Spotify's Car Thing, Due For Bricking, Is Getting an Open Source Second Life (arstechnica.com)
(Tuesday November 12, 2024 @10:30PM (BeauHD)
from the new-lease-on-life dept.)
- Reference: 0175458787
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/11/12/2211212/spotifys-car-thing-due-for-bricking-is-getting-an-open-source-second-life
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/11/firmware-hacks-are-rejuvenating-spotifys-car-thing-before-the-company-bricks-it/
If you have Spotify's [1]soon-to-be-bricked Car Thing, there are a few ways you can give it a new lease on life. YouTuber Dammit Jeff has [2]showcased modifications to Car Thing that makes the device [3]useful as a desktop music controller, customizable shortcut tool, or a simple digital clock . Ars Technica's Kevin Purdy reports:
> Spotify had [4]previously posted the code for its uboot and kernel to GitHub, under the very unassuming name "spsgsb" and with no announcement (as [5]discovered by Josh Hendrickson ). Jeff has one idea why the streaming giant might not have made much noise about it: "The truth is, this thing isn't really great at running anything." It has half a gigabyte of memory, 4GB of internal storage, and a "really crappy processor" ( [6]Amlogic S905D2 SoC ) and is mostly good for controlling music.
>
> How do you get in? The SoC has a built-in USB "burning mode," allowing for a connected computer, [7]running the right toolkit , to open up root access and overwrite its firmware. Jeff has quite a few issues getting connected (check his video description for some guidance), but it's "drag and drop" once you're in. Jeff runs through a few of the most popular options for a repurposed Car Thing:
>
> - [8]DeskThing , which largely makes Spotify desk-friendly, but adds a tiny app store for weather (including Jeff's own WeatherWave), clocks, and alternate music controls
> - [9]GlanceThing , which keeps the music controls but also provides some Stream-Deck-like app-launching shortcuts for your main computer.
> - [10]Nocturne , currently invite-only, is a wholly redesigned Spotify interface that restores all its Spotify functionality.
[1] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/05/23/2037255/spotify-is-going-to-break-every-car-thing-gadget-it-ever-sold
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQVuGeoqyUc
[3] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/11/firmware-hacks-are-rejuvenating-spotifys-car-thing-before-the-company-bricks-it/
[4] https://github.com/spsgsb/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CnNYY1Rzk
[6] https://www.cnx-software.com/2018/05/01/amlogic-s905d2-quad-core-cortex-a53-processor-coming-soon-with-google-fuchsia-support/
[7] https://github.com/bishopdynamics/superbird-tool
[8] https://deskthing.app/
[9] https://github.com/BluDood/GlanceThing
[10] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezTVfXb0Q3ascrpyio_V6e37RhwBQudocbQGL3mirKLYqLZg/viewform
> Spotify had [4]previously posted the code for its uboot and kernel to GitHub, under the very unassuming name "spsgsb" and with no announcement (as [5]discovered by Josh Hendrickson ). Jeff has one idea why the streaming giant might not have made much noise about it: "The truth is, this thing isn't really great at running anything." It has half a gigabyte of memory, 4GB of internal storage, and a "really crappy processor" ( [6]Amlogic S905D2 SoC ) and is mostly good for controlling music.
>
> How do you get in? The SoC has a built-in USB "burning mode," allowing for a connected computer, [7]running the right toolkit , to open up root access and overwrite its firmware. Jeff has quite a few issues getting connected (check his video description for some guidance), but it's "drag and drop" once you're in. Jeff runs through a few of the most popular options for a repurposed Car Thing:
>
> - [8]DeskThing , which largely makes Spotify desk-friendly, but adds a tiny app store for weather (including Jeff's own WeatherWave), clocks, and alternate music controls
> - [9]GlanceThing , which keeps the music controls but also provides some Stream-Deck-like app-launching shortcuts for your main computer.
> - [10]Nocturne , currently invite-only, is a wholly redesigned Spotify interface that restores all its Spotify functionality.
[1] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/05/23/2037255/spotify-is-going-to-break-every-car-thing-gadget-it-ever-sold
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQVuGeoqyUc
[3] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/11/firmware-hacks-are-rejuvenating-spotifys-car-thing-before-the-company-bricks-it/
[4] https://github.com/spsgsb/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CnNYY1Rzk
[6] https://www.cnx-software.com/2018/05/01/amlogic-s905d2-quad-core-cortex-a53-processor-coming-soon-with-google-fuchsia-support/
[7] https://github.com/bishopdynamics/superbird-tool
[8] https://deskthing.app/
[9] https://github.com/BluDood/GlanceThing
[10] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezTVfXb0Q3ascrpyio_V6e37RhwBQudocbQGL3mirKLYqLZg/viewform
Spotify's marketing department really blew it (Score:2)
by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )
Mark my words... if they'd just named it "Car THANG", it would've sold like hotcakes!
Really Crappy? (Score:3)
> ...and a "really crappy processor" (Amlogic S905D2 SoC) [ ... ]
Could someone explain to me how a quad-core 1.8GHz ARM is, "really crappy?" Is the memory interface slow? Is it cache-starved? Are the on-board peripherals gobbling up all the RAM (GPU, video, etc.)? I don't imagine it's a speed demon even by 2005 standards, but given that's it's not doing any heavy work, it should be just fine. What am I missing?
(Now a Marvell 88MC200... That's really crappy...)
Re: Really Crappy? (Score:1)
I'm guessing the 1/2 a gb of ram would be it's main limiting factor. Sure tou can still run a lot but it may struggle at multi tasking. IDK seems to be the one thing that seems very low by todays standards.