Spotify is killing Car Thing display. Ask users to recycle the units.

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https://support.spotify.com/us/article/car-thing-discontinued/

Car Thing discontinued
Car Thing is our first hardware product that allows users to control Spotify through car speakers when connected to a phone by using both voice recognition and preset buttons.

We have made the decision to discontinue Car Thing. This means that Car Thing will no longer be operational. This decision wasn’t made lightly, and we want to assure you that our commitment to providing a superior listening experience remains unchanged…

We recommend resetting your Car Thing to factory settings and safely disposing of your device following local electronic waste guidelines…

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Don’t pay good money for any item (tangible or otherwise) that depends on the continued availability of third-party support for its continued usability. We see this all the time… you “buy” something, with the implication being that you can use it forever, like other things you buy, but then some company changes its mind and the thing you bought is worthless. It could be a movie or music content you “bought” on some streaming service (their word, not mine), only to have them remove it later. Without a refund, of course, or even an apology for them lying when they told you you were “buying” the thing.

It could be a piece of software or a piece of hardware like this one. The vendors all want to get in on the subscription model to keep you paying each month, but when they’re done with it, they just toss it aside, and all that money you spent is “too bad, so sad.”

You have to assume that anything that you buy on a subscription model, or that depends on someone else’s computer to be there to serve the content, will at some point be unceremoniously cut off. Keep that in mind when you decide to buy it. The thing that is useless without their servers to connect to could become useless the day after you bought it.

I cannot imagine a circumstance where I would buy hardware that depends on some service that I cannot guarantee will be there in order to work. When I signed up for Dish Network, they provided the dish and the satellite box inside at no additional cost. If they decided to cut off the service one day, which is not very likely, I would not be left with hardware I paid for that I could not use. If the hardware or software needs your specific service to work, then give it to me for free as long as I pay the monthly fee to use your service.

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Ascaris wrote:

Don’t pay good money for any item (tangible or otherwise) that depends on the continued availability of third-party support for its continued usability.

Wasn’t it first/second-party support in this case?

Ascaris wrote:

I cannot imagine a circumstance where I would buy hardware that depends on some service that I cannot guarantee will be there in order to work.

Was “some service” dependency obvious to purchasers here?

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b wrote:

Wasn’t it first/second-party support in this case?

Good point. I’ll amend that to “Don’t buy anything that requires a service that you don’t personally control.”

b wrote:

Was “some service” dependency obvious to purchasers here?

Certainly. A Spotify interface is useless without Spotify. The existence of the intermediate service, whatever that consisted of, between Spotify (which still exists) and the Car Thing unit doesn’t change that a user is still subject to the existence of Spotify… and it is Spotify that has altered the deal. (Pray they do not alter it any further!)

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Ascaris wrote:

Certainly. A Spotify interface is useless without Spotify. The existence of the intermediate service, whatever that consisted of, between Spotify (which still exists) and the Car Thing unit doesn’t change that a user is still subject to the existence of Spotify… and it is Spotify that has altered the deal. (Pray they do not alter it any further!)

The intermediate service is what Spotify are discontinuing. Was that possibility obvious to purchasers?

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See my topic Squeezebox Radio – gone forever? that discusses internet radios.  https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/squeezebox-radio-gone-forever/

The Topic focuses on Logitech’s decision to shut down the MySqueezebox.com server and the need to replace our Squeezebox radios with other hardware so that we can continue to listen to internet radio.

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Spotify Car Thing refund

”
Ray Wong
@raywongy
PSA: If you bought a Car Thing (doesn’t matter when), contact Spotify to get a refund. I did it last night. They’ll give you a “refund” in the form of crediting you for the next few months equal to what you originally paid or refund you credit for past subscriptions that you already paid for

I paid $33 for my Car Thing in October 2022 when they were on firesale. Spotify refunded me for the last 3 months of my sub at $10.99/month

Just log into your Spotify account and message them here: https://accounts.spotify.com/en/login?nosignup=true&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.spotify.com%2Fus%2Fcontact-spotify-support%2F

Don’t delay! CarThing dies on December 9! Then it becomes … a brick.”

* Spotify’s change of heart probably due to :

Spotify Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over ‘Car Thing’ Deactivation: ‘A Useless Product’

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All unit of Spotify Car Thing are disabled as of December 9.

Car Thing JailBreak

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https://old.reddit.com/r/CarThing/comments/1hamv8o/i_bypassed_the_discontinued_screen/

I bypassed the discontinued screen.

I held the back button below the volume knob, the settings button above the volume known and the first preset button on the top left while it was booting up. Took a couple tries when I tried to replicate it, but it works…

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