The Chumby, in case you’ve not stumbled across it before, is a quirky little internet device with a variety of talents, including displaying snippets of websites, audio/video playback and games. The device has a beautifully sharp little touchscreen and a wireless internet connection, all of which is improbably wrapped in a padded leather casing that makes this unique gadget look like the world’s most over-engineered Hacky Sack. (We’ll bring you a full review of the device later this week).

New features are added to the device by installing the free Widgets from the company’s awesomely intutive website. These are a bit like the Widgets you install on the Windows Vista/7 desktop, with a vast selection of more than 1,000 apps, covering categories ranging from stock quotes, to email, to sports results to the downright bizarre. Many of the Widgets are naturally US-focused, and hopefully the developer community will set about creating some more UK-specific apps now that the company has decided to start shipping the Chumby to foreign shores.

However, there are certainly enough to get the ball rolling for early adopters.  Here’s our top ten apps for British Chumby owners, and at the foot of the list you can see what they look like on a virtual Chumby:

1. UK TRAIN TIMES

Here’s a deliciously handy little app for commuters. Head over to the National Rail website and find the three-letter code for your train station, enter it into the Chumby, and you’ll be presented with a live timetable of trains leaving your station. A great way to check if you’ve got time for another cup of coffee before leaving the house of a morning.

2. GMAIL VIEWER

An eays way to check if you’ve got any unread mail sat in your Gmail account. Tap on the message to read the full email, although you’ll need to revert to your PC or smartphone to compose a reply, as there’s no on-screen keyboard facility.

3. FLICKR PHOTO VIEWER

This widget effectively turns your Chumby into a no-fuss digital photo frame. Enter the details of your Flickr account, and the Chumby displays a smooth-scrolling slideshow of your digital snaps. You can also set the Widget to show your friends’ photos, or those from random members of the public, if you’ve got nothing worth showing off in your own collection.

4. ORB STREAMER

Download the free Orb software on to your PC, and you can stream video stored on the machine direct to your Chumby. Alas, protected WMV files won’t play, so forget about turning the Chumby into a iPlayer set, but most other video files work without a hitch.

5. LONDON SHOP FRONTS

One from the bizarre pile. A collection of photographs of London corner-shop fronts, that have an enthralling, Martin Parr-esque charm of their own. Certainly a talking point when they go flashing past in a slideshow. (Picture credit: Emily Webber from London Shop Fronts)

6. CHUMBY RSS READER

The Chumby can display headlines and snippets from pretty much any news site on the web, with the RSS Reader. Irritatingly, you can only enter one RSS address into the widget, meaning you’ll need to install the widget several times if you want multiple feeds. It only take a second or two, so it’s hardly the greatest hardship in the world.

7. BBC2 CLOCK

One of a series of retro television clocks (don’t ask, I have no idea why), the BBC2 Clock is a gloriously nostalgic 1970s throwback, with its swirling bubble print and hideous black-and-orange colour scheme. Will look right at home next to a lava lamp.

8. LONDON TUBE STATIONS

A mini-depiction of the electronic displays you see as you walk into one of London’s major Tube stations, with regularly updated details of delays, strikes or engineering works on the Tube lines. As with the Train Times Widget, it could well prevent a commute from hell.

9. CEEFAX VIEWER

Another one for nostalgia buffs, the Ceefax Viewer converts the BBC’s television text service into a Chumby Widget. Brilliantly, you can adjust the Widget’s settings to access the Ceefax pages of your choice – 101 for news headlines, 302 for the latest football news – which are updated live. Both bewildering and brilliant.

10. BUBBLE WRAP

One of the many mini-games, the immensly satisfying Bubble Wrap does exactly as you’d expect. Poke a bubble with your finger and it pops. Pointless, yet irrestible.

VIRTUAL CHUMBY

To give you a better idea of what these apps look like and how the Chumby works, you can see them demonstated below. The Widgets simply rotate in turn, unless you touch the screen and start interacting with them (in real life, not this Flash demo).