The single app is the blue clock. Beyond that, you have to pay for your apps. You can test them out for free on the website, however.

With all due respect, and keeping in mind it's been a long day...

I guess I'm not understanding your "bait and switch" scenario.  You bought a device from Insignia (a division of Best Buy) that was supported by a company that went out of business nearly three years ago.  I made nothing from that transaction.

I personally created and paid for the service at my sole expense to continue to support the device you brought from someone else, for over a year.  Your device has been querying the server on a regular basis, and I have provided access to several music services, and provided that clock and the Control Panel that presents the alarms and the rest of the functionality you have been using.  Without these services, you'd have just had a brick all this time.

I simply cannot afford to do that any more, but I recognize that there isn't enough value in the single app use case to justify asking for reimbursement (though many folks have been generous with donations).  So, I built a system that gives you everything you had before these companies either went out of business or abandoned the product, and am simply asking you to reimburse my costs of providing that service to you should you decide to use it.  Otherwise, you can continue to use the device as you have been, at no charge to you, even though still at my expense.

How exactly did *I* bait and switch anything for you?

That's a fair response. And kudos, I didn't realize it was a brick with out your server. I suppose that's not entirely true, as their are plenty Linux hacks out there... But I get your point.

My frustration really lies in the value for me. I simply don't want to pay $3 a month for an LCARS clock. $3 one time, would be alright.

Out of curiosity, is there a way I could run a server in my home to do the same thing?

The bait and switch probably isn't fair to you. So I'm sorry about that.

I will look into possible solutions to this issue.

Thanks, it's sincerely appreciated.

Hate to pile on here, but calling the $3 fee "bait and switch" is hardly reasonable. Ways to fund the Chumby service have been discussed here hundreds of times over the past year+. It's not like this is some sleight of hand trick suddenly thrust upon us. You still can't buy an internet radio for anything close to the price of a Chumby. All of our Chumbys performed up to original expectations for free long beyond their warranty periods. Same as a car or anything else under warranty, do you really expect free service for years after your warranty runs out? C'mon folks, this is just the first step in what may be a long journey to make Chumbys live again. I'm sure there will be refinements, but let's go easy on these marvelous volunteers for a while at least. If you complain about the clock face for non-subscribers, you get (more than) you pay for. The silly threat "to leave the online servers and use an offline version" would certainly be appreciated rather taking a free ride on Blue Octy's bandwidth. BTW, I just tried turning down the brightness on (free clock) Chumby and gives the illusion of a little more contrast in daylight. The regular settings look fine in indoor lighting... although I certainly think the subscription price is fair.

I am happy to pay the 3 dollar fee, but I do hope this re-release increases community interest in localized third-party software that will let users move widgets onto the device without a central authority.

If that doesn't happen that's fine, the system as is is great and we appreciate all the hard work, Duane! The non-sub clock is okay, I agree the colours could use tweaking. But you get what you pay for!

LONG LIVE THE CHUMBY!

I think your solution might be the most reasonable so far. If the people behind Chumby don't want to make a whole new clock face then being able to adjust the color palette might be a good compromise.
I wrote about my displeasure of the current free clock face here: http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?pid=50473#p50473
I don't get how the current one was picked for being more legible than the old Space Clock.
It's too bad there was no vote or some sort of community submission process to pick the free version.

I am sorry for the few ungrateful ones who pooh pooh what is actually quite an unusual feat by Duane. He took a dead device and made it come alive again. Duane (of course with the help of other volunteers) has made it possible to even have a chumby world at all. Maybe it is the climate of entitlement that has made people expect so much for nothing. Fact: There is no such thing as a free product or service. It costs somebody something. Somebody pays for everything. I don't think Duane should pay for providing service for the 40,000 or so chumbys (and infocasts) because he happened to have been associated with the company for a while. Duane was NOT Chumby when all these units were made. Duane acquired the rights of the company and properties with no strings attached. I suspect that anyone who does not like the very generous set-up for this device can quit using it and sell it to someone who would be glad to pay for the service. I guess I get pretty tired of the cry babies.

you're always encouraged to buy stickers in the chumby store to add extra money to the survivability of the service.

Let me again apologize. I didn't realize the costs Duane was under going to keep the service running even to support the LCARS Space Clock and the Music functions of the Chumby/Infocast.

The "Bait and Switch" comment was unfair. Though I think Duane is certainly appreciative of the situation a few of us are in. We only really want one app for our one Chumby device.

As I've posted before. I'd be happy to pay a one time fee for that service, I just don't want to pay a recurring fee just to have a clock. I may pursue other options like buying the Sony Dash, and loading the Space Clock on it.

I also don't think I appreciated until now how the Chumby service truly works. I really thought the Widgets loaded to the device, and didn't need to constantly need to phone home. This is less than desirable for me, as I'd love to load it once, and not have it contact the Chumby.com again, or instead run my own home server for the Chumby services.

Thank you Duane for all your hard work, and for hearing me out.

Although I wish the original service had not gone out of business, and so this would be free for "life," I am also thrilled that someone took the reigns and has done something so that the hardware isn't just a brick.

And better yet, if you want to use your device without paying, you can still use it as a fantastic alarm clock for FREE. Given that without the help, this would be a $1 piece of junk at the next garage sale, I'm quite happy.

IMHO, the current situation is less than we might have hoped when Chumby was in business, but is WAY more than we could have expected save for some great work by an enterprising individual.