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For a physical device (ie featured-locked upon shipping), “support” amounts to paying the server bill, which is likely negligible.
by cellularmitosis 7y ago
For a physical device (ie featured-locked upon shipping), “support” amounts to paying the server bill, which is likely negligible.
- jacquesm 7y agoThat's the problem right there, for a hardware manufacturer post shipping there shouldn't be a server.
- tlb 7y agoThey at least need an update server so they can receive security patches. Once you need that, it's a slippery slope to depending on lots of things in the cloud.
- tomc1985 7y agoWhy are these devices so complex as to need security updates?
- ben-schaaf 7y agoBecause they're connected to the internet. Because IoT.
- colejohnson66 7y agoTo expand on that: security. Without security updates, your devices could be hacked.
- tomc1985 7y agoHorrible stuff.
- jacquesm 7y agoSynology gets that right.
- bathtub365 7y agoThey run a routing/cross-auth system so you can stream from other IP-based audio services directly to your speakers. They aren’t entirely a hardware company and those integrations are a value-add for a lot of consumers. I think you should be able to run them in some kind of offline mode, though.
- ClumsyPilot 7y agoOr it could be smart enough to communicate with my computer directly, and have my credentials onboard, the way my NAS or router does. Devices that used to be smart way before all this "dumb home" stuff appeared.
- greyhair 7y agoLogitech Squeeze players also had Squeeze network, which cost nothing, and is still in service today. You can put a DAC on a RPi, install squeezeplayer, and attach to the squeeze network for free today. I have done that exact thing in the last six months.
- jacquesm 7y agoEven that does not require a server for the speakers to connect to owned by Sonos.
- bathtub365 7y agoThat’s true, but running and maintaining one is outside the expertise of most people.
- jhillyerd 7y agoNot true, Sonos works in a mesh, so all Sonos devices need to talk to each other, and to the controller app on phone or PC.
- kodachi 7y agoWould be great if you could use your own server, and that the server code was open.
- vineyardmike 7y agoIt would be great if they gave the hardware away for free too. But alas, the evil company wanted to make money. Those pirates.
- jjav 7y agoThat's why I stick with the squeezebox ecosystem. Open source server which runs locally. The hardware is long since discontinued (but plentiful and easily available on craigslist etc) and it can never be obsoleted as everything runs locally.
- greyhair 7y agoPlus Squeeze Network (still free, still working) for Pandora, Spotify, or other network services. Have you tried squeezeplayer on a RPi with a DAC? It works great. I have one alongside my original Squuezebox. They sync perfectly for multiroom audio. With a DAC, it runs fine on a Zero. Cheap.
- jacquesm 7y agoAnd that's how it should have been.