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posted by martyb on Monday February 12 2018, @11:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the planned^Wscheduled-obsolescence dept.

Sonos, the consumer electronics company known for audio streaming and "smart" speakers, has decided that the music controller device, the "CR100", has reached end of life. By which they mean they will be pushing a software upgrade that will kill it.

... the next Sonos update in early April will turn off the CR100 connection -- unless you decide you don't want any updates at all. (Make sure you set that up in advance -- if you accept the update, you can't undo it and go back to using the old controller.)

That means if you want to keep on using a device you're happy with, you have to give up all the new features on all your Sonos speakers.

The company says its primary concern is the age of the lithium ion batteries in the controllers; although in that case an official device recall would be better than an update that stops them working - and a battery replacement scheme would handle the problem just as well.

Although the controller is old (Sonos stopped selling the CR100 in 2009) it is still perfectly functional for many users. However, according to a forum posting explaining the options these users will have to choose between the CR100 and the functionality of the rest of their system:

... opting not to update means you will not receive any new features or future security patches for your entire system – not just the CR100. For example, being on an unsupported version means that you might lose connectivity to music services, as is already the case for Google Play Music on the CR100. It is necessary to configure your system in advance to avoid future updates. Any update applied to the firmware and/or to the app, even unintentionally, is irreversible.

Originally spotted on The EEV Blog Youtube channel.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2018, @05:54PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2018, @05:54PM (#636753)

    Amen!

    Besides... Killing my machine is THEFT, period. Maybe BAIT and SWITCH... You took my money and gave me a BRICK.

    It is easy to block the device from getting access to update itself. Hell, MS has done that with their Windows Update tool. These guys are another APPLE, take way your use of your product. GM and FORD cannot even do that.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2018, @06:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2018, @06:58PM (#636776)

    Killing my machine is THEFT, period. Maybe BAIT and SWITCH... You took my money and gave me a BRICK.

    Thank the terrorist organization "Sony" for making that legal.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal [wikipedia.org]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS [wikipedia.org]

    If there was any justice left in this world Sony would cease to exist. Instead we have other companies following in their criminal footsteps.