Good for them! I own two sets of noise-cancelling Bose headphones and a (dumb) speaker, and they've all been pretty solid, and for half the price of equivalent Apple headphones.
I recently posted a comment [0] critical of Bose for needing an app, and it's nice to see that Bose decided to take a much better approach to end-of-life.
it's sad that this is not the default behaviour. hopefully the stop killing games movement will put something similar into law with potentially further-reaching side-effects eventually. Because frankly, sunsetting products like this should be common sense, not the exception it currently is.
Good for them. Makes me more likely to consider buying a Bose in future, not just because I know it won't be bricked, but also for the environmental impact of this. Kudos.
This is amazing, and I hope this sets a precedent for other companies. Stuff like this would definitely sway my buying decision, if I know when a product becomes EOL I can tinker with it.
This is how "end of support" should be handled. Instead of turning devices into e-waste, open-source them and let the community extend their life. Kudos to Bose for setting a good example.
More companies should follow this approach - especially as right-to-repair becomes a bigger issue.
The rest api was taken apart years ago for my old Sonos. They had originally promised to add AirPlay support later said, “Just kidding. Why don’t you brick it instead.” At that point I was finished with closed ecosystems for audio. At least someone made an AirPlay agent that lives on the home server. That speaker has survived many years too.
This might sound crazy to some people, but I think this is much better than ongoing support. Removal of reliance on cloud alone is a massive feature that gets me interested in buying one of these (I don't currently own one). And the fact it has an API I can hit myself? Awesome!!!
Happy to see this happening. You know what would make me even happier? Having open source alternatives available to use as soon as I buy the device, not only after it's discontinued
One time I got a free Harman Kardon bluetooth speaker from Microsoft (the Invoke from 2017). They were $100* but went on sale for $50 and I snagged one.
Then Microsoft discontinued Cortana for it, but they didn't kill the speaker. They released firmware that turned it into a perfectly good bluetooth speaker (which I still use today.) And they sent me a $50 gift card* to buy something else from Microsoft. Good will! I was a big fan of Microsoft hardware. Shame about the software...
* Apparently $200 initially but they had some steep sales because Cortana as a voice assistant wasn't reviewing well. Reviews are a bit negative on the sound quality. Probably true enough at $200, but for $0-50, I think it's actually really good sound quality.
This should be standard practice. Some companies have terrible policies around bricking their products.
When my kid was born, I bought a brand-new Snoo. After six months, I wanted to sell it since we no longer needed it. That's when I discovered stories of people whose used Snoos had been bricked by the company. For such an expensive product, that is such a waste. If I'd known about this beforehand, I never would have made the purchase in the first place.
From a quick glance it looks like you are just able to do high level playback controls, similar to what you'd do using their on-device UI. Perhaps that's enough?
Great move Bose! I hope this trend continues - it's really nice to see a vibrant market for used/vintage electronic products in some categories (e.g. old iPods) rather than them just contributing to more e-waste.
I think it would be a good idea to tax companies significatnly when bricking their devices, it's creating e-waste. Open sourcing them like this would be a way for them to avoid fines.
Now users like me can't configure their devices (because the login is mandatory for using anything in the app). Some users report they aren't even able to use it with a VPN.
The over-reliance on closed source apps with mandatory logins for configuring devices you own must come to an end.
Hopefully, someone from Bose sees these comments. There is a serious segment of the pro and prosumer audio market that values open-source, interoperability, long service life, and is willing to pay a bit more for it.
I hope Bose continues to do this for future products and is rewarded financially for it.
Nice. This reminds me of Logitech who open sourced LMS (Logitech Media Server) when they discontinued their multiroom product (known as Squeezebox before they bought it).
Still a fantastic multi-room setup to this day... I run a server as well as a client from a Raspberry Pi.
The hardware on the soundtouch 10/20/30 series was always surprisingly over engineered with heavy magnets, decent power supplies, and good enclosures but let down by a sluggish app and flaky mDNS implementation.
With this, they just became the best value proposition on the used market. Flashing these with a minimal distro running snapclient (for multiroom audio) and shairport-sync (AirPlay 2) makes them infinitely better than they were on stock firmware. eBay prices are probably going to double by tomorrow morning.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 42.2 ms ] thread[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45373200
More companies should follow this approach - especially as right-to-repair becomes a bigger issue.
I am no fan of Bose for a lot of reasons, but this is seriously standup behavior for sure.
Why would I buy something that a vendor intends to kill off in an attempt to make me buy again?
One time I got a free Harman Kardon bluetooth speaker from Microsoft (the Invoke from 2017). They were $100* but went on sale for $50 and I snagged one.
Then Microsoft discontinued Cortana for it, but they didn't kill the speaker. They released firmware that turned it into a perfectly good bluetooth speaker (which I still use today.) And they sent me a $50 gift card* to buy something else from Microsoft. Good will! I was a big fan of Microsoft hardware. Shame about the software...
* Apparently $200 initially but they had some steep sales because Cortana as a voice assistant wasn't reviewing well. Reviews are a bit negative on the sound quality. Probably true enough at $200, but for $0-50, I think it's actually really good sound quality.
* https://news.harman.com/releases/releases-20200730
When my kid was born, I bought a brand-new Snoo. After six months, I wanted to sell it since we no longer needed it. That's when I discovered stories of people whose used Snoos had been bricked by the company. For such an expensive product, that is such a waste. If I'd known about this beforehand, I never would have made the purchase in the first place.
https://assets.bosecreative.com/m/496577402d128874/original/...
From a quick glance it looks like you are just able to do high level playback controls, similar to what you'd do using their on-device UI. Perhaps that's enough?
Now users like me can't configure their devices (because the login is mandatory for using anything in the app). Some users report they aren't even able to use it with a VPN.
The over-reliance on closed source apps with mandatory logins for configuring devices you own must come to an end.
I hope Bose continues to do this for future products and is rewarded financially for it.
Still a fantastic multi-room setup to this day... I run a server as well as a client from a Raspberry Pi.
With this, they just became the best value proposition on the used market. Flashing these with a minimal distro running snapclient (for multiroom audio) and shairport-sync (AirPlay 2) makes them infinitely better than they were on stock firmware. eBay prices are probably going to double by tomorrow morning.