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A “single purpose music box” would be neat to me. Maybe it controls all the speakers in my house, informs me of concerts coming up, let’s me set a mood, and mos

A “single purpose music box” would be neat to me. Maybe it controls all the speakers in my house, informs me of concerts coming up, let’s me set a mood, and most importantly doesn’t care about anything else. I feel like every gadget being in one is gonna start breaking down now that software interop is more of a thing.

mrguyorama 7y ago
Chromecast is $35 and will play spotify and other apps pretty darn well.
- nathancahill 7y ago
  They did a recent promo with Google where you get a free Google Home Mini if you're a subscriber. So I don't think they are getting in to hardware.
  - ObsoleteNerd 7y ago
    Google does these promotions all over, to get more Home’s into... homes. We got a free one with our YouTube Premium subscription, another free one with our Spotify Family Plan, and another free one from our ISP (though I’m not sure if that was paid for by google or the ISP).
  - taurath 7y ago
    They have such economies of scale now, and such vertical integration that they can sell you things like speakers for free as long as it has voice integration and sucks up all of your data. The only reason they don't sell a TV for $200 is they already get all that data from the current TV providers. Chromebooks at $99? Sure, why not. And eventually nobody can compete. Users must be in google, or amazons ecosystem or be super rich to avoid it. Companies must hope that google or amazon never move into their space because they can be obliterated. This is a "kinder" version of what microsoft got anti-trusted for in the 90s.
- rurp 7y ago
  Three or four years ago I loved my Chromecasts, but it's crazy how much worse they have gotten in that time. They used to have a really simple setup and then "just worked" from there. Now though, they regularly disappear from every device we use them with in my household and have to be setup again. The setup flow has changed several times over the past few years, always for the worse. Once everything is (re-)setup, they still fail to connect or lose a connection often enough to be a big annoyance. I'm not a fan of smart tv apps for all of the reasons discussed on HN, but they work so much better for me than Chromecast I've started using those instead whenever possible.
  - mrguyorama 7y ago
    That's strange. My Chromecast seemingly hasn't changed at all in the 4 years I've owned it.
read_if_gay_ 7y ago
> I feel like every gadget being in one is gonna start breaking down now The smartphone has a huge advantage: you only need to have 1 device in your pocket to do everything. Not having to go get something from another room may not seem like a big deal but I think it really is. (Or I am just lazy.)

mrguyorama 7y ago

Chromecast is $35 and will play spotify and other apps pretty darn well.

nathancahill 7y ago
They did a recent promo with Google where you get a free Google Home Mini if you're a subscriber. So I don't think they are getting in to hardware.
- ObsoleteNerd 7y ago
  Google does these promotions all over, to get more Home’s into... homes. We got a free one with our YouTube Premium subscription, another free one with our Spotify Family Plan, and another free one from our ISP (though I’m not sure if that was paid for by google or the ISP).
- taurath 7y ago
  They have such economies of scale now, and such vertical integration that they can sell you things like speakers for free as long as it has voice integration and sucks up all of your data. The only reason they don't sell a TV for $200 is they already get all that data from the current TV providers. Chromebooks at $99? Sure, why not. And eventually nobody can compete. Users must be in google, or amazons ecosystem or be super rich to avoid it. Companies must hope that google or amazon never move into their space because they can be obliterated. This is a "kinder" version of what microsoft got anti-trusted for in the 90s.
rurp 7y ago
Three or four years ago I loved my Chromecasts, but it's crazy how much worse they have gotten in that time. They used to have a really simple setup and then "just worked" from there. Now though, they regularly disappear from every device we use them with in my household and have to be setup again. The setup flow has changed several times over the past few years, always for the worse. Once everything is (re-)setup, they still fail to connect or lose a connection often enough to be a big annoyance. I'm not a fan of smart tv apps for all of the reasons discussed on HN, but they work so much better for me than Chromecast I've started using those instead whenever possible.
- mrguyorama 7y ago
  That's strange. My Chromecast seemingly hasn't changed at all in the 4 years I've owned it.

read_if_gay_ 7y ago

> I feel like every gadget being in one is gonna start breaking down now The smartphone has a huge advantage: you only need to have 1 device in your pocket to do everything. Not having to go get something from another room may not seem like a big deal but I think it really is. (Or I am just lazy.)