By Becky Waring

What if your bedside alarm clock was also a digital photo frame? And a streaming Internet radio, music and video player? And a news/weather/stocks/traffic reporter? And an eBay auction checker? And an email reader? And, and, and...

Well, you get the idea.

The Chumby ($180) [www.chumby.com] is about the same size as your old clock-radio, but a whole lot cuter (with squeezably soft leather sides) and more useful.

It connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi and grabs information from hundreds of different "widgets" you can choose from on the Chumby network. The widgets are designed to display the information attractively on the 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen, so that you don't need to scroll around.

Chumby's user interface is a highlight; it's very clean and intuitive, which shouldn't be surprising since it was created by Susan Kare, the graphic designer for the original Macintosh in 1984. Touching the screen moves content around, or you can use the button at the top.

Chumby is whatever you want to make of it—hook it up to your computer, download the latest software and program which widgets you want in your "channels." The world is yours!

We especially like the integration with Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Picasa and Photobucket web photo albums. If you upload photos to those sites, they can be displayed automatically on your Chumby when you're not using it as an alarm clock or news reader.

Other cool widgets include: video highlights from David Letterman, The Early Show, YouTube, VH1, sports and more; the Today in History and Word of the Day RSS feeds; a Sodoku solver; dozens of games; horoscopes; and Webcam feeds. And Chumby is adding more widgets constantly.

While it's most likely to go on a nightstand, we can see Chumby in the kitchen, on your sofa table or anywhere else you might want to be up to speed on news or email—without firing up a computer. And since Chumby comes in your choice of black, pearl or latte, it'll coordinate perfectly with your décor and feel right at home.

Chumby Wumby wasn't a bear, but it's so fun and squeezable you'll still love it so.