P Nelson wrote: > I think the goal needs to be sorted out to provide guidance on this > project. Yes, treat this like a project. I see several scenarios: > 1) Build a box that relies on the existing Logitech software and > mysqueezebox.com > a. A box for the tech savvy computer music enthusiast. > b. A box for a music enthusiastic, and if they follow very clear > instructions with specific equipment and software, they can get it to > work > c. Plug and play > > 2) New hardware and user interface (does not rely of Logitechs > software or servers) > a. A box for the tech savvy computer music enthusiast. > b. A box for a music enthusiastic, and if they follow very clear > instructions with specific equipment and software, they can get it to > work > c. Plug and play > > ... > > If you are doing 1c, my comment is this is probably not a good idea as > you might face the lawyers from Logitech and spending the effort to > build a product that the manufacturer will no longer supports seems > silly. > To be realistic: - Nobody targeting 1c or 2c would say so in public at this early stage, it would just create unnecessary high expectations among community members. - Short term, 1a and maybe also 1b, is realistic. - On longer terms things can change a lot, at the moment we are really just discussing the design of the circuit board, that board could on longer terms be put in a nice case, with or without built-in speakers, produced in big volumes and sold to the masses in normal stores.
So on longer terms something based on the current discussion could very well turn out to be 2c, but getting there is going to be a lot of work and its not just engineering work, so I suspect first 1a (and possibly 1b) and later 2a and 2b would have to be passed before trying reach 2c. However, depending on how the initial experiments turns out, the solution could very well also stay at 1a or 1b until the market comes up with something better. Also as you say, targeting 1c is going to be way too risky, at least if someone would want to sell it to the masses. As I've said in other threads, I'm fairly sure some company on the market is going to reach 2c (with similar features as Squeezebox) and it's going to be interesting to see who gets there first. Unless someone have an urgent need to make a decision already now, I would suggest it's better to wait and see what happens during the next 6-12 months and then evaluate the situation again. We can always enjoy our Squeezeboxes and experiement with DIY solutions like the one discussed in this thread while we wait. I suspect we are going to see some interesting things happening during the next 6-12 months, maybe something in line with 2c (with similar features as Squeezebox) isn't as far away as some people think it is. If someone is targeting 2c and want to provide similar features as Squeezebox, we are probably going to see the feature set start with a bit less features and be enhanced over time to eventually support all important features available on Squeezebox. I would personally keep my eyes open for solutions which seems to be open both on hardware and software side, that kind of solutions have the biggest chance to be enhanced over time, kind of similar to how Squeezeboxes have been enhanced through different kind of third party solutions, for example like the one discussed in this thread, Vortexbox, SqueezePlug and all the third party plugins/applets/apps available. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881
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