I've tried a lot of fitness trackers, and this under-$50 one is truly great

I've tried a lot of fitness trackers, and this under-$50 one is truly great

The best cheap fitness tracker you can buy is the $47 Mi Band 6. It's hard to pass up if you're on a budget but still want features like automatic workout detection, a blood oxygen sensor, sleep tracking and 24/7 heart rate monitoring. Bonus: it's compatible with Android and iOS. 

There's no shortage of fitness bands and smartwatches under $100. The $70 Amazfit Bip S and newer Bip U are some of our favorite budget watches, but if you're looking for something smaller, with very similar health and fitness tracking and a nicer screen, the Mi Band 6 is a great choice. I'm a big advocate for finding cheaper alternatives to big-name products, even making an entire YouTube series dedicated to the cause. Here's why I think the Mi Band 6 is a viable competitor to similar products from big-name brands like Fitbit and the new Amazon Halo View.

A bright screen makes the Mi Band a pleasure to use 

This thing is so light, I often forget it's on my wrist. Which is a good thing in the middle of a workout when I'm trying to concentrate on my next rep, or at night when I don't want to feel a chunky smartwatch rubbing against my pillow.

A 1.56-inch AMOLED display might sound small, but thanks to its pixel density of 326ppi, the Mi Band 6's text and graphics look incredibly crisp. I never feel like I need to pull out a magnifying glass or squint to make out what a text message says. Most importantly, it's easy to see the display in bright sunlight.

The screen and interface are also responsive and I haven't experienced any performance issues or lag. One thing I'd add to the wish list for the next generation is an auto brightness sensor so it can detect the ambient light and adjust the intensity of the screen on its own.

The screen is easy to see.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

Here's the laundry list of smart features you get on the Mi Band 6:

• Music playback control
• App notifications from your phone, plus call and message alerts
• Find my phone
• Phone muting option (Android only)
• Calendar and event reminders
• Remote camera shutter

As you can see, there's no shortage of tools onboard and it even goes one better than Fitbit's $180 Charge 5 by having a find-my-phone app and camera remote. While I'd like a speaker and mic so I could take quick calls from my wrist, for the price, I can't expect that much. 

The Mi Fit app is the weakest part of the whole experience. Compared with the slick experience and icons you see when navigating the band itself, the app feels like an afterthought. Even weeks later, I still take a beat to work out exactly where each feature lives, like my sleep metrics and workout stats. 

On the plus side, plenty of third-party apps can tap into the Mi Band 6 to customize almost every aspect, from watch faces to remapping actions for the music control app. My favorite is AmazTools because it lets me export my workout data with GPS and map details to services like Strava.

Workout tracking on the Mi Band 6 is fine for the price

Just some of the stats the Mi Band gives you post-workout.

Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET

One of my main criticisms of earlier Mi Bands was the limited range of workout tracking options. If you wanted to record a Pilates or yoga session for instance, there was only a generic "exercise" type that wasn't particularly precise in calculating overall effort. Now, the Mi Band 6 gives you 30 fitness modes from the usual running and cycling all the way to Zumba, HIIT and indoor ice skating. It can also autodetect activities like running, walking and cycling if you forget to manually start recording the workout.

You also get sleep tracking and a blood oxygen sensor that can take a spot reading, or check it during the day and night in the background.

For the price, I'm happy with how the Mi Band records workouts. You get detailed breakdowns of your pace, splits and heart rate zones post-workout in the app. The band also tracks a physiological activity indicator or PAI score for you. It measures the amount of moderate to intense physical activity you do each day, similar to Fitbit's Active Zone Minutes metric. The PAI score is a bit vague and trickier to understand than the Fitbit score, but I do like how it recommends what intensity workout I should do if I'm lagging behind on my score that day.

