This iPod-shaped case will change how you concentrate on the Apple Watch

The tinyPod, an Apple Watch case that synthesizes rising curiosity in dumbphones and retro tech into one fashionable gimmick, has made me suppose loads about my wrist.

I’ve grown accustomed to sporting a watch since I began sporting one in center faculty, and in the previous couple of years, I’ve gotten extra hooked up to the Apple Watch than I anticipated to. My wrist feels empty with out one. On reflection, that is not all that stunning — it acts as the whole lot from a bedside clock to a health tracker day by day.

The tinyPod’s means to show that smartwatch into one thing that appears and works extra like an iPod, however continues to be able to most of the duties of an iPhone, is an fascinating experiment in restraint. However utilizing the tinyPod, I used to be much less stunned to be taught that you should utilize the Apple Watch as a second, extra distraction-free telephone, and extra stunned at how not having my Apple Watch made me really feel.

There is a decidedly mechanical element to this case

The tinyPod appears like a basic iPod. That is fully intentional. The case is available in three sizes; 41/40mm, 45/40mm, or 49mm relying on the scale of your Apple Watch (tinyPod helps the Apple Watch Series 4 and up). If you happen to’re trying to avoid wasting cash or aren’t enamored with the case’s key gimmick, there’s additionally a comfortable rubber model of the case and not using a scroll wheel known as the tinyPod Lite.

The tinyPod prices $79 for the 2 smaller sizes, and $89 for the bigger 49mm choice. The tinyPod Lite is $29 for the smaller sizes, and $39 for the 49mm mannequin. New orders for the tinyPod are purported to ship in three to 6 weeks, providing you with loads of time to supply a brand new or refurbished Apple Watch in case you do not have already got one. For my functions, I opted to place my Apple Watch Series 7, which has been a trustworthy companion for years, at this level.

In response to its creator Newar, the tinyPod went from an experiment to an precise product on the again of its scroll wheel, which emulates the resistance of the mechanical scroll wheel on the very first iPod. It feels good, with a clean movement, however a textured floor that feels fascinating to swipe throughout, even when it takes some getting used to. It is also one of many extra difficult elements of the case.

From what I can inform, there is a pulley connecting the scroll wheel on the backside of the case to a gear that rests in opposition to the Digital Crown alongside the within. Scrolling one scrolls the opposite, with the Apple Watch haptics vibrating by means of the case so as to add to the impact. The middle of the tinyPod scroll wheel is strong plastic and does not click on, however in any other case the case provides 1:1 management over the Digital Crown. You are still capable of push the Apple Watch’s primary button on the aspect of the tinyPod, and its bigger aspect button, too. The remainder of the case is shiny plastic, rounded corners, and a easy backplate that holds the Apple Watch in place and retains the entire thing collectively.

It’s important to do issues like flip off wrist detection and rotate the orientation of your Apple Watch to make it work within the case, however when you do, you may have a bit, phone-like system to play with. It was proper round then that I noticed that the Apple Watch actually desires to be a watch.

The Apple Watch can do loads, however it’s restricted

You have already got a smartphone in your wrist

The tinyPod remedy of the Apple Watch as a standalone system is predicated on actuality. Smartwatches are very advanced in 2024. They will have mobile radios, run shrunken-down variations of highly effective cell apps to your Calendar, Reminders, and Mail, and even have their very own App Retailer. Apple is extra devoted than most to letting the Apple Watch work like a separate system if you should. The tinyPod is simply recontextualizing issues a bit by taking it off your wrist.

I’ve no good excuse for why I am going for my iPhone when an Apple Watch can do the identical issues, simply barely otherwise or slower. Utilizing my Watch within the tinyPod case, I used to be struck by how phone-like the Apple Watch is from the leap. Its display appears huge and vibrant for one factor. Utilizing it on a stroll, I used to be in a position so as to add one thing to my purchasing listing for my grocery run later that day and play a podcast I had downloaded with out counting on my telephone. At house, I made a name and used voice dictation to shoot off just a few fast messages. It felt, at occasions, like there was one thing to the concept that an Apple Watch might step in as a extra purposeful form of telephone. However over time, issues added up.

watchOS is just not designed to exchange iOS

In contrast to iOS or iPadOS, watchOS doesn’t deal with the Apple Watch’s grid of apps as its house display. You may get there with the press of the Digital Crown, however when you’re inside an app, you may’t return to that grid immediately. Urgent the Digital Crown once more takes you again to your watch face. The Apple Watch is a watch, so displaying the time must be its first concern, however that places a fairly large hamper on the goals of the tinyPod.

There are methods round it. If the app you should swap to is already operating within the background, you may press the Digital Crown twice and pull up the app switcher and entry different apps that approach. You could possibly additionally put your most used apps as issues in your watch face to make it simpler to leap again into them. However neither choice feels as straightforward or provides as a lot flexibility as a basic house display with a grid of icons.

By default, watchOS desires to inform the time. You possibly can regulate settings in order that it waits longer earlier than switching again, however ultimately, in case your Apple Watch show is asleep for lengthy sufficient, you may finish again up on the watch face reasonably than no matter e-mail you have been . These limitations bothered me, however primarily, I missed the watch-y issues I used to be utilizing my Sequence 7 for day by day:

• As a silent alarm clock within the morning
• As a nudge to really use my standing desk
• To trace my steps once I go for a day stroll
• To offer me some perception into why I really feel horrible after staying up too late.

Contained in the tinyPod case, you aren’t getting to reap the benefits of the issues that the Apple Watch is uniquely good at, simply the issues that it is surprisingly able to. It is the smartwatch in reverse, centered on the smarts (particularly the smarts that come from the smartphone) and never the watch.

The tinyPod makes me wish to rethink how I exploit my Apple Watch

I have not been utilizing the smartwatch to its fullest

It appears like we’re removed from that world now, however at one level, the Apple Watch was anticipated to step in to your iPhone much more than it does proper now. Most of the Watch’s abilities are remnants of the system it was at launch, a wrist-bound communication system that was a quasi-replacement to your smartphone.

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tinyPod

The tinyPod is an Apple Watch case that makes the smartwatch appear like an iPod with a working scroll wheel, that is designed to reap the benefits of the Apple Watch’s smartphone-like skills.

I do not suppose the tinyPod’s intelligent design makes the Apple Watch one thing it is not. Moreover how enjoyable it’s to play with, the primary factor the tinyPod has carried out for me is make me understand I am not utilizing my Apple Watch to the fullest. I must be letting my watch step in for my iPhone extra usually, particularly since I more and more have an issue utilizing my smartphone for one activity and placing it down. I’ve realized I have already got a possible reply to a few of the issues of consideration the tinyPod claims to resolve, and I do not even want a particular case to make use of them.