At first I thought this was a great idea:
I liked the idea of having an alarm clock-like device that is displaying the information I most commonly seek, in realtime and always accessible. Similar to the way I keep my most commonly accessed sites open in tabs in my browser, ready to be read when I have a moment. But the more I thought about it the more Chumby bothers me. I still like the idea of streaming websites, but why have a separate hardware device, and why does it cost $200 ?! Especially since it will be streaming you ads in addition to information. I think this should be purely a software product. Give me a app I can install on my smartphone, or as widget in OSX, or even a stand-alone application. I guess that goes against their whole idea of not needing a computer, but I think smartphones would be an ideal platform for their technology. Then again, they are probably planning on making their profit on the hardware, which will never work.