As we’ve mentioned before, the squishy widget-gadget Chumby is now available in Australia through Internode. Unfortunately, as we’ve also mentioned before, all of the widgets that can be used on the Chumby are US-centric and the lack of widgets made specifically for Australia might hamper the gadget’s success in the country.

As a part of the solution to the problem, Internode has launched a Chumby widget development competition that calls for Australia-centric widget entries from everyone, even those who don’t have Chumby units. There will be two winners: a grand prize that will be decided by vote and a runner-up chosen by Simon Hackett, Managing Director of Internode. Both winners will get their own Chumby; the grand prize winner also gets a copy of Adobe Flash CS4 Professional and $800 internode credits while the runner up gets $200 Internode credit.

Via GIZ AU

Chumby is arriving in Oz via ISP Internode and will probably not be available in any retailers, at least not yet. Even if you’re not using Internode as an ISP though, you can still grab the Linux-based Chumby for $299 and dress it up (by changing the leather, I presume) by picking up outfits from Internode for $39 per. A valid concern would be that majority of widgets for the Chumby is US-centric, but Internode is hoping that the device can bring out the widget-making ninja in every tech-loving Australian and fill the gaping hole.

Via GIZ AU