Comment by kristianc
6 years ago
> I would have bought a Sonos instead of an Apple Homepod because I thought they were more "open". But if the manufacturer can just make my device useless, I'm not interested.
Nope, it’s just iOS updates that brick HomePods.
Yes. Just to be clear, I'm going to buy neither a Homepod nor a Sonos. I think I'm going to get dumb speakers and a Raspberry/Hifiberry. Shairplay does 90% of what I want a smart speaker to do, and I think a Raspberry is a pretty future proof device.
You should also take a look at snapcast as an open Sonos alternative that can run on raspberry pi.
https://github.com/badaix/snapcast
That was a bug, not a 'feature' like Recycle Mode.
Incidentally, iOS has a remote kill switch as a feature too.
Anyway, you should be aware of risk when buying a piece of hardware which depends on a service (like OTA updates or cloud connection).