Chumby and Samsung to put widgets on TV

Designers of the pint-sized Chumby widget player have partnered with Samsung to bring the technology to digital photo frames and televisions.

A Chumby features a 3.5 inch LCD touch screen embedded in a plush bean bag-like casing, along with a wifi adapter for internet access. More than 1,000 widgets are available, offering access to online content such as news bulletins, weather reports, social networking sites, photo galleries, games, RSS feeds and internet radio stations.

Prototype wifi-enabled digital photo frames, offering access to all Chumby content and services, are on display this week at CES in Las Vegas. As well as the standard Chumby features, the photo frames let users view photos and videos, capture and share photos with the frame’s embedded camera and then use the touchscreen to drag and drop content to create and share multimedia photo slideshows. Chumby and Samsung also intend to integrate the technology into "televisions and other connected devices".

"We are bringing the Chumby experience to all consumer devices in the home," said Chumby chief executive Stephen Tomlin. "Chumby offers a complete solution for delivering the best of the Internet to consumer devices, and we are delighted to reveal our plans to the consumer electronics industry for the first time at CES."

"Our vision is to bring the Internet to connected screens everywhere, and digital photo frames are an ideal platform for delivering Chumby technology and content to millions of homes."