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Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

arstechnica.com

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Re: Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

#301

Post by x0x0 »

bell-cot wrote: post #281
fragmede wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their financial incentive is negative. They were hoping to force everyone to buy new speakers, driving sales. But if the community is able to get open source firmware to run spotifyd on them, there is a non-zero (not everyone, but it's non-zero) amount of people that will just not buy new speakers from them.

> Their financial incentive is negative. They were hoping to force... Maybe? People stuck with Bose bricks might show a preference for non-Bose replacements. People who thought Bose speakers would stay useful longer might prefer Bose, or be willing to pay for a more expensive Bose speaker model. (Yes, I agree that some PHB's at Bose were almost certainly imagining that their customers would be forced to re-purchase B…

From talking to friends and family, so n=10-ish, non-computer people have not realized that sticking computers in things means they die on computer lifetimes, not appliance lifetimes. No more switches that last for the life of the house; no more speakers that your kids can do modest maintenance to and keep using.

Re: Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

#302

Post by com2kid »

filoleg wrote: post #259
com2kid wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until the rest of the market caught up, Bose's noise cancelling algorithms were top notch. As soon as Apple entered the fray a bunch of money was thrown at the problem, the bar was raised, and now good quality noise cancelling is the norm. But for awhile Bose's headphones had the best noise cancelling out there. Their old ads were super irritating though, and many people (such as you and me!) are still irritated abou…

> Until the rest of the market caught up, Bose's noise cancelling algorithms were top notch. As soon as Apple entered the fray a bunch of money was thrown at the problem, the bar was raised, and now good quality noise cancelling is the norm. A minor nitpick: while Apple entering the ANC arena certainly set fire under the existing mainstream brands to improve their ANC headphones, imo Bose started facing serious compe…

I had forgotten about Sony. They were indeed going back and forth with Bose on who could make the highest quality ANC.

I actually had a pair of Sennheiser noise cancelling headphones and they had a really good BT implementation, super low latency and the ANC was really good. Sadly they developed a persistent hiss in one earpiece.

Re: Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

#303

Post by kelnos »

fragmede wrote: post #270
banannaise wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't punish the behavior you want to see. Would we rather they defaulted there? Sure. But it's arguably an even better signal to see that they're willing to listen to their customers even when there is no direct financial incentive for them.

Their financial incentive is negative. They were hoping to force everyone to buy new speakers, driving sales. But if the community is able to get open source firmware to run spotifyd on them, there is a non-zero (not everyone, but it's non-zero) amount of people that will just not buy new speakers from them.

It's not negative, though, or at least they don't think so. The fact that they are doing this OSS release means that they believe any loss of new sales would be dwarfed by a loss of goodwill if they'd bricked the old devices.

Certainly goodwill is harder to quantify.

Re: Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

#304

Post by daseiner1 »

wwweston wrote: post #295
filoleg wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bose should not receive praise for this move. Bose only took this action after community backlash. They received the backlash, they responded to it by properly addressing the criticism and doing the right thing. It should be praised. Especially since it wasn't some PR-centric damage control, but an actual direct address of the specific points their original approach was criticized for. Compare Bose's response to th…

And some people have been advocating for Apple to do something similar with old iPhones and tablets for a decade, and there’s no sign. Their privilege but not great for the world.

Would you elaborate? Because my understanding is that Apple has offered outstanding support for older devices in terms of iOS support for quite old devices.

Re: Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

#307

Post by awesome_dude »

daseiner1 wrote: post #304
wwweston wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some people have been advocating for Apple to do something similar with old iPhones and tablets for a decade, and there’s no sign. Their privilege but not great for the world.

Would you elaborate? Because my understanding is that Apple has offered outstanding support for older devices in terms of iOS support for quite old devices.

Whilst the support might be "outstanding" - the discussion is what happens once devices are no longer supported.

Re: Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

#309

Post by BizarroLand »

bell-cot wrote: post #281
fragmede wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their financial incentive is negative. They were hoping to force everyone to buy new speakers, driving sales. But if the community is able to get open source firmware to run spotifyd on them, there is a non-zero (not everyone, but it's non-zero) amount of people that will just not buy new speakers from them.

> Their financial incentive is negative. They were hoping to force... Maybe? People stuck with Bose bricks might show a preference for non-Bose replacements. People who thought Bose speakers would stay useful longer might prefer Bose, or be willing to pay for a more expensive Bose speaker model. (Yes, I agree that some PHB's at Bose were almost certainly imagining that their customers would be forced to re-purchase B…

And, if I, a non-Bose customer, hear that Bose open sourced a previous version of their speaker, which gives me some confidence that a present purchase might be somewhat future-proofed, then I am more likely to buy a new Bose product vs a competitor who does not provide sources.

Re: Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers

#310

Post by schrijver »

Teckla wrote: post #75
DiabloD3 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bose hardware quality is rather low and, and their sound quality is sub-par, while forcing you to pay the Bose brand tax, riding the corpse of Amar around for profit. I'd avoid, even if they happened to do this.

My experience is the opposite: Bose hardware and sound quality seems excellent to me. This may be subjective. Bose might sound good to some people's ears and less good to other people's ears.

People keep bringing dead Bose bluetooth speakers to our repair café. These are a lot more expensive than the competitors. Bose has a reputation so people think they’ll last longer, but they don’t, they’ll fail just out of warranty just like cheaper brands. They also don’t sound meaningfully better. And they’re not at all engineered to be repaired. I’d avoid.

I personally prefer corded headphones and mains powered speakers, but if I were to buy a small wireless speaker I would buy a cheaper brand and ideally second hand, because this category of devices are basically consumables.

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