Got a Chumby? Been disappointed by the lack of a dedicated Giz AU widget? Well, be disappointed no longer - we've been working tirelessly over the past few days to get our widget up onto the Chumby servers, and even though it's only V1, it's still the best darned widget the Chumby has seen so far (if we do say so ourselves).

To get the Gizmodo AU widget on your Chumby, log onto Chumby.com and select the Australia category in the Manage widgets tab. And while you're there, you should probably add all the other Allure Media sites as well, from Babble to Kotaku and Lifehacker to Defamer - they're all pretty much guaranteed to keep you entertained throughout the day while you should be working, and that can't be a bad thing.

[Chumby on Giz]

In the short time since Internode sent me a Chumby to review, the little hacky-sack-slash-internet-widget hybrid has become one of my favourite household gadgets. I use it to check the weather, get the latest news headlines, listen to internet radio, tell me the time and play the occasional game of Sudoku. With a slight upgrade to my home's wireless network, it will definitely become my bedside alarm clock as well. But for all the great features the Chumby offers, it is held back by one simple flaw - a lack of Australian widgets for Australian users.

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One of the things that is holding back the Chumby in Australia, and something that will influence the review I'm working on, is the lack of Australian content. Almost every single widget available for the malleable internet companion is from the US, and while that means that you can have some cool content (you can stream Pandora radio through Chumby, even though you're in Australia), it is kind of frustrating that there's a dedicated widget for Gizmodo US, but I have to just use the RSS reader for Gizmodo Australia...

Fortunately, Internode has recognised this problem and is running a comp for developers to come up with local applications for the device. Even if you don't own a Chumby, you can still test out your app at Chumby.com, making you eligible for the comp.

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I've been playing with the Chumby Internode sent me to review for about an hour now and despite some early reservations, I'm now completely head over heels in love with the plush Wi-Fi widget.

It's like some kind of high-tech cake, with layer upon layer of fantastic widgets and clever implementations of simple Web 2.0 things like RSS feeds and social networking. After working through the simple setup process and waiting for a relatively quick firmware update, it was a process of discovering just what the Chumby can do. And while I've only scratched the surface in the short time I've been playing with it, my Chumby (affectionately named Chunk) has already become my new alarm clock, internet radio device and de facto Twitter feed reader.

There is a lack of local widgets at the moment - Internode's own offering is a bit disappointing, showcasing only Internode-specific news and their internet radio channels (but you can use Pandora, which is much more comprehensive in its versatility). I'm desperately hoping we can get a Giz AU widget available soon, although at the moment I'm just using the Chumby feed reader to do the job for me.

I'll have a more comprehensive review next week, but as it stands, I'm loving every inch of the Chumby so far...

[Chumby on Giz]

Remember Chumby? That Wi-Fi enabled beanbag widget thing that hit the US back in February? Well it's launching in Australia on Wednesday. Awesome, right? The surprising thing is that it's coming to us not through a regular retailer, but through ISP Internode.

That doesn't mean you need to be an Internode customer to get one though - they'll be completely ISP-agnostic. It'll cost you $299 for the squishy, linux-based device, plus you can pick up a variety of "outfits" for it for $39 each from Internode's website.

At the moment, all the widgets for Chumby are pretty US-centric, but according to APC, Internode are hoping that Australia's tech elite (that's you!) start writing relevant Australian widgets. For its part, Internode will be releasing some Internode-specific applications like Internet radio channels that make the most of their unmetered content.

We're trying to get our hands on a review unit, but if you happen to pick one up before us, let us know what you think. If you're really keen, you can register your interest in the product on Internode's Chumby page.

[Internode via APC]

Everyone's favourite music-genome-powered web radio service Pandora is now officially available on everyone's favourite ambiguous-use plush-paneled Linux appliance, the Chumby. Fitting of their strategy to be on every hardware platform possible, Pandora can now provide soothing wakeup tunes (major key tonality, mild rhythmic syncopation, a good dose of acoustic guitar pickin') via Chumby's own alarm clock before you smash its vulnerable soft parts and go back to sleep. Full release following.

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Verizon has quietly gone live with their new Dashboard flash-based mobile storefront. So far, the app is only available on the LG Chocolate 3, but more phones are expected to be added by the end of the year. That would make it one of the largest implementations of Adobe's flash in the US. The service will allow users access to widgets that function as most widgets do—offering up easy access to news, weather and entertainment. If only the iPhone would get on the Flash bandwagon. [Washington Post]

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Sony became the latest to jump on the app trend bandwagon, but not with a product you'd automatically equate with downloading itty bitty widgets. The company has released an App development kit for its line of Bravia television sets. It expects people to create things like small multiplayer online games, weather and news data aggregators and anything else you can program onto 1.3MB of memory.

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While chumby has been available in beta for a while and we had our hands on the final version last week, today is the official public launch of the little Wi-Fi beanbag, as well as the Chumby Network, with big media content partners CBS, MTV, The Weather Channel, AOL Shoutcast, Scripps and more. The network is ad-supported, but you'll be able to watch Letterman Top 10, grab MTV news (the scrolling app I sorta complained about) and more. We'll have a full review later this week of the new fully loaded chumby.

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After about an hour of playtime with the final version of the squishable US$180 Wi-Fi widget ball chumby, I want one on my desk. Is it essential gadgetry? No. It's not meant to be. Until you're addicted to it.

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