PreCentral: Turn your phone into a Star Trek communicator

[News Reporter]

If you are a Star Trek fan and have ever owned a webOS phone with a slide out keyboard, chances are that you have been reminded of the old school communicators from the original Star Trek series whenever you

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. If you want to take your to the next level, you need to install Star Trek Communicator, by Nate Craddock. Star Trek Communicator is free in the official App Catalog and allows you to turn your phone into a communicator, tricorder, medical scanner or phaser from the original series, complete with fun animations and sound clips from the show.

But where this app really shines is in the communicator mode. When you can swipe up or down on the screen to "turn on" the communicator, the app makes the appropriate activation sound and you press some of the on-screen button to hear sound clips from members of the Enterprise crew. Swipe up or down again and to turn the communicator off. The app can also activate or deactivate the communicator--along with associated beeps and sounds--by simply sliding the keyboard open or shut, respectively, assuming your phone has a slide out keyboard (in other words, you are out of luck if you own a Pixi).

And with the beauty of the way multitasking works on webOS, the app does not even need to be active for it to work. So, just leave the Communicator running in the background and every time you open or close the keyboard you get to pretend that your webOS phone is from the 23rd century!

Want a little extra fun with the app? Go to the phaser section and use the sliding wheel on the bottom-left of the screen to set your phaser to the maximum setting. Wait about 30 seconds and be ready for bit of a boom.

is available in the webOS App Catalog for free and is compatible with all webOS devices running webOS 1.4.5 or higher. Live long and prosper.