The makers of the Chumby, a hand-held, cuddly computer in a beanbag, are finally starting to ship out retail units to the earliest of adopters. Though still in low numbers, it’s a promising bit of news for a gadget we’ve been frothing at the mouth to get a hold of. Featuring a spiffy little touchscreen with an accelerometer built-in, the Chumby is a widget ‘toy’ with an open development environment, allowing hackers and companies to create nifty little, internet-connected (via wifi), widgets that can sit at your bedside.

There are already a handful of hot widgets available to play with, from the eBay auction to Flickr stream widgets. My Chumby (should it ever be mass-available), will be used as an internet-aware alarm clock, syncing with time servers worldwide and streaming my music of choice to gently prod me awake. Developers, get on it.