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 rather a lot 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 connected 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-after-day.

The tinyPod’s means to show that smartwatch into one thing that appears and works extra like an iPod, however remains to be able to most of the duties of an iPhone, is an attention-grabbing experiment in restraint. However utilizing the tinyPod, I used to be much less stunned to study 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 part to this case

The tinyPod seems like a basic iPod. That is fully intentional. The case is available in three sizes; 41/40mm, 45/40mm, or 49mm relying on the dimensions of your Apple Watch (tinyPod helps the Apple Watch Series 4 and up). If you happen to’re wanting to avoid wasting cash or aren’t enamored with the case’s key gimmick, there’s additionally a gentle rubber model of the case with out 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 presupposed to ship in three to 6 weeks, providing you with loads of time to supply a brand new or refurbished Apple Watch for those who do not have already got one. For my functions, I opted to place my Apple Watch Series 7, which has been a devoted companion for years, at this level.

In line with 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 easy movement, however a textured floor that feels attention-grabbing to swipe throughout, even when it takes some getting used to. It is also one of many extra sophisticated components 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 towards the Digital Crown alongside the within. Scrolling one scrolls the opposite, with the Apple Watch haptics vibrating by the case so as to add to the impact. The middle of the tinyPod scroll wheel is stable plastic and would not click on, however in any other case the case gives 1:1 management over the Digital Crown. You are still capable of push the Apple Watch’s principal 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 little bit, phone-like machine to play with. It was proper round then that I spotted that the Apple Watch actually desires to be a watch.

The Apple Watch can do rather a lot, but it surely’s restricted

You have already got a smartphone in your wrist

The tinyPod therapy of the Apple Watch as a standalone machine is predicated on actuality. Smartwatches are very advanced in 2024. They’ll have mobile radios, run shrunken-down variations of highly effective cellular apps on 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 machine if you could. The tinyPod is simply recontextualizing issues a bit by taking it off your wrist.

I’ve no good excuse for why I’m going for my iPhone when an Apple Watch can do the identical issues, simply barely in a different way 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 screen seems massive and vibrant for one factor. Utilizing it on a stroll, I used to be ready so as to add one thing to my buying listing for my grocery run later that day and play a podcast I had downloaded with out counting on my telephone. At dwelling, I made a name and used voice dictation to shoot off a number of fast messages. It felt, at occasions, like there was one thing to the concept an Apple Watch might step in as a extra purposeful form of telephone. However over time, issues added up.

watchOS shouldn’t be designed to interchange iOS

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

There are methods round it. If the app you could swap to is already operating within the background, you possibly can press the Digital Crown twice and pull up the app switcher and entry different apps that means. You would 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 gives as a lot flexibility as a basic dwelling display screen 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 quite than no matter e-mail you had been . These limitations bothered me, however primarily, I missed the watch-y issues I used to be utilizing my Collection 7 for day-after-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 provide me some perception into why I really feel horrible after staying up too late.

Contained in the tinyPod case, you do not get to benefit from 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, targeted on the smarts (particularly the smarts that come from the smartphone) and never the watch.

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

I have not been utilizing the smartwatch to its fullest

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

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tinyPod

The tinyPod is an Apple Watch case that makes the smartwatch seem like an iPod with a working scroll wheel, that is designed to benefit from the Apple Watch’s smartphone-like talents.

I do not suppose the tinyPod’s intelligent design makes the Apple Watch one thing it is not. In addition to how enjoyable it’s to play with, the principle factor the tinyPod has performed for me is make me notice I am not utilizing my Apple Watch to the fullest. I ought to 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.