Who wouldn’t remember the legendary Parrot handsfree, which was installed in the car’s ventilation grille and made it possible to make phone calls with your hands on the steering wheel. However, with the advent of modern automotive infotainments, similar devices are no longer needed, and yet one has now appeared on the market. This is a Car Thing player from Spotify, which will allow even owners of older cars to listen to their favorite playlists. What’s more, it’s available for free.
Playing music via Spotify is a very simple thing in new cars thanks to their connectivity and support for Apple Car Play or Android Auto standards. Directly via the infotainment screen and thanks to the paired phone, it is very easy to get into the application interface and choose exactly the music we are in the mood for.
However, owners of older cars lose this pleasure, in which entertainment is often provided only by a good old car radio. This is often a fixed part of the instrument panel, so they cannot be replaced with more modern 1 or 2 DIN car radios with their own screen. Especially for owners of such cars, Spotify now brings a solution in the form of a Car Thing player, which is in a way a bit retro.
The fact that Spotify is developing such a device was written at the beginning of 2019. However, the final form of the company’s first hardware differs considerably from the original visualizations. The circular shape has been changed to a rectangle with a touch screen, which can also be controlled via a physical controller in the upper left corner, four buttons on the upper back of the device or voice commands using the formula “hey Spotify”.
He describes Spotify as an experimental product
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The user interface is similar to that in a classic mobile application. With four preset buttons, you can create quick access to your favorite content. By default, they offer a choice between your favorite songs, podcasts, or created Daily Drive and Morning Commute playlists, with the last field blank.
The device, which measures 11.6 × 6.3 × 1.7 cm, can be paired with the phone via Bluetooth or AUX or USB cable, through which it also connects to the speakers in the car. It can be attached to the dashboard ventilation in three different ways.
The device is equipped with four microphones for the highest possible sensitivity, so that it is possible to enter voice commands even when the music is playing or the windows are closed. At the same time, thanks to them, the drivers can also be controlled by the riders in the rear of the car, which, however, records relentless battles over who will determine the selection of songs. For such cases, however, the device allows you to turn off voice control.
However, the microphones will still pick up and listen not only to what the crew is listening to, but also to what they are talking about. According to Spotify, it will be possible to create a truly personalized playlist menu. How informed TechCrunch, according to Spotify, no information other than voice data will be collected other than in a regular mobile application.
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The player is designed for owners of older cars
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Interestingly, Spotify offers this device only to users with a premium account, completely free of charge. However, the offer is limited to those interested in the US who apply to company website. Subsequently, they will pay only the costs associated with the transport of the equipment. According to Spotify, the reason for this decision is the fact that it is the first physical device ever created in the company’s workshop, so it is still a somewhat experimental product. It is currently unclear how many products Spotify wants to distribute.
And it’s not clear if he’ll start selling his Car Thing over time. If this happens, its value is estimated at $ 80, ie approximately 1,700 crowns. However, according to the company, the company is not striving for a significant role among hardware manufacturers. However, such products would certainly find application on the market.
Although similar facilities will gradually lose their importance as more and more drivers own more modern cars, such fleet modernization will not take place overnight. Spotify points out that the average age of cars in the US is 11 years and the average life is 18 years. After all, even in the Czech Republic, the average age of vehicles is 15 years, which means that there would be a large number of vehicle owners in our country, who would benefit from Spotify’s Car Thing.
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