Basic documentation does not equal open source.
Toaster ovens from 40 years ago did better. They came with a technical diagram.
Bose open-sources its SoundTouch home theater smart speakers ahead of end-of-life
Submitted 1 day ago by yesman@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
Wren@lemmy.today 7 hours ago
We need to start demanding technical diagrams again. I’ve fixed up antiques where the schematics were printed on the inside, even for a simple flashlight.
nroth@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
They’re never getting those integrations back though, e.g. Spotify. Those are usually implemented in each company’s servers rather than something that can be brokered locally through an API. That needs to change
Zachariah@lemmy.world 1 day ago
We need a law that companies provide device owners root access for every end of life device.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
That’s something the EU would do, but never America.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
How about a free gun at the end of life of any product?
felixwhynot@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I think medical device manufacturers should have to support their products for some definite length of time—maybe 10 years?—or not be allowed to make devices at all
Miaou@jlai.lu 1 day ago
This type of laws already exist in some cases, but realistically no one knows that the company won’t just go bankrupt in 5 years. Open sourcing things is a “reasonable” last resort option, or rather, the only viable one
6nk06@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Medical devices are already supported for a very long time. At least the official ones used in hospitals.
floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
For software too, if a company has sold software and then goes out of business, it should have to give all licensed users permanent access to use it. Ideally also the source code.
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 22 hours ago
Yes! Exactly. I buy, I own. That’s what it SHOULD be.
Phones are the worst example. Pay 1500 moneyz and still it’s not yours. You may only use it in the way they want you to. Ugh.
OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It would be one thing for a corporation to misuse the term open source as they’ve been doing lately. It’s pretty bad for one of the biggest and oldest tech news sites to be doing it.
StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
More like ArseTechnika, eh?
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 22 hours ago
No thanks. I had like 20 sonos speaker, and then, one day, sonos decided to fuck the app up, making it impossible to use my library anymore. This was the day I sold them all, ranted like a pissed off babuskha and never thought of buying similar products ever but make my own.
Real open source or go fork yourself in the eye. I’m so done with this corpo-crapshit
BeyondRuby@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
You sound like an extremist brother. If they lie and dont do it (seems like they already have made it open-source) then get mad. But it sounds like you are upset because you got screwed by Sonos and Bose actually are attempting to do the right thing for their customers.
NovaTheFluf@piefed.blahaj.zone 18 hours ago
Thing is they didn’t actually open-source it, as stated in other comments. They just released the api documentation. While, yes, it is a step in the correct direction, it is definitely not open-source.
Open source would be releasing the source code for all the software involved, which they haven’t done.
phx@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
That kinda sucks, especially since even the older ones work with Home Assistant etc directly now
Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de 2 hours ago
Not without internet access and Sonos cloud servers, it doesn’t…
bastion@feddit.nl 8 hours ago
Chad Bose.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
That’s a pretty cool thing to do
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 1 day ago
They didn’t open source anything.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Yes, but at least documenting the API and saying “have at it” is better than dropping it
floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
And they didn’t do it. The headline is misleading.
just_another_person@lemmy.world 1 day ago
PDF reference of the API here: cdn.arstechnica.net/…/2025.12.18-SoundTouch-Web-A…
racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 18 hours ago
Is there any quality, real open-source speakers? Or it’s way better not bother with it and get dumb speakers and an SBC?
IMALlama@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
For passive, and even now some active loudspeakers, very much so.
Links for passives: sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy www.zaphaudio.com www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/speaker-kits/ (etc)
Active speakers are usually things like this and use commercially available parts with commercial software. But if you want you can build a DIY DSP and DAC and DIY amplifier. Note that there are tons of other designs for both available.
The DIY audio community is very vibrant. [There](www.diyaudio.com/community/] are tons and tons of forums collaboratively iterating. You can build [DIY headpy](github.com/ploopyco/headphones] and DIY headphone amplifiers. Hell, you can even build [DIY speaker drivers].
Anything I missed was not an intentional omission, lol.
tal@lemmy.today 15 hours ago
I don’t use openHAB or HomeAssistant, but I’d be extremely surprised if they don’t have existing functionality for connecting microphones, speakers, and LLMs to set up voice-controlled stuff.
searches
Willow Is a Practical, Open Source, Privacy-focused Platform for Voice Assistants and Other Applications
Willow is an ESP IDF based project primarily targeting the ESP32-S3-BOX hardware family from Espressif. Our goal is to provide Amazon Echo/Google Home competitive performance, accuracy, cost and functionality with Home Assistant, openHAB and other platforms.
100% open source and completely self-hosted by the user with “ready for the kitchen counter” low cost commercially available hardware.
rhasspy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Rhasspy (ɹˈæspi) is an open source, fully offline set of voice assistant services for many human languages that works well with:
- Hermes protocol compatible services (Snips.AI)
- Home Assistant and Hass.io
- Node-RED
- Jeedom
- OpenHAB
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
No.
tal@lemmy.today 1 day ago
“Open source” really isn’t the right term here, if they’re just releasing API specifications. “Open sourcing” the speakers would be releasing the source code to the software that runs on the speakers.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, the correct term for this would be “open api”
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
“documented api”
bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
There is a Soundtouch extension to Music Assistant, which which is part of Home Assistant. Last I checked the developer is unsure how functional the wireless speakers will be after the app shutdown.
COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
Indeed it’s misleading wording but credit where credit is due, this is far better than turning them all into e-waste. It’s not like anyone bought these with the assumption they would have any sort of official API someday, especially after seeing how Sonos handled their similar situation…
AA5B@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
It’s misleading wording by arse-technica, not Bose. The quoted wording from Nosebis correct and it looks like they’re doing the right thing. After originally announcing they would be dumb speakers, now they’ll continue to be useful and third party apps can continue to use them. Applaud Bose for doing the right thing
Direct your Boos to arse-technica
andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
I appreciate the distinction, but open source is always a spectrum, so I think the description is a reasonable application here.
Shadow@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
The source code is private, how can you call that open source?
danc4498@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Is it? I’ve only ever heard “open source” to refer to the source code being released.
Maybe there’s a different term they meant to say other than “open source”
forrgott@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
But the source code isn’t available. The source isn’t open. It’s not open-source, by definition.
The “spectrum” you refer to us about how free you are to publicly make use of the code, not whether or not you even have the code.
This situation does not fall inside that spectrum.
e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 1 day ago
You’re shitting out of your mouth, son.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
One could make that argument, but not in this case. Documenting an API has nothing to do with the open source status of the product.
pogmommy@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Even if it were this would be like saying neon green is greyscale