New Boom on the Horizon?

[MichelleUK]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there are any plans to update the Boom design so that it has the colour display that is used on the Radio?

I have a radio already,and love it, but now want one for the kitchen too so that I can keep the first one just for the bathroom/bedroom. BUT...I don't want to go ahead an buy one only to find out that a stereo version is available a couple of weeks later! I don't fancy the current design of the Boom as I think I will miss the colour display too much.

Thanks for your help,

Michelle

[erland]

If anyone knows, they aren't going to reveal it on these forums. Logitech usually don't comment unreleased products. A new upgraded Boom is a logical step and Logitech would probably be able to release one without any major software changes compared to the Radio. However, it would still be a surprise to me if they released any new Squeezebox hardware during the next month.

So my recommendation would be that if you want one now, get one of the existing products.

[TiredLegs]

Isn't the Radio already the new Boom (at least from Logitech's point of view)?

[mherger]

New Boom on the Horizon?

> Isn't the Radio already the new Boom (at least from Logitech's point of
> view)?

No, it isn't. Project name was "baby boom", not "boom 2"

--

Michael

[Aslak3]

No, it isn't. Project name was "baby boom", not "boom 2"

--

Michael

Yeah, I bloody hope it's not. Would need stereo speakers to be considered the "next boom".

[JJZolx]

Given all the difficulties with the Radio I'd be really surprised to see another SqueezeOS based player. I think the Touch is the end of the line until something more robust and easier to program can be developed.

[pfarrell]

New Boom on the Horizon?

On 08/09/2010 01:29 PM, JJZolx wrote:
> Given all the difficulties with the Radio I'd be really surprised to see
> another SqueezeOS based player. I think the Touch is the end of the
> line until something more robust and easier to program can be
> developed.

Any one who has been on this forum for more than a minute knows that
you, Jim, think that the line is doomed. You keep repeating this claim.
With zero facts to back up your opinion.

Why are you crying wolf? Did you not learn that story as a little kid?

Whether it is called SqueezeOS or not, I don't care. But if there is to
be any followon products, they will be built on an embedded,
programmable platform, with some sort of Linux hidden under it. I'm not
saying this with any claim of inside information, but rather that is how
nearly all consumer products are being built these days. At least all
moderate volume consumer products, from routers to access points to TVs
to cell phones.

The current Boom is pretty old in consumer electronics age. I love the
sound of mine, but its about time to refresh it to keep it current. Old
consumer electronics just don't move, and as Dire Straits sang, you
gotta move these refrigerators, gotta move these color TVs....


--
Pat Farrell

http://www.pfarrell.com/

[maggior]

The current Boom is pretty old in consumer electronics age. I love the
sound of mine, but its about time to refresh it to keep it current. Old
consumer electronics just don't move, and as Dire Straits sang, you
gotta move these refrigerators, gotta move these color TVs....

...moola moola...

Great song and a good point. I wonder if the the great deals at logitech.com (via coupon codes) and Amazon on the Boom are a reflection of the need to "move product" to make way for a replacement. If they need to provide that steep of a monitary incentive to sell product, it seems like they need to have something new and compelling.

This makes sense for the Boom, but I wonder why coupon codes keep popping up for fantastic deals on the Touch. That's worrysome because the Touch isn't ready for a replacement anytime soon.

[JJZolx]

Any one who has been on this forum for more than a minute knows that
you, Jim, think that the line is doomed. You keep repeating this claim.
With zero facts to back up your opinion.

The Radio has had major problems since day one and they continue nearly a year later. Touch's development was a freaking nightmare. That's all. They could bring out a new player based on the SqueezeOS platform under the premise that there's a lot of work already in the bag, but it remains unstable and such a move would only be compounding their support costs.

[pfarrell]

New Boom on the Horizon?

On 08/09/2010 02:46 PM, JJZolx wrote:
>> With zero facts to back up your opinion.
>
> The Radio has had major problems since day one and they continue nearly
> a year later.

That has not been my experience. My Radio has worked since very early in
the beta process. Granted, I have never been tempted to use it as a
clock radio with alarms, so I have skipped a lot of pain that others see.

From what tea leaves I can see, the Radio was rushed when the Touch
missed the Christmas sales cycle. Not a lot of news that it was not a
smooth effort. But I have zero problems with mine.

> Touch's development was a freaking nightmare. That's
> all.

That is your opinion and your words. The Touch as a SlimDevice came
together fairly quickly. The UI was rough, but the basics worked from
early on. It was the damn TinySBS that has been a schedule killer. Not a
lot of news here, embedded systems are a lot harder than normal
computer/consumer applications.

I will argue that if they left the "server reads from USB disks and
thumb drives" off the advertising copy, they could have had a successful
product nearly a year earlier.

I personally have zero interest in TinySBS. It does not solve any
problems that I have.

