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Home / Hot Stuff / Cars & bikes / Spotify’s limited-edition Car Thing is a smart music player you can slap on your dash

Spotify’s limited-edition Car Thing is a smart music player you can slap on your dash

Diesel power

Spotify has released a new smart music player for cars that’ll make pumping up the jam while you’re cruising down the M60 a breeze. The tablet-like device is called the ‘Car Thing‘ – which is either a marketing masterstroke or faux pas depending on how you view alarmingly twee naming conventions – and it’s an all-in-one doodah for delivering tunes, news, podcasts, playlists, and more while you’re at the wheel. Car Thing will link straight to your Spotify premium account (so there’s no need to connect your phone), and can be controlled using the steering dial, touchscreen, or voice commands. A simple ‘Hey Spotify’ will wake up the little tyke, letting you control playback and request albums, playlists, artists, and more with a quick flex of your vocal cords. The touchscreen display will show you what’s playing and what’s in your library along with any voice search results, and offers another way to control your tunes. As for the dial, that’s designed to let users easily curate and edit playlists on the fly. Car Thing will connect to your cherished whip by way of a 3.5mm jack or Bluetooth, and is currently being rolled out in the U.S. on an invite-only basis. There’s no word on a UK release, but we’re doing our best to will it into existance.

Profile image of Chris Kerr Chris Kerr Contributor, Stuff.tv

About

I’m a freelance games and technology journalist currently mashing my keyboard in the name of fine institutions like Stuff, where you'll usually find me waxing lyrical about the latest mobile morsels. I've also been known to cook up some decidedly delicious reviews from time to time, and was once dubbed 'the games industry's answer to Nigella Lawson' by someone probably somewhere.

Areas of expertise

Video games, computing, smartphones, home entertainment, lamps