But if you're looking for the most accurate heart rate tracker for cardio-based exercise like runs and walks, this will not be the best fit for you. During a leisurely outdoor walk with a few small hills, the Mi Band said my heart rate peaked at 180bpm -- way higher than the number my chest strap said. There's also no onboard GPS, which is not a surprise given this costs $45, so you will need to take your phone with you on workouts to record distance and route information. But that phone-assisted tracking is still a step up from the new $80 Amazon Halo View, which lacks any kind of distance tracking. I also needed to manually sync the band in the Mi Fit app every time I started a workout to get the GPS tracking to kick in, which was a bit annoying.

The Mi Band 6's battery life takes it to the next level

I'm used to wearing smartwatches and trackers that barely last two days between charges. That's why when I read about the Mi Band's 14 days of battery life, I had to do a double take. Surely, that can't be right? Turns out there's a bit of a catch. If you're doing a lot of workouts, using the blood oxygen and heart rate sensors frequently, plus keeping the screen brightness on high you're more likely to reach need to charge after five days. That's still pretty good compared with some alternatives and I can regularly get to a week and change before needing to juice it up again. I'm sure I could push it to 14 days if I was only using this to get notifications from my phone and to track steps.

The Mi Band 6 is my favorite budget fitness tracker of the year, especially if you're just looking to dip your toes into the world of fitness wearables and want something you won't need to charge very often.

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Describe mirabel from encanto mirabel from encanto images what is encanto from how well did encanto do how famous is encanto what is encanto all about what is encanto from september 13 fun facts 13 fundamental standards

13 fun facts about Encanto, from Mirabel's gift to hidden Easter eggs

13 fun facts about Encanto, from Mirabel's gift to hidden Easter eggs

Whaddya mean, we don't talk about Bruno? These days, it feels like everyone's doing just that. Disney's hit animated musical Encanto came out in theaters in November and now is available on Disney Plus. The coronavirus pandemic might have limited Encanto's time in theaters, but on Disney Plus, it can be watched over and over again. And with its catchy Lin-Manuel Miranda songs such as We Don't Talk About Bruno and Surface Pressure, it's easy to do just that.

If you're spending an inordinate amount of time hanging out in the world of Encanto, here are 13 fun facts you might not know about the world of the magical Madrigal family. 

Warning: Spoilers for Encanto ahead.

What does the title Encanto mean?

You can translate "encanto" from the Spanish to mean charm, or think of it as allure, or enchantment. Not only is the casita in Encanto enchanted with magic, but the entire Madrigal family carries with them that allure and sheer joy. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda inspired many Bruno memes

Actor John Leguizamo voices Bruno, the Madrigal member the family doesn't talk about (except that they totally do). The Madrigals are a Colombian family, and Leguizamo himself was born in Bogotá, Colombia, so the casting seems spot-on there. But many fans saw a resemblance between Bruno and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, in both appearance and the importance of his role. While Miranda hasn't publicly said he ever thought of playing the role himself, the idea of him playing the part has inspired plenty of memes.

"I just saw a TikTok of a guy who said Bruno Madrigal looks like Lin-Manuel Miranda if Hamilton never made it to Broadway," tweeted one fan.

Said another, "How many people do ya think it took to hold Lin back from voicing Bruno?"

Bruno is hiding in the movie poster

Look carefully at the poster for Encanto, crowded with the Madrigal family. Isn't that ... yep, it's Bruno, the mysterious Madrigal the family doesn't like to discuss, hiding under his green cloak in the far left part of the poster, next to a tree trunk.

Can you find Bruno? Hint: Look by the tree on the far left.

Disney

Beauty and the Beast inspired the opening song

Remember the opening number from 1991's Beauty and the Beast, in which Belle whirls through her village singing about the people she knows there? That concept inspired Miranda's opening number in Encanto, The Family Madrigal, in which Mirabel introduces her magical relatives and their powers.

