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Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

support.spotify.com

141–150 of 240 posts

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Situation: there are now 15 competing music streaming standards.

EU legislation on power chords gave us micro-USB phones, when USB-C could have been a better option, but a real solution would be let consumers decide inputs/outputs.

This is a fascinating misunderstanding of history. Were you not around when phones all had unique, non USB charging cables? It was a nightmare trying to charge a phone or device if you forgot your charger.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Situation: there are now 15 competing music streaming standards.

EU legislation on power chords gave us micro-USB phones, when USB-C could have been a better option, but a real solution would be let consumers decide inputs/outputs.

> EU legislation on power chords

Regular major and minor chords were unaffected though :)

(I actually started reading this comment as a pun, as in "The EU can regulate music streaming - they already regulated power chords", and that made me smile)

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#143
What the hell are they discontinuing? The hardware won't change. Streaming MP3 shouldn't be rocket science that requires 50 engineers.

Even if the internal API-s change, can't they just create mappings the devices need? They are not even willing to put that effort in.

So sad to see software companies treat hardware as a failed hobby project then flat out say customers to bring their devices to an e-waste dump like they do in their FAQ.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a very US-centric view or the world. If you make a decent amount of money you have to spend it on a car? Lots of people don’t care about cars and/or don’t spend a enough time in them to justify spending a lot on it.

What a weird critique. American or not, if you don't have a car you're probably not in the target market for a CarThing I purchased mine without any intent on using it in a car, and in fact I never did, but it was clear that I was engaging in out-of-bounds behavior in doing so.

The parent didn't say "no car" they said "cheap car". Most people can't afford to buy new cars.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#145
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a weird critique. American or not, if you don't have a car you're probably not in the target market for a CarThing I purchased mine without any intent on using it in a car, and in fact I never did, but it was clear that I was engaging in out-of-bounds behavior in doing so.

The American assumption is that cars are purchased new, and are recent enough to have integrated android auto/carplay.

Or it means that the people who can afford fast phones and expensive internet are capable of buying a $300 car stereo with AA/CP capability.

My 2001 Jeep Wrangler has both

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#146
post #135
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically how many people are going to bother reflashing their devices? This case is exceptional because it was EOLed so early, but for the typical phone that reaches EOL in 2 years I doubt more than 1% of people are going to make use of this ability.

You are saying you can reduce e waste by whole integer percent with a simple bit of legislation? That's a clear win.

>You are saying you can reduce e waste by whole integer percent with a simple bit of legislation?

Well no, because not all e-waste are devices that you can conceivably reflash. For instance a monitor equals at least 10 phones in terms of e-waste volume, but I doubt legislation like this is going to make a dent in monitor e-waste. The proposal only realistically makes a difference for computing devices with short EOL periods and locked bootloaders, so basically phones and tablets.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#147
post #138

[flagged]

Blaming the victim of a con is just intellectual elitism. Everyone, literally everyone is vulnerable to a con that's obvious to someone else.

Sure, tech cons are more obvious to us technical folk, but we have our own blind spots in other industries we are vulnerable to. (I cannot be as sure I I'm not being conned by construction, automotive, medical, or education industries, for example.)

Continue to hold the con artists in contempt, not their victims.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#148

> Thank you for being on this journey with us, safe travels. I miss the era when I was a customer paying for a product. Now I'm apparently some kind of traveller that's on a journey with dozens of companies as they try to find local maxima of profit.

At least they didn’t say it takes courage to brick a perfectly serviceable product.

That was last month.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#149
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a weird critique. American or not, if you don't have a car you're probably not in the target market for a CarThing I purchased mine without any intent on using it in a car, and in fact I never did, but it was clear that I was engaging in out-of-bounds behavior in doing so.

The parent didn't say "no car" they said "cheap car". Most people can't afford to buy new cars.

I was recently looking at starter cars for my daughter as a college graduation present, and I think you'd be surprised how far down-market those features have moved.

A brand new Toyota Corolla is $22k and comes with both. For older cars, you can get a nice stereo for $300. If you aren't an audiophile, probably $100.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#150
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American assumption is that cars are purchased new, and are recent enough to have integrated android auto/carplay.

Or it means that the people who can afford fast phones and expensive internet are capable of buying a $300 car stereo with AA/CP capability. My 2001 Jeep Wrangler has both

My phone plan costs $14/month and could power music indefinitely at high speeds. Notably, it's something I already have and already pay for.

$300 more for a new stereo is still a lot to many people. Plus, if I buy beater cars but put a nice stereo in them I'm at risk of theft. And I have to pay install fees again if I buy my next beater.

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