Chumby, a venture-backed San Diego startup, is readying a soft, leather-covered Linux-powered gadget conceived as an Internet-era replacement for clock and table radios. Expected to ship in “early summer,” pending FCC approval, the “Chumby” device features open, hackable hardware, software, and yes, “outerware” APIs.

The Chumby is based on a 266MHz Freescale i.MX21 processor, and is equipped with 32MB of 133MHz SDRAM, and 64MB of NAND flash memory. The high-quality (TFT) QVGA (320×240) LCD display features LED backlighting controlled via PWM (pulse-width modulation).

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