It was bound to happen sooner or later, of course. German programmers have developed new software to breathe fresh life into Bose SoundTouch speakers…
It is hardly news that consumers are becoming increasingly fed up with the annoying phenomenon of ‘planned obsolescence’. More and more manufacturers are discontinuing software support for hardware that otherwise still works perfectly well. As a result, countless smart devices end up gathering dust in people’s homes, despite often having cost a considerable amount of money.
Take Bose’s SoundTouch speakers, for example. Earlier this year, the underlying cloud service was shut down, rendering the speakers largely unusable. However, some clever German programmers—or hackers, if you prefer—have now developed alternative software for the range, as reported by Dutch Tweakers.
The tool is called SoundTouch Reborn, or STR for short. Available from a dedicated website, it effectively gives the speakers abandoned by their manufacturer a new lease of life.
One particularly nice detail is that you are no longer dependent on Bose in any way. Simply install the software on Windows, macOS or Linux and you’re ready to go. From then on, your SoundTouch connects through this software, which acts as a server and handles communication with the necessary underlying cloud services. Consequently, there is no need to replace the original Bose firmware.
There is one drawback, however: you need to keep a computer running continuously. That said, if you happen to own a reasonably capable NAS, you could install a virtual Linux system on it and run STR there instead. Since a NAS is usually switched on 24/7 anyway, that hardly makes much difference. Just an idea.
Incidentally, STR is completely free and open source!