For the first few weeks after receiving my prototype Chumby I had been using it mainly as an alarm clock/bedside device, but in doing so I was undercutting some of Chumby's potential. It was still great, I just simply wasn't using it that much.

Then two days ago I moved the device to a more prominent location in my apartment and let it cycle through all of the different widgets I've installed on it - only now am I truly starting to realize all of Chumby's capabilities.

I now see Chumby as more of a digital piece of artwork then just a device. A few of the widgets namely the 'Kane Approves' (as I've talked about previously) widget, the Flickr widget, and the Twitter widget are truly great. 'Kane Approves' is great because it's humorous, the Flickr widget is great because it cycles through my digital picture collection wirelessly and turn the Chumby into a digital picture frame, the Twitter widget is great because it displays the tweets of all of the people I'm following, cycling through them for updates without having to be on the computer or cellphone. Another widget, the 'Chumby 9000' is plain creepy as it recites HAL 9000's lines from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Using Chumby as this piece of digital artwork it would be nice if it had a bit larger of a screen so I could see it from clear across the room. I expect future models will no doubt offer that.

Current and future Chumby owners: don't get caught into using the Chumby in the same way you would a regular old alarm clock; it can be so much more.

I've had my Chumby up and running for a couple of days now, so it's time for some new thoughts on it. I'm still definitely liking the Chumby it a lot, there have been a few issues - as should be expected with a prototype product - but ultimately this thing will be about the widgets available for it; there are some good ones now, but I expect some great ones in the future.

• I keep my Chumby next to my bed (perhaps unoriginal) to mainly use it as an alarm clock device. All three built-in alarm noises are pretty annoying - but maybe that is a good thing since the point after all is to wake up you.

• I would love in the future to see Chumby with a rechargeable battery as opposed to it just being a must be plugged-in device. This way I could easily move it from my bed side to my living room.

• The touchscreen is nice, but I think I've been spoiled by my iPhone - the Chumby's isn't nearly as responsive as iPhones.

• Some of the widgets are great and turn the Chumby into an almost idustrial piece of artwork. Specially I'm talking about the 'Kane Approves' widget which is simply a short, looped video clip of Orsen Wells in Citizen Kane clapping vigorously in approval of the opera. I definitely see someone making a Steve Ballmer 'Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers' widget in this mold.

• Chumby gets a little hot on the back and bottom of the screen, but nothing too bad.

• Though simple to do through your computer via the Internet, it's be nice if you could configure some of the widgets that need configuring right through the Chumby itself.

• The Digg widget looks nice, but it would be much nicer if you could actually Digg stories from the Chumby.

• Love the flickr widget which makes the Chumby a digital picture frame.

• There needs to be a Google Reader chumby widget.

• There should be a better way to handle widget hang-ups rather then having to restart the Chumby every time this happens or simply wait and hope that it resolves itself.

Overall the Chumby is a very cool new always-connected (to the Internet) consumer device. The best widgets in my opinion are the ones listed under 'weird'. As I noted, these almost raise the Chumby to a strange, interesting piece of artwork. Could you imagine having a dozen or so Chumbys spread around a room all looping through the 'Kane Approves' video. It would be eerie - and hilarious.

Well I asked for one - and believe it or not I actually got it! Yes, I'm happy to announce that I'm the proud owner of one of the first Chumby prototypes available (one of the first 50 to be exact). I had been wanting to get my hands on one of these things since I first read about it on TechCrunch almost exactly one year ago when it was shown off at Foo Camp for the first time and Mike Arrington managed to snag a very early prototype of one.

I've only just now plugged it in and it's currently downloading some updates but so far I am very impressed. The packaging was nice - it uses an organic looking bag approach as opposed to the standard boxes. Each Chumby comes with a couple of "charms", little trinkets that you can hang on the side of your device to customize it a bit (more of these are available for purchase). I was actually surprised with how compact the device is - I thought it would be quite a bit bigger. It's an interesting mix of electronics and beanbag.

Most impressive so far had to be the interactive setup. Forget reading the instruction manual (though there is one) - when you plug in and start up, your led by several Chumby team voices step-by-step through how to set it up. Very nice. Even better might have been the intuitive computer sync. You enter a visual code that is shown in your web browser on your chumby and then it automatically discovers your devices registration number.

Enough writing for now - I'm going to play around with this thing and get some widgets. More to come.