"I was really inspired by Beauty and the Beast, Belle, for our opening number," Miranda told the Los Angeles Times. "We wanted to get the complexity of a family on screen. And that means getting our arms around them, not letting them get winnowed away in the story process where you tend to focus on the main character and their quest. We have to be super clear about who it is, how they're related, what they can do, and how that relates to our main character."

Encanto is available on streaming service Disney Plus.

Disney

Mirabel's skirt pays tribute to her family members

Clothing matters in Encanto. Mirabel's family members all have a symbol somewhere on their clothing indicating their gift. (Look for the barbells on super-strong Luisa's skirt, or Pepa's sunshine earrings, fitting since her emotions control the weather.) But Mirabel, who starts the film with no gift, has them all embroidered on her skirt, including a candle for Abuela; a chameleon for shape-shifting Camilo; animals for Antonio; and more.

"My favorite detail about Encanto is that every character has a symbol of their miracle embroidered on their clothes, except for Mirabel who has symbols of her entire family," one fan notes in a tweet.

Look closely at Agustín's outfit, too

Mirabel's dad, Agustín, also reps his family in his outfit, Encanto director Jared Bush points out.

"Agustín incorporated his three daughters into his outfit -- flower for Isabela, one sock with Luisa's symbols, one sock in the style of Mirabel's embroidery," Bush explained in a tweet.

What is Mirabel's gift in Encanto?

Huge spoilers, but when a young Mirabel tries to receive her magical gift, nothing appears to happen. It seems that she is the Madrigal family's one Muggle, in Harry Potter terms. But in the film, when Mirabel finally is able to put her hand on a doorknob after her childhood attempt fails, it brings the magical casita of the Madrigals back to life. Perhaps her gift is the greatest one, the power to keep her family, their home and all their magical separate gifts, together and thriving.

Then again, the fact that she can't lift churches or see visions of the future is shown to be less important than her love for her family. As one witty fan pointed out on Twitter, the film shows that "Mirabel is an independent and capable person who is just as deserving of love and acceptance as the rest of her family, and putting so much focus on a singular aspect of a person's identity can be emotionally and psychologically damaging."

Yet the audience still demands to know: "OK but whats her gift tho?"

Hercules and Cerberus

In Luisa's super-catchy song Surface Pressure, she musically wonders, "Was Hercules ever like 'Yo, I don't wanna fight Cerberus?'" Cerberus is the three-headed dog who guards the gates to the underworld in Greek mythology, but this could also be a Disney movie reference. In the 1997 Disney movie Hercules, strongman Herc tames Cerberus, so this reference could be a smart reminder of that film.

Lin-Manuel's sister inspired Luisa's song

In Surface Pressure, Luisa sings of how the family's burdens are often dumped upon her without them asking, because they're used to her carrying them without complaint. The song was inspired by Miranda's own sister, Luz, who's six years older than he is.

"She takes on way more responsibility than I do -- I was very aware that I was the baby brother who got away with everything -- so Surface Pressure is very much a love letter to my sister," Miranda told The Washington Post.

And Luz indeed sounds like Luisa, even down to her abilities at a young age.

"I remember my parents woke my sister up to put together a He-Man playset for Christmas before I woke up," Miranda told Variety. "They wanted it to be fully assembled when I woke up on Christmas morning."

Go fish

In We Don't Talk About Bruno, one character appears briefly but memorably, claiming Bruno told her that her fish would die, and his vision came true (she even displays the upside-down floating fish). That character's never introduced, but director Jared Bush told fans her name is "Senora Pezmuerto." Translation? "Pezmuerto" means "dead fish."

Mirabel's height

The lyrics to We Don't Talk About Bruno claim that he has a "seven-foot frame and rats along his back," but when Bruno shows up, he's nowhere near that tall. For some reason, fans of the film are very interested in Mirabel's height.

Director Jared Bush said in a tweet, "Here's an answer to a question I've been asked A LOT -- 'how tall is Mirabel?!' Official answer: 5'2" -- all other characters' heights are relative to hers, so that's all I got... except Bruno who has, you know, a 7-foot frame and rats along his back."

