Chumby Lovers Aren’t Chumps

Posted by: pomoster on Mar 27 2008 - 444 views

I realize that what I’m about to say is rather controversial but, here goes: I love my Chumby. Love it!

We all know that the Chumby has not exactly been well received in the tech blog community. I think it’s been called “useless” among other things. However, there are a few of us out here who do enjoy (and are willing to defend) this bizarre consumer object and I’d like to tell you why I think it rocks.

The first thing that needs to be established is that the Chumby is a toy. What do you do with a toy? Play with it. Are toys supposed to be productivity tools? No. As a toy it totally fulfills its function, and in that capacity it has three major assets.

It’s the Anti-Apple Object: I have become a (reluctant) Apple user as of late; I have a Macbook, an iPod Nano, and yes, I have an iPhone. I’m totally into the Apple products that I use daily. However, I love that the Chumby is everything that Apple is not in two major ways. Form: it’s thick, it’s round, and it’s soft. Open access: from the getgo, this toy’s functionality has been based on, and largely composed of, user-generated flash programs.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!