It also has a giant rotating dial in the right-hand corner and a small button on the bottom. The device has a 3.97-inch display, which isn’t much bigger than my first Android phone, the HTC Incredible. The Car Thing mounts to any air vent with a strong magnet, though there is a CD slot insert included if you’d rather mount it that way. About a month later, I got approved and smashed the buy button. Spotify requires you to sign up for an invite list to get the chance to buy Car Thing, so I did.

It’s a thing for a service I’ve been paying for nearly 10 years. This is why I thought I would benefit from Spotify’s Car Thing.

I wasn’t quite sure what I expected from this $US80 ($110) device that exists solely to stream Spotify - surely there was more to it, I thought. That’s when I looked into Spotify’s Car Thing, a Bluetooth accessory for your phone that plays music. Android Auto offered the perfect marriage of music playback and Google Maps, which I constantly need because I have no sense of direction even after living in the San Francisco Bay Area all my life.īut then Google announced that its Android Auto phone app would be phased out, and I started to panic. Then, I’d hitch the Popsocket to its holder and tap the play button on the phone to get started on the road. I’d start up the car, my Android phone would connect via Bluetooth to the Bolt, and the Android Auto app would appear on my phone screen.

Years ago, I yanked out the 30-pin proprietary iPod hookup in my glovebox to expose the AUX port, then later bought a Roav Bolt with the Google Assistant built in for hands-free connectivity.Įverything worked so well. For the longest time, I’ve been using the Android Auto app on my smartphone as my car’s “infotainment” system. It’s officially a teenager - 13, to be exact - but its in-dash entertainment setup makes it seem a whole lot older.

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