Here’s something I’d like to see more of: a tech manufacturer choosing not to brick one of its older cloud-connected products.
In this case, we’re talking Bose, which just months ago was poised to yank cloud functionality from its more-than-decade-old line of SoundTouch Wi-Fi speakers and soundbars, a move that would essentially rob them of their smarts.
Now, Bose is changing course, and while direct access to music-streaming services is still on the chopping block, local networking features will remain. More importantly, Bose is opening up its SoundTouch tech to outside developers.
According to the original plan, SoundTouch owners would see their apps go dark by February 18, meaning they would no longer be able to stream tunes from Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn, or the like from the SoundTouch app. Instead, they’d have to pipe audio to the speakers via HDMI, Toslink, AUX jacks, or Bluetooth. In other words, their smart SountTouch speakers—which cost anywhere between $400 to $1,500—were about to turn dumb.
Naturally, livid SoundTouch users gave Bose a piece of their collective mind, and it appears Bose actually listened. As ArsTechnica reports, the popular home audio brand relented, to an extent: while it’s still cutting cloud service for SoundTouch speakers (it’s extended the deadline to May 6), it will keep Spotify Connect and AirPlay functionality, the latter of which will allow multiple SoundTouch speakers to play the same tunes simultaneously.
And while the SoundTouch app will lose access to cloud features, it will still let you control local functionality for your SoundTouch speakers, including Bluetooth, AirPlay, and Spotify Connect streaming, remote playback, pause, and volume, speaker grouping, and setup and configuration.
Even better, Bose will allow developers to poke around SoundTouch API, meaning they could build their own apps to control the speakers.
It’s not unusual for owners of soon-to-be-bricked tech to call on the manufacturer to open-source their products before they turn into paperweights. It happened when Google chose to yank support for its first- and second-generation Nest thermostats, and while Google has thus far remained unmoved, hackers have taken matters into their own hands.
So it’s a nice change of pace to see a major brand like Bose lay bare the SoundTouch API, essentially giving their nearly defunct products a new lease on life.
This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers.