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Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

arstechnica.com

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Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#31

Post by smallerfish »

dylan604 wrote: post #10

"Some remain frustrated by the scheduled obsolescence of hardware that was only released to the general public in February 2022. Car Thing first released to a limited number of subscribers in October 2021." What is the purpose of this device in the first place? In 2021/2022, smart phones with bluetooth or usb/audio cables were in full effect which is how I'm assuming >99.999% of users use Spotify. Were there Spotify…

I used it side by side with Android Auto, before split screen was released. I'd have the map full screen on my head unit, and the car thing on the dashboard controlling spotify playback.

I haven't checked for this - does anybody know whether the car thing has the "safety pause" that the spotify app has on Android Auto? If not, that would be enough reason to use it by itself.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#33

Post by croes »

bravetraveler wrote: post #21
complaintdept wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Write your elected representatives, preferably by snail mail (they take it more seriously that way). With Right to Repair being talked about so much right now, the time could be right to get this into the public mind. Car Thing could be what nucleates anti bricking legislation.

Conversely, stop voting for people that need coerced to their job. I know this is reductive - save your fingers. Write, but do the not-vote-thing if they don't listen. The desire to not be hoodwinked has already been expressed. Just not this specific way. Or, expressed more positively I guess, vote for those who don't need goaded to do the obviously good thing.

How does the not-vote-thing help?

The result is calculated on the basis of the votes cast.

So if you have 10 votes of 20 possible you get 50%, if 5 don't vote it's 10 out of 15 = 66.6%

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#34

Post by Mountain_Skies »

bravetraveler wrote: post #21
complaintdept wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Write your elected representatives, preferably by snail mail (they take it more seriously that way). With Right to Repair being talked about so much right now, the time could be right to get this into the public mind. Car Thing could be what nucleates anti bricking legislation.

Conversely, stop voting for people that need coerced to their job. I know this is reductive - save your fingers. Write, but do the not-vote-thing if they don't listen. The desire to not be hoodwinked has already been expressed. Just not this specific way. Or, expressed more positively I guess, vote for those who don't need goaded to do the obviously good thing.

That's a good idea in theory but most people have dozens of issues that are important to them and there's rarely a candidate for office who is aligned with them on everything, so they have to pick which issues are their most important. And of course their position on every possible issue isn't know when evaluating candidates. Some change their position after being elected. Sometimes issues come up that weren't really considered to be an issue at the time of the election.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#36

Post by ActionHank »

Ekaros wrote: post #22

I have to admit at least Google handled the Stadia well in this regard. The money just got refunded to me without me taking any action at all.

Both were pretty lame tbh.

What would be ideal is to open up devices to be flashed with custom FW or OS installs and some rudimentary docs on doing so. That would be enough for the community to run with it if there is sufficient demand and value.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#37

Post by Retric »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #27
bravetraveler wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, stop voting for people that need coerced to their job. I know this is reductive - save your fingers. Write, but do the not-vote-thing if they don't listen. The desire to not be hoodwinked has already been expressed. Just not this specific way. Or, expressed more positively I guess, vote for those who don't need goaded to do the obviously good thing.

Why not go even farther than that? Admit political knowledge is virtually impossible, and just stop engaging in the political process at all. Save your time and energy for something easier, like cutting edge theoretical physics or becoming a billionaire. Such is the point argued by Dr. Mike Huemer in his essay In Praise of Passivity [1], and to this date I've never found a clearer piece of writing on the matter. [1]:…

What passivity ignores is non voters get screwed over by politicians.

In California in 2022 voting by age breaks down:

  29% or   900,000 18-24 year olds
  43% or 1,970,000 25-34 year olds
  51% or 2,132,000 35-44 year olds
  56% or 4,343,000 45-54 year olds
  66% or 3,699,000 65+   year olds
So it’s obvious what kinds of things to focus on. Other states get even more extreme only 14% of 18-24 year olds voted in WV.

https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/number-of-individu...

Slice up the population is a few ways and there’s many categories best ignored.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#38

Post by elaus »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #32

If every customer is entitled to a refund then why isn't it automatic and automated? There needs to be a term for this kind of malicious refund policy that does everything possible to prevent you from claiming it.

The account in another comments makes it clear why it's done like that: To get a refund you not only have to talk to support (i.e. spending quite some time in some chat interface), then escalate the issue (talking to another support agent once more) and THEN you might get your money.

I guess only a very small fraction of people will do this, making it a very cheap way for Spotify to stop any negative press regarding this issue.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#40

Post by Gasp0de »

dylan604 wrote: post #18
nerdawson wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The slightly clumsy wording would indicate to me that it's a real person rather than a chatbot.

That slightly clumsy wording is what made me think it was a chatbot

We live in a time where AI chatbots speak way better english than outsourced support workers in 3rd world countries.
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