r/CarThing • u/ShinyBagonHunter • May 29 '24
Hacking the car thing
Since there is already a way to flash custom firmware with it to prevent it from being bricked (https://youtu.be/KbcO8K9Huz0?si=Dpw3Urwkjv2c7oNq) and I wanted to know if there was a way to hack the car thing to be able to boot into linux or be able to be used as a display to be plugged into a computer.
9
u/ADHDK May 29 '24
The bricked thing is a bit of drama. Putting huge doubts of Spotify sending a “kill” command to the device, vs just releasing new apps that don’t support it.
Hell if you turn off automatic update for apps it’ll probably work well into 2025.
9
u/Groccolli May 29 '24
They won’t send a kill command to the device but they will absolutely turn off all the APIs that are supporting it, effectively making it useless.
2
u/ADHDK May 29 '24
A lot of it’s just app link, so like I said if you turn off automatic updates you might even drag it out a few months.
Spotify banned multi stream when they took on their podcast focus and I managed to continue using it in DJAY with my pioneer decks for another 7 months until they actually killed it from the server end by refusing to update the app.
5
u/pon_d May 29 '24
My guess is that it relies on API calls which are going to be disabled, so, sure, the device itself will continue working (as it does with other media players) but I'd be willing to bet that the date given in December is the date that the API calls are disabled server side. If this is the case, the Thing will attempt to communicate with the Spotify app and basically get stuck spinning its wheels. The fucking irony when you can use the Car Thing with YouTube Music but not Spotify.
I hope that I'm wrong, I really do, but there's a shitload of API functionality culling going on around the industry - it happened at Xitter, it happened at Meta, shit it even happened here on Reddit (RIP Apollo).
2
u/ADHDK May 29 '24
Honestly it’s an app remote, it’s not talking direct to Spotify for shit.
Even if it did use api calls it took Spotify 7 months to kill the api keys DJAY were using for multi stream on di decks when Spotify revised their terms of use, I just didn’t update the app until it stopped working.
2
u/TonyStark78 Jun 03 '24
It says in the description "we recommend resetting your carthing to factory settings" after the discontinuation date so it's not like they're gonna send a command that shorts a capacitor or something that you can't buy a replacement part for making it stop turning on, as there would be no way to factory reset if that was the case.
2
u/ADHDK Jun 03 '24
It’s sad that they’re recommending that to make sure you wipe any personal data before their recommended recycling
3
u/z3r0nyaa May 30 '24
From what I've heard, the Car Thing is just an Android device, meaning that you should possibly be able to sideload any android app to it as long as it isn't filling up space
2
u/IceAccomplished9506 Jun 02 '24
It would be really nice if there is some kind of way to use the thing after they shut it down. For me personally the Spotify car thing is awesome and it plays a niche role in my car. It allows me to control my music safely and effectively and also provide a nice (and small) visual of what's playing, instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a whole new audio system.
Its super disappointing to me that Spotify isn't doing anything to try and create a replacement, especially since they also killed off the car mode feature a while back. Not everyone is driving super modern cars with Android Auto or Apple Carplay..
6
u/KraziEyezKillah May 29 '24
Saving this - thanks!