[ayodio]

My squeezebox radio is a damn fine machine with the best sound among my bluetooth speakers, but it is now almost completely useless since it has not been updated in years and spotify dropped support.

This is planned obsolescence at its worst, opening up firmware once you drop support for a product should be mandatory.

[dreen]

This is not planned obsolescence. People used to complain about PO but with smart devices there is no need for it, the manufacturer can just disable your device remotely and invent some bullshit business reason for it.

[Zagitta]

Is there a term for that? I was thinking "hostile obsolescence" or "active obsolescence".

[pseudalopex]

Obsolescence as a service.

[m-p-3]

Internet of Shit

[zantana]

In the case of Squeezebox, Logitech stopped selling them a while back, but to their credit they are still actively maintaining the self hosted server: https://github.com/Logitech/slimserver which has some plugins and bridges to other services.

I would say what they are doing with Squeezebox is the best case scenario for a lot of these connected devices, even though the complexity of having a self-hosted option is in no doubt part of what lead to their failure.

[Jonnax]

If it's got a 3.5mm jack you could pair it with a Chromecast audio. Though that's also a discontinued product haha.

[NeedMoreTea]

Which is why the manufacturers are trying hard to see the 3.5mm jack go the way of the dodo. You might keep on using something for decades, perhaps most of your life!

[jjav]

That seems like an unfair characterization.

The squeezebox ecosystem is my go-to example of how to do it correctly and build a product that respects the consumer.

The server is open source (just a bunch of perl) and freely distributed. It runs locally and the players don't need internet connectivity. It can never be obsoleted or killed because everything is local.

Sure, the company has long, long-since discontinued the product so they aren't developing updates. That's fair. But they also don't (and can't) do anything to disable existing functionality.

I have many squeezebox systems (including a transporter) scattered around the house and they work great, just as they did in 2003 when I bought the first one. More importantly, they will never stop working (other than hardware failure, but I have many spares).