Meet Mirabel at Disney

Even though the film just came out in November, Mirabel showed up at Disney's California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, California, for the winter holidays. A Disney representative didn't immediately respond to a question about whether she'll become a permanent presence at the theme park, or whether she'll show up at Walt Disney World in Florida as well.

Nice to meet you, old friend

Voice actors don't always have to be in the same room to record their parts, and that's especially been true during the coronavirus pandemic. Lin-Manuel Miranda said he coached many of the singers through Zoom, and didn't meet many of them until the film's November premiere.

Not easy being green

Notice the importance of the color green in the film, especially connected to two specific characters. Mirabel's round eyeglasses are a bright green, and Bruno hides under a green cloak. It's no coincidence that these two have other things in common, especially when it comes to having unusual talents.

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How to Make Your Outdoor Zoom Meetings Sound Better

How to Make Your Outdoor Zoom Meetings Sound Better

Two years of pandemic living has shifted my default workspace from an office to the now-common sidewalk seating outside almost every cafe or coffee shop in New York. Weather permitting, it's also my favorite place to join Zoom or other web meetings. And don't worry, I always use a headset, usually a set of AirPods Pro, to avoid bothering those around me. 

But it's not a perfect system. Sitting outside, even in a semi-enclosed wooden sidewalk shed, there's a lot of noise around me. Besides other human beings, I've got to contend with cars, trucks and buses driving by a few feet away, as well as occasional police, ambulance and fire engine sirens. The result is that my outgoing audio -- what the other people in the meetings hear through my mic -- is often noisy or unintelligible, and I would get a lot of complaints about it. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

In this particular case, using a MacBook and AirPods, I used a quick tweak to greatly improve my audio, which was greatly appreciated by the other people in my meetings. 

The problem is that the microphone built into the AirPods is merely OK at best, even with a directional mic on each earbud and behind-the-scenes audio cleanup. However, the MacBook Pro I was using has a high-quality three-mic array. In addition to the better mics -- and the fact that my voice is actually projecting in the direction of those mics -- the Apple-silicon-powered MacBook Pro has a ton of computational power to do all that behind-the-scenes AI sweetening and noise filtering. (The Zoom app tries to help with that as well.)

Read more: MacBook Pro 14-inch Review  

Here's what you want your Zoom settings to look like. Except your AirPods probably aren't named after me. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

So after you pop in your AirPods or other earbuds, navigate to Zoom > Preferences > Audio. There you'll see separate pulldown menus labeled Speaker and Microphone. Under Speaker, select your AirPods. Under Microphone, select your laptop's built-in mic. In my case, it was labeled MacBook Pro Microphone. That's it. You're done. 

In the middle of a Zoom meeting, I made this voice input switch, as I was having trouble competing with a busy street corner and a nearby subway entrance. Everyone on the call immediately noticed the difference and said I sounded much clearer. 

Many Windows laptops have excellent built-in mics as well, so this isn't a Mac-only tip. Similarly, I was using AirPods, but this goes for other earbuds, too. 

Or, you could always just wear a giant gaming headset with a microphone boom arm, which is always a good look for your local coffee shop. 

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Hey, Gen Z: Here's What Millennials Say About Riding Out a Recession

Hey, Gen Z: Here's What Millennials Say About Riding Out a Recession

This story is part of Recession Help Desk, CNET's coverage of how to make smart money moves in an uncertain economy.

I'm officially one year away from graduating college, and I have no idea what comes next. A job, hopefully. Grad school, maybe? For me, college has been about preparing to enter the workforce, armed with all the skills I need to succeed. Now that it's time to start actually applying for jobs and planning for long-term financial stability, it's pretty scary.