Again, whether or not it is called a "SqueezeOS platform", all modern
devices like the Touch have an embedded Linux in them. Its how its done
for low volume stuff, which included these days 40 inch TVs, that sell
far more units than any SqueezeBox ever will. There are bathroom scales
with Bluetooth or WiFi, they have embedded Linux in them.

Perhaps they had too many features on the checklist, perhaps the
engineers were bad, or the engineering management was bad, that is water
over the damn. If there is a follow-on product, its going to be built
using a touch screen and an embedded Linux base. The smart phone
industry (do I need to mention that the most popular smartphone has a
linux embedded system in it) has driven the market to demand touch
screens. And the volumes seen in smartphones have driven the prices for
touchscreens down to levels that could not have been imagined when the
Touch was first created.

Pat
--
Pat Farrell

http://www.pfarrell.com/

[bwaldron]

I wonder why coupon codes keep popping up for fantastic deals on the Touch. That's worrysome because the Touch isn't ready for a replacement anytime soon.

The Touch not being available any longer at Amazon (even through third-party sellers) makes one wonder as well.

[Goodsounds]

The past few years have been tumultuous. Product completion and release delays, supply disruptions (which are still ongoing), etc. I wonder what the after-the-fact internal conclusions and action points are, if any? Or, are we looking at orphans, products lacking champions within the grand scheme of things at Logitech?

On the embedded linux comment, people who have expertise and experience in such matters tell me that most companies are agnostic concerning which embedded OS's to use in products. Decisions are made based on many factors, including cost and timing considerations. "Cost" can involve many things, including development resources, specialized needs of the software, costs of tools and licenses, etc. Embedded linux can often be the right choice, and oftentimes not.

If there were people who worked for nothing to make free construction-grade lumber available for construction, many houses would be build using it. It wouldn't have to be better than other choices if it were free, because "good enough" is often all that is needed.

[Honva]

As a user, I was very disappointed with the product line in the last couple of years. My feeling is that Logitech is destroying the very good slimdevices line in the last few years. To we end users, we just want a device with good audio quality, simple user interface and reliable software. The old classic dump squeezeboxes just did the job well.

What Logictech did was:
1. Unnecessarily changed the devices to linux computers to increase complexity that their company's programmers can't handle.
2. Dropped the important digital out on most of their products except top of the line. Consumers ended up with not much choices.
3. In this age of global village, Logitech dropped support to display international character sets. (need users to do their own mods to fix)
4. Discontinued useful functions when their programmer cannot solve their own problem. eg. Remote number keys for favorites; constant digital out level while having variable analogue out, etc.
5. Newer software even less stable than older version.

I was a happy user when I bought my first squeezebox feeling the product was so much better than competition. My recent purchases ended up with a lot of time spent on finding workarounds.

[mherger]

New Boom on the Horizon?

While I as an employee have not always been happy with what decisions were taken, your list of criticism isn't fair. And it's a very personal list of issues too. Let's look at it another way:

> 1. Unnecessarily changed the devices to linux computers to increase
> complexity that their company's programmers can't handle.

- users were asking for more codec support on the device
- users were asking for artwork display
- users were asking for a simple streaming solution
- ...

A change was needed because users wanted a lot which the old platform couldn't do any more. It's probably not the changes _you_ wanted, but a large part of our customer base did.

> 2. Dropped the important digital out on most of their products except
> top of the line. Consumers ended up with not much choices.

What's your bottom of the line? Radio or the now dropped Classic? There are different products: with or without speakers. Those without speakers have digital out. Those with speakers don't. It's a different use case with different features.

Not much choices? There used to be two products (Classic, Transporter). Today there are five (Transporter, Duet, Radio, Touch, Boom).

> 3. In this age of global village, Logitech dropped support to display
> international character sets.

It's unfortunate that support for _some_ international characters was dropped. But others were added at the same time. And it's for sure not dropping all of them.

> 4. Discontinued useful functions when their programmer cannot solve
> their own problem. eg. Remote number keys for favorites; constant
> digital out level while having variable analogue out, etc.

If you were following these forums you'd know that a.) the remote keys are still fully functional, though probably not the way you like it, and b.) is being added for the next major release.

> 5. Newer software even less stable than older version.

Again your POV, no facts. Numbers of support cases prove different.

--

Michael

[Mnyb]

On 5. I disagree, slightly. Never version are very stable for me, but the old ones was to. I have no big problems with sbs(I see things in the 7.6 beta,but it's the purpose of beta).
A problem is that upgrading sometimes takes a completely clean install to function, just upgrading is not always cutting it (hence i slightly disagree).

On 2. I simply don't understand the receiver has digital out and the Touch ??
Receiver is by far the cheapest thing they ever produced it has digital out.
Touch is giving you 24/96 digital out at price that is a fraction off what a transporter costes you.
So under logitechs flag digital out has gotten cheaper and better, you are wrong on this.

Digital out on boom or radio would not make sense, they are standalone players with their own speakers not meant to plug in to your stereo, you want digital out on your car stereo to ?