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Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

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Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#151

Post by mindslight »

Galatians4_16 wrote: post #118
talldayo wrote: post #113

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.

A regulation requiring companies to "let consumers decide inputs/outputs" would be much more burdensome than merely standardizing one specific connector per ~decade. With the compactness of modern devices, they'd basically have to spin a new board for every connector type a consumer might what. But you're right - it would be kind of neat if I could have Google make me a new Pixel 8 with the bespoke data connector from my old SPH-A580, so I'd finally once again have a use for that cable that's just sitting around in a box. This is what you meant, right?

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#152

Post by rhplus »

raverbashing wrote: post #97
infecto wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its less about high-end/low-end, after all carplay did not hit Toyota until around 2018. Its simply that you still need a phone to use the device, might as well connect your phone to your cars audio and use your phones screen.

But the real question is why brick it? What requires so much maintenance?

DevOps, monitoring, support costs, ongoing security burden. You can’t just ship a device specific API anymore and call it done. Those services will have at least monthly security updates, plus all the shimming and API back-compact work that has to be done as the backend Spotify services change.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#153

Post by rhplus »

infecto wrote: post #95
rhplus wrote: post #93

Not surprising, given the awkward position the product was in, targeting customers who don’t already have CarPlay or Android Auto (lower end of the market), but are also willing to pay for Spotify Premium and a good smartphone data plan (higher end of the market).

I think its less about high-end/low-end, after all carplay did not hit Toyota until around 2018. Its simply that you still need a phone to use the device, might as well connect your phone to your cars audio and use your phones screen.

That’s the crux of it. Someone already paying for Spotify and practically any smartphone can just buy a car mount and get pretty much the same experience. My high/low comment missed the mark. Someone in that position (without CarPlay) is more likely buy a $20 mount for their phone than a $100 one-trick pony device.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#154

Post by boringg »

rchaud wrote: post #53
dgellow wrote: post #37

Off topic, but I cannot resist to comment on that line under the headline: > By Chris Welch, a reviewer specializing in personal audio and home theater. Since 2011, he has published nearly 6,000 articles, from breaking news and reviews to useful how-tos So 13 years, that’s around 460 publications per year. That sounds pretty high, you would have to be writing non stop for more than a decade. I know nothing about the…

A "publication"in the digital media space includes 200 word blog posts, many of which simply link to other blog posts for the details. In any case, the "website writer" jobs are known for overwork and low pay, so these numbers are par for the course.

Do tweets of a certain length qualify?

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#155

Post by bmelton »

yareal wrote: post #150
bmelton wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This just further illustrates OP's point, of how very limited this market segment must be

The buyers of this product are people who:

  - spend enough time in their car to want streaming audio

  - spend money on phone and internet 

  - have a desire to improve their car to have streaming audio

  - but not enough to replace the car

  - and also not enough to replace the stereo

  - but definitely enough to pay money to add it

  - and are willing to remove the item they are paying for every time they leave the car to prevent its attractiveness to thieves

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#156

Post by rchaud »

boringg wrote: post #154
rchaud wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "publication"in the digital media space includes 200 word blog posts, many of which simply link to other blog posts for the details. In any case, the "website writer" jobs are known for overwork and low pay, so these numbers are par for the course.

Do tweets of a certain length qualify?

A lot of blog post content gets repurposed as tweets, so it would be the other way around.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#157

Post by ornornor »

snapcaster wrote: post #111

What are the actual practical nuts and bolts problems with making bricking devices like this illegal? Someone in comments mentioned licensing contracts and things that might require them to but that seems resolvable. This seems so anti-social, anti-environment and not even benefitting them selfishly. Just a waste

I suspect it’s just a matter of it being easier to tell people to bin it than going through the hurdles of opening it (legal, drm, engineering, getting a budget, publishing instructions…) Plus doing anything at all beyond pulling the plug sounds like it will cost some amount of money (no matter how little) so someone somewhere will have to convince bean counters to allocate a budget for and capacity it.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#158

Post by Nextgrid »

gruez wrote: post #125
mkopec wrote: post #94

I firmly believe that permanent key fusing to lock bootloaders should be outlawed. At the very least the keys (and schematics) should be released once the device reaches EOL. Otherwise we're just manufacturing e-waste.

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.

It's a chicken and egg problem. There isn't much firmware being developed for these devices because there is no easy path for users to install them.

If installing alternative/third-party firmware becomes easy and normalized, there will also be more options to choose from, because it will actually become worthwhile for people/companies to develop said firmware.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#159

Post by ornornor »

tiborsaas wrote: post #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 th…

> 50 engineers

50?? Try 1600+ (from https://engineering.atspotify.com/opensource/)

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#160

Post by SkyPuncher »

Sanzig wrote: post #58
lotsofpulp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can probably get a really nice wireless CarPlay compatible head unit installed by a local shop for less than $1.5k to $2k. https://www.crutchfield.com/g_300/All-Car-Stereos.html

You don't need to spend that much, especially if you DIY the install. I installed a cheap Linux based head unit (ATOTO F7 WE) in my wife's old commuter car last weekend. $180 Canadian for the head unit, $25 for an aftermarket wiring harness adapter. Took a few hours to splice the harness together and install the head unit in the dash. The head unit's software is definitely a little janky, but it doesn't really matter…

I out one of these ATOTO head units in an old jeep I bought.

It works extremely well.

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