Entering the job market comes with endless challenges, even in a healthy economy. And regardless of the debate over whether we're in an official recession, the past few months have demonstrated how difficult it can be to remain financially stable during a shaky economy. Inflation is at a historic high, and wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. Higher interest rates are also making homes, cars and other big-ticket items more expensive and inaccessible.

And that makes the idea of entering the job market all the more terrifying.

Older generations who have already lived through recessions may be more prepared. Millennials, those born roughly between 1981 and 1996, are feeling some déjà vu. Many in this cohort entered the job market just as the Great Recession was taking place, and the years that followed altered the course of their career and financial trajectory in major ways. 

I caught up with five millennials who completed their undergraduate studies between late 2007 and 2009 and managed to navigate the last economic downturn. I wanted to learn how they were impacted, from layoffs and tightening budgets to career pivots, and what skills they developed that were most important for staying afloat. Each had a unique experience that affected their approach to finances today. Now, as they reflect on that time, they see the hard-won lessons and share their best advice with the next generation. 

What stood out was the power of investing for the future, such as taking advantage of employee-match programs and routinely contributing to 401(k)s and Roth IRAs. The millennials I spoke with all encouraged Gen Zers to invest early in their careers. And they each had more nuggets of wisdom to hand down to us -- including how to make the most of the first few years out of college, how to talk money with employers, discuss finances with partners and build successful careers in unexpected ways. 

Here's what they shared via email. 

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Embrace career uncertainty and be flexible 

Katie Oelker, St. Paul, Minnesota

Katie Oelker worked in the auditing department of a bank after college while living with her parents, mainly to build some savings and pay off private student loans. That ultimately allowed her to afford going back to school to get her master's in education. 

Since Oelker didn't want to have a career in banking or auditing, she always took advantage of different learning opportunities, like training sessions or conferences, that were offered through her job. "If you don't like what you're doing post-graduation or even if you do, there are always educational opportunities to pursue that can help you further your career down the line," she told me by email. 

That career-building focus came in handy when she decided to pivot once again, this time to become a certified Business Education instructor. After teaching courses ranging from personal finance to marketing at two different high schools, she now runs her own business as a freelance writer and money coach. Having flexibility in her vision allowed her to navigate the recessionary job market and explore new industries.

"I've never been afraid to open new doors and try new things when it comes to career and educational opportunities, and it has paid off," she said. 

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Talk about money with your partner, even if it's hard

Jared and Katie Pogue, Atlanta, Georgia

Before getting married, Jared and Katie Pogue learned that they needed to find productive ways to talk about money, especially how to afford building a family. The two had radically different outlooks on financial planning, which caused anxiety. Katie said she had many long-term goals, while Jared described his approach as "ignorant optimism."

They developed a routine to talk about money. They set a time limit for one day a week and slowly worked through their finances. They were eventually able to align their goals, which helped them make big financial decisions, including how to finance a house, when to have children and if they should go back to school. They came up with a division of labor, with Jared taking care of the daily and monthly payments, and Katie overseeing more long-term planning. Neither one could do their part alone.

"Once we started making tangible progress and got on the same page, our financial conversations were much more fruitful," said Jared. 

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Negotiate for more, despite your doubts

Sara Gifford, Hyattsville, Maryland

Sara Gifford's first full-time job out of college wasn't her ideal choice. But with the tightening labor market, she felt compelled to accept an offer from the company she had interned with. 

"I settled for a job where I was expected to work 60-plus hours a week for laughably low pay, and I didn't negotiate my salary or benefits because I felt the employer held all the power," she said. Accepting such low compensation at her first job made it harder to move her salary benchmark forward in future negotiations.

Though recessions put more pressure on workers to avoid asking for higher pay, Gifford said that shouldn't discourage you from negotiating other benefits, such as commuting stipends, paid vacation and flexible or remote working hours. If the employer's not agreeable to any perks, it might be a sign to keep looking. "If the company pulls the offer, that's such a red flag."

