An open letter from Sonos regarding the "new" app

 

To our listeners,

We know that too many of you have experienced significant problems with our new app which rolled out on May 7, and I want to begin by personally apologizing for disappointing you. There isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been, and continues to be, our number one priority. 

We developed the new app to create a better experience, with the ability to drive more innovation in the future, and with the knowledge that it would get better over time. However, since launch we have found a number of issues. Fixing these issues has delayed our prior plan to quickly incorporate missing features and functionality.  

Since May 7, we have released new software updates approximately every two weeks, each making significant and meaningful improvements, adding features and fixing bugs. Please see the release notes for Sonos software updates for detailed information on what has been released to date.

While these software updates have enabled the majority of our customers to have a robust experience using the Sonos app, there is more work to be done. We have prioritized the following improvements in our next phase of software updates:

July and August:

Improving the stability when adding new products

Implementing Music Library configuration, browse, search, and play

August and September:

Improving Volume responsiveness

User interface improvements based on customer feedback

Improving overall system stability and error handling

September:

Improving Alarm consistency and reliability

September and October:

Restoring edit mode for Playlists and the Queue

Improving functionality in settings 

We plan to continue releasing new software updates on a bi-weekly cadence. With each release, we will share detailed notes on what we’ve addressed and what we’re working on next in our Community.

We deeply appreciate your patience as we address these issues. We know we have work to do to earn back your trust and are committed to doing it.  I am always open to your feedback. You can find me via email at ceo@sonos.com.

Sincerely, Patrick Spence

www.sonos.com

How to add insult to injury: CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage

 

CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that crashed millions of computers with a botched update all over the world last week, is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology, according to several people who say they received the gift card, as well as a source who also received one.

On Tuesday, a source told TechCrunch that they received an email from CrowdStrike offering them the gift card because the company recognizes “the additional work that the July 19 incident has caused.” 

“And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” the email read, according to a screenshot shared by the source. The same email was also posted on X by someone else. “To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!”

www.techcrunch.com

Reading for today: On Forgiveness

We say a great many things in church (and out of church too) without thinking of what we are saying. For instance, we say in the Creed “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” I had been saying it for several years before I asked myself why it was in the Creed. At first sight it seems hardly worth putting in. “If one is a Christian,” I thought, “of course one believes in the forgiveness of sins. It goes without saying.” But the people who compiled the Creed apparently thought that this was a part of our belief which we needed to be reminded of every time we went to church. And I have begun to see that, as far as I am concerned, they were right. To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not nearly so easy as I thought. Real belief in it is the sort of thing that very easily slips away if we don’t keep on polishing it up.

We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord’s Prayer; was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don’t forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.

From The Weight of Glory

Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Another reason why the cashless society sucks...

Businesses including Waterstones and Gail's have been forced to return to accepting just cash after electronic payments were hit by a web outage.

Shops, cafes, pubs and even Parliament have been impacted by the global systems, forcing customers to use cash to pay for goods and services.

Waitrose told shoppers it was unable to process contactless payments as a global IT outage sparks chaos across the UK.

The middle-class supermarket was understood to only be able to process chip and pin payments or take cash in stores, before confirming its systems were back up and running. Customers reported being told that they would have to get cash out of nearby card machines to pay for shopping. 

www.telegraph.co.uk

Mass IT outage affects airlines, media and banks

A raft of global institutions - including major banks, media outlets and airlines - have reported suffering a mass IT outage.

The US state of Alaska has warned its emergency services are affected, while several of the country's airlines have grounded their flights around the globe.

Sky News UK is completely off air as a result of the issues. Australia - which has been particularly hard hit - has seen broadcast networks scrambling on air as systems failed and supermarkets crippled.

The cause of the outage is unclear, but many of those impacted have linked it to Microsoft PC operating systems.

An official Microsoft 365 service update posted to X earlier in the day said " we're investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services".

However, a Microsoft spokesperson told the BBC on Friday that "the majority of services were recovered" hours earlier.

A spokesperson for Australia's Home Affairs Minister said the outage appears to be related to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, and the country's cybersecurity watchdog said there is no information to suggest it an attack.

“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," they said in a statement.

www.bbc.co.uk

Speed Limiters Now Mandatory In All New EU Cars

Cars have been able to figure out when they're speeding for a while, thanks to GPS as well as traffic sign recognition, and they've also been able to pump the brakes automatically when needed.

Having a computer automatically slow down a car in response to posted speed limits, therefore, was not really a question of technical feasibility for some time - but mandating it has been a question of political will.

That political will has materialized in the European Union, and starting July 7 all new cars sold in the EU will feature intelligent speed assistance (ISA) systems.

The systems themselves have been working their way into newly introduced models of cars starting in 2022, so quite a few new cars on the road already feature them. The July 2024 regulation extends that mandate to all new vehicles being manufactured for sale in the EU.

www.autoweek.com

Beaulieu Bikers' Day 2024

 

MikeG & I were very happy to attend Beaulieu Bikers' Day on Saturday 6th July.

I booked my ticket to this event in mid June, barely giving their "early bird ticket" competition a thought. I was bowled over to discover that I'd won a Friends of the National Motor Museum Trust annual pass worth £62.50 and a £250 Dearden Motorcycles voucher. What an amazing pair of prizes!

Mike & I rode up from Denmead. The weather started out with drizzle, and was like that for a chunk of the ride out to the New Forest, but soon perked up. The rest of the day was fine - which was perfect for wandering around Beaulieu & enjoying the day.

We were welcomed by Charlotte who was responsible for organising this event: who with her team had done a grand job! There were masses of visitors, stands from motorcycle dealers, Mental Health Motorbike had a stand, historic bike startups (loud!) great food & drink concessions & access to the excellent museum. What a fantastic day.

Honestly Beaulieu is such a special place: petrol head heaven! Set in a stunningly beautiful village, which in turn is in the heavenly New Forest. Honestly, treat yourself to a wonderful day out. Tell 'em Don sent you!

Google Photos HERE