Idk who needs to hear it, but stop buying this shit. If it has a computer inside, but you can’t flash your own software onto it, just pass. If you’re unsure, look around, find the nearest Linux user and ask for help.
You won’t even have to ask if they use Linux, they’ll tell you.
Nobara btw.
Arch users, assemble!
And my Arch!
And my… hang on, I just need to apply this tweak from the wiki…
And my axe!
Hey, not all of us Debian users are lesbians.
It would be more accurate to call us lovers of lesbians.
…yet.
To be fair, next to no one bought this. And the people that payed $90 for this are probably not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
This is basically a dumb android device with one app - an auto friendly version of Spotify. To use it, you need to pair it to your phone via Bluetooth. So, yeah, it assumes you have a phone in your car with Spotify on it.
Also it costs about as much as a cheap externally mounted CarPlay or Android auto screen. So, yeah. Not great.
If you want to put auto friendly app UIs in an older car, go get a cheap CarPlay or AA display. Those are platforms that have been around for a decade, and Apple & Google have long partnership agreements with automakers that are likely to ensure those platforms will be supported for years to come. Hell, Apple is still supporting ancient iPod connection protocols 20+ years later.
This thing was the Rabbit R1, but for a music streaming app.
the people that payed $90 for this are probably not the sharpest knives in the drawer
maybe, but even stupid people should be protected from being taken advantage of.
They should at least get a refund of 50% of the purchase price.Honestly this thing solved a very specific problem for me: My car has no good way to mount a phone for car usage so I’ve always kept it in the center console. Car Thing just put a remote on my dash for that with buttons for presets and easy song skipping.
I only got it for $10 though, and that was two years ago. It has convinced me to get a new head unit with Android Auto support on it for sure
Everybody buy your music. These streaming platforms are trash.
Yes, yes buy. Do not sail the high seas.
I want the bands to get some money. I buy from bandcamp when musicians are sensible enough to sell on there, or on their sites.
I wish list stuff until a Bandcamp Friday comes around where artists get all the money. I’ve stopped buying physical media, so waiting on a digital purchase isn’t an issue for me.
Bandcamp was sold off, no point using them going forward.
The site is still the same, you still get your music to download, the band still gets most of the money. 100% still a point in using them.
Dude Bandcamp had been sold twice and the product has not changed from a user experience and I only use Bandcamp at this point…I will say you NEED to download anything you buy to archive your collection but at the moment Bandcamp still pays bands, still allows unlimited streaming and still amazing.
Do I expect it to remain amazing…nope, but for now it’s still amazing.
There are three morbillion songs and I have no idea which ones I like. Streaming platforms became popular for a reason
Yeah most people don’t care to maintain a local music library. It’s a lot of work and compared to streaming services that do it for you this offers no real benefit. If you listen to lots of new/different music all the time, streaming is actually far cheaper.
I love buying CDs on eBay.
I also love buying direct downloads from artists.
Plex[Amp] makes this work in my pocket
Everybody
buypirate your music. These streaming platforms are trash.
Spotify is an evil company. Bad for artists, bad for consumers. I’m glad to have quit using their service.
What do you use instead?
Plex/Plexamp/synfonium + Tidal + QoBuz + Bandcamp
Local SSD
This was predictable. Everyone has a phone. Phones have CarPlay and Android Auto.
The fact that they named it “Car Thing” made it clear that it didn’t have much of a valid use and that they didn’t really have a lot of confidence in it.
It’s annoying that they even created it in the first place. It’s more annoying that they now predictably are not supporting it anymore. It should be illegal.
These fuckers disabled car mode in the android app to make you buy one of those and now they’re killing it. I used car mode in my car and the moment it stopped working was when I cancelled my subscription.
What did car mode do? Was it when it switched to big old buttons? Mine used to do that until I got Android Auto in my new car…so up until about a year ago
Yep exactly that. My car back then didn’t have Android Auto and this was the only way to skip tracks while keeping my eyes on the road.
Edit: looks like they brought it back later: https://www.xda-developers.com/spotify-car-mode-testing/
When did they kill car mode on the app? I’ve been subscribed for years even before the Car Thing and I always have car mode on even outside of my car.
imo they should refund everyone who bought one and collect all the devices to recycle.
I’m waiting for some FOSS developers to hack this thing and run custom firmware on it. Or someone who creates their own “Car Thing” using an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.
Even Google products have a longer lifespan 😖
I’ve since moved on to Tidal. Bought it at $30 when root mods started to be developed, but never really went anywhere.
Image alt:
- 2021-04-13: Interested in car thing
- 2022-10-18: order placed after discounted to $30
- 2022-10-21: shipped
- 2024-05-23: Discontinue notice
- 2024-12-09: Service discontinued
The bastards barely started selling it a few years ago. I feel like some responsibility should exist. It isn’t a company that is going under, so it shouldn’t be able to just casually kill the devices tied-service it only recently sold.
Agreed. Anything sold with the intention of being used with a subscription service should have 10 years of support.
I bought this for my old Cadillac that only had a tape deck and it was amazing (with a Bluetooth cassette). I haven’t used it since I got rid of that old Cadillac about two years ago now. Pretty limited use case but it still sucks to kill shit for no reason.
I didn’t know Bluetooth cassettes were a thing, although if I think about it then of course they are. What’s the sound quality like?
We need new laws y’all. All these companies should be forced to collect all their e-waste as part of their products lifecycle.
If a company produces any product and the company has a market cap over $1billion, then they should be responsible for collecting and recycling all their trash.