Though she regrets not asking for better pay, she's proud that she took advantage of opportunities to network and learn new skills. It all came in handy when she decided to leave and build her career. Today Gifford runs her own marketing strategy company.

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Identify your money priorities 

Adam Eisenberg, Huntington Woods, Michigan

Adam Eisenberg is still working at the company that offered him his first job in sales logistics. After college, he got his money goals in order, which for him meant immediately prioritizing payments toward his student loans -- instead of moving out of his parents' house. 

"I put my commission checks toward paying off my debt. It took four years to do it, and the first three I was living at my parents house, but it was worth it." While everyone's priorities are different, identifying them early on can help you better decide where your money should go.

In fact, Eisenberg originally had a second job offer he was considering, and took a similar approach when comparing his options -- he prioritized what mattered most to him. A higher commission rate, he decided, would ultimately be more beneficial for him, even if the base salary was lower. Another appealing component was the company's potential for growth. 

Eisenberg said that those entering the job market should expand beyond their normal job research to "make sure the foundation is there for future success." 

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Budgets can be your calm in the storm

Jonathan Schrull, Indianapolis, Indiana

At the end of 2008, Jonathan Schrull was laid off from his second job after graduating. He was unemployed for six months before securing a new job and felt as though he had to put off beginning his long-term career and delay savings and investing. That, according to him, cost "a lot of money in the long run." 

Looking back, he found that maintaining a budget helped alleviate some of the stress. "Seeing the figures in front of me made the situation more tangible and easy to understand," he said. Having a way to track his spending, even without any income, helped him find new opportunities to reduce his expenses. Looking at his whole financial picture, not just income, was important, because "the numbers don't lie."

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Spotify's Car Thing Is About to Face the Music

Spotify's Car Thing Is About to Face the Music

A year has 525,600 minutes. Matt Suda spent 206,989 of them -- more than a third of last year -- listening to Spotify.

Suda was one of the earliest customers to get his hands on an invite-only release of Car Thing, Spotify's first-ever hardware device, which goes on sale Tuesday. Unlike him, you probably didn't spend more time streaming music than sleeping last year. But Spotify is betting that Suda and about 140 million of you have something in common: Your car doesn't have a fancy infotainment system to rival a Tesla's.

"I was just interested in seeing Spotify's take on actually building their own hardware," said Suda, a 26-year-old student in Houston, who drives a 2012 Honda. "I wasn't expecting a whole lot. But getting the device and using it -- you can understand more the problem they're going after."

Spotify's main listening location is the home, but the car is a close second, said Gustav Söderström, Spotify's chief research and development officer. He says Americans spent an "insane" 70 billion hours a year on the road pre-pandemic. But while roughly 50% to 70% of cars on US roads may be able to connect to a phone, they're not so fresh-off-the-line as to have an entertainment display that easily streams tunes and podcasts. 

To Spotify, that meant drivers in roughly 140 million cars might stream Spotify more -- or start paying for it if they don't already -- if a device could replicate Apple's Car Play or Android Auto for them. 

"Why would we do something ourselves here?" Söderström said. "If this already existed, we wouldn't have." 

Enter Car Thing.

Sarah Tew/CNET

It may look like a bit like a sideways Zune, Microsoft's failed music player that launched in 2006. But with a credit-card-size touchscreen, mics to pick up voice commands, five buttons and a dial, the $90 Car Thing is a souped-up Spotify remote control for your ride. It mounts to your dash, with the goal of bringing a better way to safely stream music to drivers missing one of those fancy infotainment systems -- no dashboard teardown or new car required. 

When Spotify first unveiled Car Thing in April, more than 2 million people signed up for its waitlist. The earliest people invited to try it got it free; by fall, people had to start paying $80. On Tuesday, it's finally going on sale in the US, with a $10 price hike to $90.

Currently, Car Thing works only with Spotify's premium tier. That means on top of the $90 you pay for the hardware, you also must pay for a Spotify membership. Its standard subscription is $10 a month, though it comes as cheap as $5 a month for students. 

