Insignia™ - Infocast 8" Internet Media Display - Multi

Insignia Infocast: I like it! I have used the Chumby for a long time and when the ‘Chumby One’ came out after the ‘Chumby Classic’, it was a great step forward. Where the Chumby One stepped forward, the Insignia Infocast jumped forward. Finally a device that I can stream my own pictures to, off my home network without having to run some bloated and buggy software package on the computer that hosts the pictures. The Infocast sounds good, the Pandora integration is stellar, love the large LCD (I am use to the 4” Chumby). Seems this device was well thought out, so I assume Chumby had to have a hand (or two) in the design and ideas for it to be this good for a first device offering. I think any shortcoming can be addressed by OTA (over the air) updates to the unit. Not too long after I set mine up, it did an OTA update to the latest software and it was easy (just let it do it’s thing). Even though the Sony Dash can do Netflix and is more of an alarm clock then the Infocast; I think the Infocast beats it. Also the Infocast is not billed as an alarm clock either (but it does have a basic one, so don’t let that be a show stopper). As far as Netlix, neither device will run if not plugged in the wall (no battery) so I don’t see the reason to have it and the screens are too small to watch a movie for my taste. I’ll take my 56’ DLP and Roku DVP thank you very much! The touchscreen is not as sensitive as I would like, but still very useable. I use it to watch our local traffic cameras, check our weather, radar and forecast, see Facebook pictures from friends as well as status updates and many, many more widgets that you can get at www.Chumby.com. I think the master home screen is kind of useless (you have to choose to go there) but for a non-Chumby user or non-tech person, I can see a reason to have this. Almost like an easy menu to get to what you want. So the Infocast is great for the living room, kitchen, den, work and other places where you might want info at your finger tips or at a glance. It also sounds good enough to enjoy your music with and I almost forgot, unlike the other devices (Sony and Chumby) the Infocast has a card reader so you can put memory/flash card in it(i.e. SD, CF, etc). There is also two USB ports as well.

I use this as a digital picture frame, alarm clock, and internet radio. It's easy to stream photos from PhotoBucket, and, after a bit of effort, I've got it showing pictures from my Windows Home Server. The alarm clock is fine, I like that I can set an alarm for weekdays only, but it would be nice to have the option to wake to music. Pandora internet radio works great, but sounds a bit garbled, not sure if it's the service or the speakers. I wish there was an option to stream music from a home server. I had been interested in getting a chumby device for a long time, but it seemed too small. I went to Best Buy to look at the Sony Dash, which was very slick but seemed more limited than a standard chumby. Then I spotted the Infocast, and liked the looks of the bigger screen. The touch screen requires a firm press with a fingernail, not as slick as the iPhone's touch screen. If you're thinking of buying this for a non-tech-savvy relative--don't unless you can set it up for them. It's difficult to set up, requiring a computer and typing in a long activation code. I also had to shorten my wireless password because it wouldn't recognize one that was 64 characters long. I don't think it's too expensive, compared to the price of an internet-connected photo frame, along with its alarm and music features. I also set up a "morning" channel with my google calendar, yahoo weather, and a map of recent earthquakes around the world. It's not perfect, but I like it.

I owned a Sony Dash and I returned it, the annoying advertisements would not go away. Then, I bought a Chumby Classic and it was better as well as cheaper but the LCD screen is/was tiny...this Insignia Infocast is just right. It even linked to my Chumby account and found the apps I had stored from Chumby Classic (now in my bedroom @ bedside table). The Insignia Infocast resides in my living room within plain sight of any/all viewers. The bright 8" LCD touchscreen is clearly visible from any angle. I have the clock/weather/finances/stocks & Flickr apps revolving every 2-3 minutes. I have no comment on the internet radio features...if I wanna hear a radio, then I'll turn on my home entertainment system. The "night" mode dimming feature is really sweet for heading off to bed. A quick finger tap in the morning and it resumes instantly. All-in-all...it's an excellent buy, a welcome addition!

