Test drive

In case you missed the memo: Computers aren’t supposed to be simple. After all, consumers continue to demand more and more speed and power, with machines hopped up on gigs of memory, fancy-pants video cards and Herculean processors. So, what’s the point of Chumby, a new fist-size device that opts for simplicity over steroids? The answer, I discovered after a week of testing the computer, is “fun.” As long as you have a wireless network at home, you can use the machine’s integrated Wi-Fi, touch screen and lone AC adapter as everything from an addictive toy to a colorful alarm clock to a video aggregator. The actual guts of Chumby are miraculously small, with a mere 64 MB of memory and a tiny processor. But it gets its functionality from widgets, or tiny programs, you download into its open-source Linux software—and hackable hardware. Unlike, say, Apple with its iPhone, the makers of Chumby actually encourage owners to tweak and program new uses for the devices. Some of my Chumby “channels” now display never-ending streams of widgets showing The New York Times’s top headlines, live reports and temperature updates from the Weather Channel, my friends’ latest Facebook status updates, and a live video feed of the San Diego Zoo’s Panda Cam (who knew it could be so soothing?). But the loveliest use I’ve found transforms the little device into an alarm clock. Instead of the typical annoying alarm clock beep, Chumby wakes me with a live stream of Santa Monica’s KCRW public radio station. Apparently, good things still come in small packages. $180 at chumby.com.