So Car Thing is only for Spotify -- but only for now. 

Its software is on track for an update in "a few weeks" that will unlock it to control other audio apps, Söderström said. If you love Audible, Car Thing will be able to play, pause, skip and adjust volume for your audio books. The update will even allow Car Thing to work for services that are Spotify's direct competitors. "We want to be an open platform," he said. 

That openness could, eventually, extend to "deeper integrations with potential partners" if Car Thing takes off, he added. While Spotify wouldn't elaborate on future partnerships, a Car Thing that could toggle between Spotify and Google Maps or Waze would give it the one-two punch of both music navigation and, well, literal navigation. 

"Why would we do something ourselves here? If this already existed, we wouldn't have."

Gustav Söderström, Spotify chief research and development officer

Broadening Car Thing may be wise, because those 140 million cars may be a more niche market than it seems, according to Tatiana Cirisano, a music industry analyst and consultant at researcher MIDiA. Just 22% of US consumers stream music in the car. 

"Streaming services are battling for market share over this relatively small demographic," Cirisano said. 

With sales opening in the US on Tuesday, Spotify is about to start learning: Is Car Thing tapping into a caravan of unmet need for millions of drivers? Or is it driving headlong toward a dead end? 

But as vehicles steer toward a future of being more autonomous, anything Spotify can do to solidify itself as the must-have music service in the car may pay dividends down the road. 

"Full autonomy is probably the most elusive goal of all, but the dream is: You get into your car and all the windows turn into displays," said Edward Sanchez, a senior automotive analyst at Strategy Analytics. "That's what everyone's salivating at the prospect of."

Sarah Tew/CNET

Getting to mile one

The concept for something like Car Thing had been percolating at Spotify for a while, but the device's date of conception might be marked in 2018, when it got its name. First proposed over dinner among a handful of Spotify hardware designers and brand agents, Car Thing was a semi-serious placeholder that the design team adopted for a code name. The name was funny, very literal and a bit childish, said Andreas Cedborg, Spotify's head of hardware product. 

"People think, 'Hey, you can't name it like that,'" Cedborg said. "But, yeah, you can."

Hints about Spotify making hardware for the car soon trickled out. In 2018, some marketing materials made their way to a smattering of Spotify users, advertising a voice-command device you could mount on your dash and pay for as an add-on to your Spotify subscription. Images showed a round device with a lit-up text display with a green circle border. Spotify declined to comment on images at the time, but the company now says it was just a test; it never produced the device pictured.

By May 2019, Spotify came clean it was experimenting with a device called Car Thing. It was different from the device in the leaked test images, but it was also a long way from what Car Thing would become.

Spotify's first iteration of Car Thing. 

Spotify

The first Car Thing's screen was too small, its dial too big, Cedborg said. Its green accents, a nod to Spotify's flagship color, made it stick out from the rest of the dashboard rather than blending in. It also had its own battery, which the current version eschews in favor of a cable that connects to your car's USB port or 12-volt socket. While a battery would make Car Thing more self-sufficient, freezing temperatures inside a car during winter would ding battery life, and scorching heat with a car baking in the sun risked explosion. A battery also adds weight, making it trickier to mount well. 

The Car Thing team's eureka moment was combining a hat-trick of voice commands, touch screen and physical inputs like buttons and dials. Drivers needed all three, working in concert, they realized. A touchscreen is impossible for typing each letter of a song title while driving, but voice commands handle long titles easily. Yet voice commands are a frustrating way to get to the bottom of a long playlist; a physical dial makes that simple. This three-prong approach was "the user interface that we didn't see anywhere in the car world," Söderström said. 

After three more years of testing, redesign, user research and pandemic delays, Car Thing was ready for its unveiling. In April, Spotify published a blog post that yes, Car Thing was real. Yes, Car Thing was the name. And yes, it had arrived -- sort of. Spotify introduced the waitlist, and people who signed up for it could potentially get it free. 

