of Spotify Carsing It was a short-lived gadget launched by Spotify and quickly discontinued in 2022. It was essentially a smartphone accessory for your car, with a 4-inch display and a dial that let you control Spotify without having to look at your phone.
Originally launched for $90, Car Thing was eventually reduced in price to $50 and then discontinued. And last month, Spotify announced that it plans to end support for Car Thing in December 2024, effectively turning existing units into paperweights. teeth Currently, you offer refunds to customers who want them, but what if you want more than just a refund? What if you want the product you paid for? do not have Becoming e-waste? There’s hope.
Shortly after Spotify announced it was ending support for Car Thing, some people began calling for the company to open source the device. already We have released the source code for the bootloader, Linux kernel, Bluetooth stack, and software updater.
There’s already an active hacker community that knows how to flash custom firmware and make other modifications.
As YouTuber Josh Hendrickson points out, there’s only so much the Car Thing can do: It’s powered by an Amlogic S905D2 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage, plus a 4-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen display and Bluetooth support.
Without WiFi it’s not very useful as a standalone device, and the limited amount of RAM means it’s not that useful for complex applications.
However, this wasn’t meant to be a standalone device, but rather to be paired with a smartphone and essentially act as a remote control for the Spotify web-based app, so you can still use it to interact with Spotify even after support for it ends. other Create a web app using a tool such as Superbird Custom Webapp.
This open source utility allows you to replace the Spotify web app in Car Thing with a custom web app, giving you the power to design your own remote control. other App or service.
Incidentally, Superbird is the code name for Spotify’s Car Thing.
With Macro Deck installed, you can use your Car Thing as a touchscreen controller to launch apps and functions on your connected device.
Alternatively, you can use the Superbird Debian Kiosk hack to install a lightweight GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian 13 that launches a kiosk view with Google’s open source Chromium web browser. This use case requires pairing with a host device such as a Raspberry Pi or similar single board computer. The developer of this tool is using it as a touch screen interface for Home Assistant, an open source smart home platform.
These are just a few of the many projects that members of the Car Thing Hax community have come up with – Spotify’s decision to block Car Thing will no doubt encourage more people to look at ways to hack their devices to keep using them, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see even more mods added to the list in the coming months. something.
Via Car-Thing-Hax-Community, Car Thing Hax Community (Discord), and Josh Hendrickson