[Engadget] Chumby, the open source, Wi-Fi-savvy, touch screen-enabled, accelerometer-equipped bit bag represented by what appears to be a mutant octopus, has been tossed onto this treacherous trail of Internet appliances. Chumby resembles a portable GPS device such as the TomTom Go or Garmin StreetPilot C330, but with a rear that hasn’t been to the gym in a couple of years. Instead of displaying directions, Chumby can display Flash Lite widgets from scores of content providers. These include, for example, movies from FimCritic.com, weather updates from The Weather Channel, “news” from MTV, and even SAT vocabulary words from fear profiteer Kaplan.

The Chumby is an interesting device that has the hacker spirt in mind by providing developers with everything from firmware source (just linux) to hardware specs to details on how to code the accelerometer.

With Flash support (including flash video), I wonder if these things will go on to replace the variety of leapfrog, fisher price gadgets, etc that the kids play with. I could easily see a set of widgets specifically designed for children that they would love, without having them being on the internet.

Will the Chumby take off, or is it destined to suffer the same fate as it’s predecessors: the iOpener or ePod? Time will tell..