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I was just thinking about how I'd like to redesign an internet radio. . Break apart the programming/setup from the physical interface. . Use a phone or pc for

I was just thinking about how I'd like to redesign an internet radio. . Break apart the programming/setup from the physical interface. . Use a phone or pc for all setup, perhaps like a Google wifi router, a lot of the time this is done by a different person than the end user. . make it look like a Tivoli Model One, except with an 8 (or so) pole switch or button set. off/am/fm/aux/internet preset 1-5

timidiceball 6y ago
https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connected-04091774/dp/B073WBB3Z5 https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connec... These came quite close to this (but have since been discontinued by Urbanears). Physical knob presets to internet radio stations (or turn it to “airplay/Bluetooth mode”)
- kingsuper20 6y ago
  That does look pretty darn close. The other thing I worry about with internet radios is to keep the price low. It's just too easy to have the underlying webstrate (is that a word?) up and disappear. Think of Frontier or the death of the early Grace Digital radios (Reciva?)
benhurmarcel 6y ago
But there's a big gap between the cost of producing such a device, and what the target market would ever accept to pay just to listen to the radio.
- kingsuper20 6y ago
  That's always the problem with US-based startups it seems. Anything that involves making a device involves a lot of upfront expense, probably offshore manufacture, sometimes running into the shoals of the FDA. Consumer electronics is a tough ol' business. Years ago, most new companies made a physical thing, and if I helped they had supporting software. The move into an economy based on surveillance advertising appears near-total. Obviously you could sell a box with knobs and buttons and a speaker that a R-Pi is stuck into, but that's hardly mass market and itself wouldn't be cheap to build at low volume.

timidiceball 6y ago

https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connected-04091774/dp/B073WBB3Z5 https://www.amazon.com/Urbanears-Multi-Room-Bluetooth-Connec... These came quite close to this (but have since been discontinued by Urbanears). Physical knob presets to internet radio stations (or turn it to “airplay/Bluetooth mode”)

kingsuper20 6y ago
That does look pretty darn close. The other thing I worry about with internet radios is to keep the price low. It's just too easy to have the underlying webstrate (is that a word?) up and disappear. Think of Frontier or the death of the early Grace Digital radios (Reciva?)

benhurmarcel 6y ago

But there's a big gap between the cost of producing such a device, and what the target market would ever accept to pay just to listen to the radio.

kingsuper20 6y ago
That's always the problem with US-based startups it seems. Anything that involves making a device involves a lot of upfront expense, probably offshore manufacture, sometimes running into the shoals of the FDA. Consumer electronics is a tough ol' business. Years ago, most new companies made a physical thing, and if I helped they had supporting software. The move into an economy based on surveillance advertising appears near-total. Obviously you could sell a box with knobs and buttons and a speaker that a R-Pi is stuck into, but that's hardly mass market and itself wouldn't be cheap to build at low volume.