The current design of Car Thing.

Sarah Tew/CNET

"We just can't make enough of them," CEO Daniel Ek said in October about getting Car Things into the hands of waitlisted customers. Progress was crimped by global chip shortages, a problem that halted carmakers' assembly lines, made Apple's iPhone 12 launch weeks late and turned finding a Sony's PS5 game console into a Christmas miracle. (Ek wasn't available to discuss Car Thing's US launch.)

But this slow seeding of the device allowed Spotify to gather feedback about Car Thing in the wild, figuring out what needed change or improvement. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

Road ahead

The version of Car Thing on sale Tuesday is the same physical device purchased off the waitlist. What's changed is the software. And the price. 

In pricing Car Thing at $90, Spotify is straddling two worlds. On one side, Car Thing isn't meant to be a revenue engine. Hardware "is a means to an end," Söderström said. Spotify hopes you'll pay for its service more so than its hardware. But on the other side, Spotify doesn't want to sell Car Thing at a loss just to make back the money on memberships. It wants to get Car Thing in as many cars as possible, but it will gauge Car Thing's success by the new subscribers and higher listening rates from existing members it attracts.

Despite the price hike, Spotify wants to get the price down. The $10 price increase was the result of the rising cost of chips, the company said. One thing that could help bring down price is selling Car Thing, eventually, outside the US, since scaling production can bring down the unit cost of making them. Spotify isn't committing to international expansion, but there are clear markets where Car Thing could go next, Söderström said, pointing theoretically to parts of Central and South America and Europe.

The company could also pursue bundles and deals that could make Car Thing a stronger value, he said.  

Gustav Söderström is Spotify's chief research and development officer.

Spotify

Söderström likens Car Thing to the Kindle, Amazon's hit e-reader. As Amazon's play to keep Apple from dominating digital books, Kindle was a means to an end, too. When the Kindle first launched in 2007, it was $399. Today, coincidentally, Kindles start at $90, the same price as Car Thing. 

Car Thing also comes at a time when Spotify's public image has been buffeted by drama over its most popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience. The debate pits accusations of dangerous COVID-19 misinformation against advocacy of freedom of speech. Spotify declined to comment on the Rogan debate.

Though 2 million on the Car Thing waitlist is a big number, it may have included flocks of people looking to score a freebie and a gaggle who were enticed by the hype around Spotify's first hardware. Sara Kayden, the marketing lead for Car Thing, says Spotify's conversion rate -- the amount people who actually buy Car Thing when they get off the waitlist -- was "healthy," without specifying further. 

The buyer reaction to Car Thing so far runs the gamut. Social media is dotted with both raves and regrets by people who got one off the waitlist. One Redditor mounted Car Thing to his Harley Davidson motorcycle and paired it to his Bluetooth headphones. Before Car Thing, switching tracks or adjusting volume was "nearly impossible" with his phone in his pocket and leather gloves on. 

But others have complained Car Thing was overpriced even when it was $80. 

Suda, the Spotify power user who scored Car Thing early and free, is still using the gadget every time he drives, nine months later. He's noticed that Car Thing's software has gotten zippier. "To me, it just makes it easier to listen and it's actually safer, if you don't have CarPlay or any of that fancy stuff," he said. 

In 2019, when Spotify revealed its first iteration of Car Thing, it also brought to light the possibility of a "Voice Thing" and "Home Thing." It was hardware that never materialized. Still, "it wasn't vaporware," Söderström said. "I've tried it. But it's not something we're launching right now." Spotify declined to comment on what its next thing in hardware would be. Regardless, they should definitely code-name it Next Thing.

And if Next Thing is ever to become a Real Thing, Spotify must pray Car Thing follows the roadmap of Kindle rather than Zune.

CNET's Katie Collins contributed to this report.  

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