• tal@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    7 months ago

    It’s a little annoying how the article only gives much of a hint as to what exactly a Car Thing is, beyond a “dashboard accessory”, in the last paragraph of the article:

    the product was more of a remote control for Spotify on your mobile phone than any kind of standalone player

    • misk@sopuli.xyzOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      7 months ago

      It’s worth noting that it was quite cheap and therefore a very good budget option to MacGyver music streaming into older cars.

    • Jesus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Car Thing is basically the Rabbit R1, but for music. In other words, a cheap Android device, with one app (a car dashboard variation of Spotify), a scroll wheel, and a some shortcut buttons.

      It works by connecting to your phone via Bluetooth. So, yeah, instead of using the phone for the auto friendly UI, it pipes that UI to a second cheaper mobile device.

      It’s truly stupid, and it cost about the same as an external CarPlay / Android Auto screen… which could display an auto friendly Spotify UI, and much much more.