I would absolutely love if there were some competitor, either based on UPnP or based on some proprietary solution, which had similar features and characteristics as the Squeezebox. Unfortunately I haven't found anything yet within the same price range and I suspect the situation is pretty much the same for most other community users. The closest thing on the market is probably Sonos but it still have some limitations which I personally don't like, the only useful I've found on the market related to UPnP is the Kinsky software produced by Linn (but Linn is in very a different price range compared to Logitech devices).
Personally, I refuse to consider the Squeezebox to be dead until either: - Logitech actually stops selling it. or - Someone else produces something in similar price range that's better than the Squeezebox. The best we can do until this happens is to give Logitech and third party developers our ideas of what's missing, list exactly which operations we find frustrating or list specific ideas of new features we would like to have. By doing that we will prolong the Squeezebox life, with or without the help of Logitech, until some competitor eventually reaches similar functionality so they can been a good alternative. But let's use another thread for listing ideas of possible improvements, for example this one: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?94987-What-is-missing-from-your-Squeezebox-experience If we already now consider the Squeezebox to be dead, just because there haven't been a software release during last 5 months, it will just result in that we won't set the level the competitors have to reach, they can just stay where they are since the market leader (from a feature perspective) is considered to be dead (by the users) while the manufacturer (Logitech) still sells it. Wouldn't it be better if we tried to spend the time raising the level by suggesting improvements, rather than lowering it by trying to convince everyone that the Squeezebox to be dead ? Finally, I have to say that there are very few electronic devices in my home that survives over 6 years after the purchase and still is considered to be one of the best on the market after I've owned them 6 years. The Squeezebox Classic from 2006 is pretty much the only one I have, it's a while since Logitech stopped selling it but that doesn't stop it from working excellently. This is also why I'm not that worried if Logitech doesn't produce 5 new software releases every year, if they need to do more in-house/analysis/prototyping work during 2012 to be able to figure out what new music streaming devices to produce 2013 I'm fine with that, I don't need constant updates/bug fixes on something that generally works very good for its main purpose which is to make it possible to enjoy my music. This is also why I'm not worried about recommending a Squeezebox to someone that wants a music streaming solution to enjoy the music in the whole house, the Squeezebox will continue to work for this purpose for a long time, with or without Logitech producing new hardware and software releases. I would love to see Logitech more involved in the community but I can also understand that sometimes they need to work more in-house to be able to figure out the next big thing instead of spending their time fixing a lot of less important bugs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96134 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
