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The newest version The quality of the Sonos mobile app remains very poor, so bad that the company is considering getting rid of the redesigned version of the app and bringing back the old version. This news, Reported by The Vergecomes with reports that Sonos is also laying off 100 employees. It’s really not a good time for fancy speaker companies.
Things started to go wrong for Sonos when it launched the new version of your application in May. It was met with almost universal disdain. Users found the app’s new format made it difficult to connect to a network, queue up songs, or even change the volumeOne of the main complaints was that many of the legacy app’s accessibility features were either poorly implemented in the redesign or removed from the platform entirely. Some users say the app is Almost 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 issues at hand. CEO Patrick Spence has said the fiasco may It cost the company more than $30 million and has led to the delay of two new hardware products.
Hence the possibility of a frantic rollback to a version of the Sonos app that actually works. It’s unclear if Sonos will actually allow users to downgrade to the previous version of the app, or when that possibility will become available. For now, Sonos users will simply have to keep trying.
Here are some other consumer tech news stories from this week.
BMW One
Great news for all those who love the card game Uno and also own a BMW: you can now Combine both interests without worrying about losing cards under the mats.
Car Party One! Drivers will be able to play Uno together in the vehicle, using a combination of their own phones and the car’s dashboard screens. The new feature, coming to the BMW X3 and some Mini models on August 21, is a joint effort by gaming company Mattel and cloud-based gaming service AirConsole. This is the same partnership that brought the quiz game Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to BMW cockpits a couple of years ago.
It’s sure to be a lot of fun, but remember that you can’t play card games while driving on the highway – luckily for all the other humans and robots on the road. Save that for ferry rides.
Browser Hell
Descend into hell through Google Chrome, because Devil is Playable in a web browser Now, this capability is achieved thanks to an open source project created by a fan called Diabloweb which is available on GitHub. The game includes the 1997 game Devilalong with its expansion, HellfireIt requires a bit of setup (you need to download the game and run it locally), but in no time you’ll be hacking and slashing some demons in virtually any browser you choose.
Sure, it’s not as impressive as running. Condemn in a pregnancy test or strain of intestinal faunaBut being able to seamlessly play one of the most popular video games right in your browser is still pretty cool.
Starry star
Starlink, the satellite internet division of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, plans to start offering Direct Cellular Access, which will beam its connectivity to cellphone users in partnership with wireless carrier T-Mobile. Other wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T don’t seem to be too keen on that move.
This week, Starlink’s competitors submitted petitions to deny Starlink’s efforts to roll out its cellular service with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which regulates how satellite internet is distributed in the United States (and beyond, once the satellites are there).
