NEW YORK -- If you crossed an alarm clock, a picture frame and an Internet radio player with a gerbil, you would get the Chumby, possibly the least threatening-looking electronic device ever.

It's a tiny computer enclosed in a stuffed leather pillow the size of two fists, but much less aggressive. The 3.5-inch LCD screen is touch-sensitive and shows pictures, news headlines, games, incoming e-mail and other snippets of infotainment from the Internet.

The device retrieves these goodies via Wi-Fi, so you need a home hotspot to use the Chumby. It also needs to be plugged in to a power outlet, so don't start dreaming of using the Chumby as a squishy, $179.95 substitute for an iPhone.

But it can replace your alarm clock, rousing you with podcasts, Internet radio or music you load on a USB drive. It can play your iPod's MP3s through the built-in speakers. You can put it on the kitchen counter as a Web radio that shows pictures from your Flickr account when you're not listening.

The manufacturer, San Diego-based startup Chumby Industries, even mentions that it could help in the bathroom, a space the consumer electronics industry has notably overlooked while flooding the rest of the house with gadgets.

I didn't test the Chumby as a bathroom buddy because the power outlet was too far from the room's "reading area," but I did try it out in the kitchen and on the nightstand.

It's a fun little thing. My wife took one look at it and begged me to disregard the Associated Press policy that review samples have to be returned. But she didn't actually use the Chumby much because while it does a lot of things, it doesn't excel at any one of them.

You log in to Chumby's Web site to program the Chumby with "widgets" such as The New York Times headlines application or a version of the "Pong" game. These are sent to the Chumby via the Internet, and start playing in sequence, usually appearing on the screen for 30 seconds at a time.

But if you want to jump from one widget to the next (say you're heading out the door and want the weather forecast), you have to mash the top of the Chumby to get to the control panel, then forward through the available widgets one by one to find the one you want. It's a slow and annoying process.

We found we couldn't use it as an alarm clock because the screen is too bright even in "night mode." That's a pity, because it's easier to set the wake-up time than on any alarm clock I've known.

As a Web radio player, it can play thousands of streams from AOL's Shoutcast, but saving your favorites or tuning into other streams is tricky. You can't pause podcasts.

As a picture frame, it's cool that you can access Web pictures and even invite your friends to send photos to it. But the screen is small compared with cheaper picture frames out there.

It's tough to criticize the Chumby, first of all because it feels like I'm being mean to a koala bear, and secondly because the manufacturer can send software upgrades over the Internet to the devices. Some of what I'm criticizing now could be fixed by next week, though the screen size will be the same and there will still be only one control button.

Ultimately, I give Chumby a tentative chumbs-up because of the openness of the manufacturer's approach.

First Published: March 1, 2008, 10:00 a.m.