The company discontinued Spotify’s Car Thing– a small, touchscreen device built for music streaming in older cars. However, the device has found unexpected new life as hackers and DIY enthusiasts rework its firmware, converting it into a flexible desktop controller.
Priced at $100, this 4-inch touchscreen device featured a knob and four buttons for navigating playlists and controlling music hands-free. However, citing low demand and supply chain disruptions, Spotify abandoned the device.
Despite marketing the gadget as a convenient music controller for car use, Spotify eventually bricked the device in December 2024. Now, instead of Spotify’s intended use, Car Thing is being modified for new purposes by enterprising hackers, reports Ars Technica.
Creative hackers like YouTuber Dammit Jeff are far from ready to let the device go. With creative hacks, Jeff has adapted the Car Thing for various desktop functions, noting its appealing physical feature — the knob and buttons, originally designed for car music control, lend themselves well to other possibilities.
Spotify published its uboot and kernel codes on GitHub, making the Car Thing’s firmware openly available — though the company didn’t actively promote this move. The device’s hardware, however, isn’t exactly top-of-the-line; with only half of a gigabyte of memory, 4 GB of storage, and an entry-level Amlogic S905D2 SoC, it’s designed solely to function as a Spotify controller.
For those interested in modding, accessing the Car Thing’s firmware is possible using the SoC’s USB ‘burning mode. This allows a computer to access root privileges, overwrite the firmware, and enable new applications. Although connecting to the device can be tricky, Jeff’s tutorial makes it easy.
Enthusiasts have revamped Car Thing into DeskThing, which includes simple apps such as weather updates and clocks. They have also created GlanceThing, a tool that functions similarly to a Stream Deck, and Nocturne, an exclusive invite-only interface overhaul that provides complete Spotify functionality in a new user interface designed for desktop use.
However, none of these redesigns can restore the Car Thing’s original purpose as a car controller. To use the modified Car Thing in a car, users would need a Raspberry Pi, a level of complexity that most would find impractical for in-vehicle setup.
Spotify has yet to release the software necessary to reconnect the Car Thing to a smartphone, limiting the functionality of these hacks to desktops and similar setups.
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