Chumby Industries may have folded back in April 2012, but the community has been keeping the widget platform up and running ever since. Last month, news came that funding for the project had all but dried up, and the 40,000 devices still using the service were at risk of becoming litlte more than paperweights. Unfortunately, the widget platform has now shut down, but the company that bought what remained of Chumby Industries, Blue Octy, has managed to keep some semblance of service running.

Blue Octy has performed a full backup of users' data, and created a "stub" service that allows devices to boot up, authenticate, set alarms, and play music. The company says its "strong hope" is that the limited service will only be temporary: it's currently working out the economics to keep a "sustainable" service running. Whether than means a Chumby supported by ads or a subscription service is unclear, but we'll keep you posted on any development.