The latest version The quality of Sonos’ mobile app is still very poor – so bad that the company is considering abandoning the redesigned version of the app and bringing back the older version. This news, reported by The Verge, comes alongside reports that Sonos is also laying off 100 employees. Not good times indeed for the fancy speaker company.
The problems first hit for Sonos when the company released the new version of its app in May. It was met with almost universal disapproval. Users found that the new app format made it difficult to connect to a network, queue songs, or even change the volume. One of the main complaints was that many of the accessibility features of the old app were either poorly implemented in the redesign or removed from the platform entirely. Some users say the app is nearly unusable for blind Sonos owners.
Sonos has at least acknowledged its mistake since the botched launch, but the company has yet to fix many of the existing problems. CEO Patrick Spence said the fiasco could cost the company over $30 million and has led to delays in the release of two new hardware products.
Hence the potentially frantic reverting to a version of the Sonos app that actually worked. It’s not clear if Sonos will actually allow users to switch to the previous app version, or when such a feature will be available. For now, Sonos users will just have to keep slogging through.
Here’s some more news from the world of consumer technology this week.
BMW 3 Series
Great news for anyone who loves the card game Uno and also owns a BMW: You can now combine both interests without having to worry about losing cards under the floor mats.
Uno Car Party! lets passengers play Uno together in the car by combining their own phones and the screens on the car’s dashboard. The new feature, which will be available on August 21 for the BMW X3 and select Mini models, is a joint development between game maker Mattel and cloud-based gaming service AirConsole. It’s the same partnership that brought the quiz game “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” to BMW cabins a few years ago.
It’ll be great fun, but you should know that you can’t play card games while driving. Luckily for all the other people and robots on the road, save that for ferry rides.
Browser hell
Descend to hell via Google Chrome, because Diablo is now playable in a web browser. This capability is made possible by a fan-made open source project called Diabloweb, available on GitHub. The game includes the 1997 Diablotogether with its extension, Hellfire. It takes a little bit of setup (you’ll need to download the game and run it locally), but soon you’ll be hacking and smashing some demons in just about any browser you like.
Sure, it’s not quite as impressive as running Downfall It may depend on a pregnancy test or a strain on the intestinal flora, but the ability to easily play one of the most popular video games directly in the browser is still pretty clever.
Starlight
Starlink, the satellite internet division of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is working with mobile operator T-Mobile to offer direct-to-cell access that will transmit connectivity to cell phone users. Other mobile operators such as Verizon and AT&T do not seem particularly enthusiastic about this development.
This week, Starlink’s competitors filed petitions to block Starlink’s efforts to launch its cellular service with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the spread of satellite internet in the U.S. (and beyond, once the satellites are up there).
