Android Tricorder Killed By CBS 247
First time accepted submitter josn writes "Today I found out that Moonlight's Tricorder app, which I always install on Android devices, is gone. Google received a DMCA letter from CBS. I think it is a shame that CBS thinks it needs to kill a free and open source project giving a ad-less app. I, for one, sent a message to CBS explaining that this fan-supported app is not bad, but good for them, and asked them to reconsider. I hope, especially for the author, who must have spent a lot of time on this app, that they do."
Re:Another reason not to develop android apps (Score:5, Informative)
Re:For information about what it was (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Lame! (Score:5, Informative)
No, but last night I had it installed when I wiped & installed a later ROM. When it got through auto-reinstalling my backed up apps from Market, Tricorder was no longer there :(
Just goes to show, ya gotta back up your software locally (In this case, the .apks); can't trust a vendor to store it for you.
Re:Damn (Score:3, Informative)
Klingon cruisers are definitely equipped with photon torpedoes in-canon; they use they against V'Ger in ST:TMP. Birds of Prey fire torpedoes in ST6. It is a cloaked Bird of Prey that fires while cloaked, so its possible previous variations were different; Christopher Lloyd'd (Kruge's) ship in ST3 destroyed the Grissom with an undisclosed weapon that were probably disruptors, though later, after being damaged it alternates and fires what are almost definitely torpedoes.
Re:Lame! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Lame! (Score:3, Informative)
"Unknown Sources" has nothing to do with using adb install. It will work whether or not you have "Unknown Sources" checked or not. That is only if you want to allow other applications on the device to install applications e.g. allow the browser to install an apk that it downloaded, or allow a third party market application to install an application.
LCARS is the problem (Score:5, Informative)
The summary includes a link to the wiki article about it being killed by lawyers. This in turn includes the text of the DMCA takedown notice. Take a look:
Now, I used to have an app on my Palm PDA that pretended to be a tricorder but didn't actually do anything (other than make some chirp noises and display various jokes). That's not what this is; this "tricorder" app displays the outputs from various sensors on an Android phone. You can get a magnetic compass, sound data from the microphone, GPS data, etc. The DMCA takedown isn't about this functionality, but just about the LCARS interface.
The solution is obvious: reskin the app, using an Android sort of theme, and for extra safety change the name. The result shouldn't bother CBS anymore.
I don't even really like LCARS much.
P.S. I presume that CBS will go after the people who install LCARS themes on their desktops. What a waste of time.
steveha
Contract violation? (Score:3, Informative)
According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder In Gene Roddenberry contract if any of the technology in star trek gets invented they can use the name free of charge. Is it that now he is gone they will ignore that part of there original contract?
Re:And now (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Another reason not to develop android apps (Score:4, Informative)
The app is surprisingly useful: accelerometer, audio spectrum analyzer, compass to name a few... it does everything you'd expect a "real" tricorder to do, with the only limitations being the phone hardware.
exactly, it is surprisingly useful. Surely it's possible for the app author to have the app exist just without a lCars skin? (maybe someone else can make one)
I mean, seriously, fuck you CBS, for ending my last bit of nerdiness fun with Star Trek. CBS have well and truly killed the innocent fun of ST more effectively than any Borg could. If I could shit in their mouths I would for the crap that dribbles of their chins.
Thank you moonblink for giving us this app while we could have it, and I will continue to enjoy it on my droid while I can. However it is OSS, where can I get the source and can you GPL 3 the shit out of it so that, somehow, CBS can't use the code base?
If Star Trek was a real utopian future, it would be an Open Source one I simply couldn't imaging a situation below happening