Usually I don't write a review before using the item for at least 7 days. However, I thought it would be fair to review this product within hours. Pros: - Price I paid - less than $60 with some coupons after BB's current sale price of $99 - Easy to set up - Easy responding touch screen - Easy to navigate - 1352 FREE apps as of today - Pandora, Shoutcast, Weather Channel, NY Times and many more very useful cool apps. - Google Calendar integration (very cool) - Facebook, Picassa, Photo bucket, PHP Photo and more photo apps. Cons: - Poor quality plastic case - Screen resolution is just average - Most apps has stretched icons or interface (I believe most of the apps initially written for some low resolution devices) Other thoughts: I wish there was framechannel integration with this device. May be I am addicted to framechannel after using Kodak wifi enabled photo frames for a while now. If you willing to pay some extra money, Sony Dash would be a better choice I guess. I saw the Dash demo at the store, but the screen resolution is far better on Dash. Since both devices using Chumby Apps, I believe you get pretty much everything same on both devices. Also an option for setting up On/Off timer would be nice, so that the device will turn off at a given time particularly at nights. As of now, you need to turn off the device manually or activate the night mode manually. Overall, I am very happy with the 8" Insignia Infocast. Definitely worthy for less than $100.

I was looking at both the Chumby and the Sony product and decided to go with this. It was a breeze to set up. It quickly found my home network, asked for my key, and connected with no issues. You do have to set-up an online account to use applications, but that was pretty simple. The screen seems quite large and easy to use. Images are clear in a normally lit living room. It does wash out some in direct sun light. It can be a bit unresponsive to touch at times. Plenty of applications to choose from, all for free. The built in speakers seem fairly loud and clear given their size. It works great with internet radio.

I purchased both a 3.5" and 8" infocast to determine which was a better present for my 10yo daughter. At the time, it was only $30 more for the 8" screen, which seemed like an easy decision. However, Best Buy / Insignia have missed the boat on this unit for a couple key reasons. (1) Poor Alarm Clock Implementation: The 3.5" blows this unit away. This thing is basic, and really shouldn't be purchased if you want to use it as a bedside clock/alarm. (2) Hobbled Music Options: This thing only has 4 music options, vs. something like 13 on the 3.5"! You have very limited options in regards to streaming content off the internet - you might think it's fine, until you see what the 3.5" (or a real Chumby) has to offer. Other than that, the 8" screen looks really good. The touchscreen seemed very responsive - if it's a cheaper resistive screen, it's a very good one! There are a lot of video options added to this unit (compared to the 3.5"). However, I didn't really see the point in taking advantage of them. Lots of clips (i.e. Letterman Top10), trailers, Youtube, etc. But if you really want to watch video, it's much much easier to do on a computer. I would have liked to investigate the Sony Dash - a cousin and fellow Chumby-like unit. It offers Netflix (and Hulu Plus I think), which at least provides a reason to have video - but I don't want my daughter having unfilter Netflix access in her room. I suggest you read up on the forums at Chumby. They provide the web services on this unit, and actually designed the motherboard and software - but the implementation/features were determined by Best Buy / Insignia. And for some reason, they elected to not include the very useful clock features, as well as the many music options that are included on the 3.5" Oh - let's not forget its photo frame features. They are okay - I didn't have it long enough to look into the web-steaming options, which I assume work. But the basic slideshows were pretty basic, and couldn't compare to my Kodak Pulse frame. Again, maybe it's because I've been exposed to better executions, that I wasn't able to accept poor ones on the 8" infocast.

I bought this unit at the $99 sale price with intent of using a few apps including weather, sports news, stock ticker, photos, and clock. I did readily find the applications that I had intended and also found the setup to be relatively easy. I find the applications functionally alright but find that navigating to applications is not as straightforward as anticipated (my 11-year old son quickly picked it up so switching applications is less an issue of being intuitive versus being expedient). If you like Facebook you may like the application that scrolls through what your friends are posting and that lets you click to "like" and to respond. You may also like the app that displays photos within a single Facebook photo directory that you specify (I like this because it effectively works as a digital photo frame, showing whatever you load into your targeted Facebook photos folder). I like to see the weather forecast and radar as the family gets ready in the morning and find this valuable. Also like to see sports headlines and scores scroll by on gameday. The screen resolution is alright but not great. I give the unit a B grade overall. This is about the highest grade that I expected giving it for the price. Overall, it is kinda cool but don't look for anything to overwhelm you.

As a previous Chumby User, I was familiar with this gadget. Bigger screen, better sound. In all it is a great product, but one previous important feature is missing in edition. With the Chumby classic you can set the alarm clock to wake you up with music, may that be from a sd card, USB, fm radio, Internet radio, news, pandora, shoutcast etc etc. With this version firmware the only option is 5 different sounds, like beeps, rooster, gong etc. If this feature was included in the next update firmware this product would be a 5 star in it's category.