Spotify’s Car Thing, its dinky answer to Apple CarPlay, is now more widely available, but Brits must continue to wait.
The $79.99 after-market display, which can be fitted to any car, offers voice controls and connects to a companion smartphone via Bluetooth. Any Spotify user in the US can join the waitlist for the gadget, but they will need a Spotify Premium subscription in order to leverage it.
It can be mounted to the air conditioning vents or elsewhere and is potentially a great solution if your car doesn’t have an integrated touchscreen infotainment system powered by Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Drivers can say “Hey Spotify” to request songs, albums and playlists, but there is a press-able dial that allows subscribers to cycle though and select options. The 4-inch display is touch-friendly and there are four buttons for accessing pre-sets of your choice.
In terms of those voice commands users can ask Spotify to “show” things like ’90s hip hop’ to aid the selection process, as well as “play” items of their choosing.
“…“show” also lets you browse over 70 million songs, albums, playlists, artists, podcasts, genres and moods,” the company says on its web page.
It’s powered by the car’s 12V power supply, so doesn’t have completely wireless operation, but can otherwise be connected to both the phone and in the car stereo system via Bluetooth (or AUX, USB).
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It doesn’t have the ability to handle calls or navigation, but if you’re simply looking to have easy access to your favourite tunes on the road, it could be a decent solution.
There’s no word yet on when Spotify might expand availability to subscribers in the United States. Trusted Reviews has contacted the company for more details.
Would you buy a Spotify Car Thing if it became available on UK shores? Let us know @trustedreviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
