recommended resources:

• Scott Janousek’s blog (category: chumby)
• ChumbyWiki: Developing widgets for chumby and Example Widgets
• Chumby Forum on Flash development (e.g. thread on learning Flash)