TinyPod – Apple Watch case with scroll wheel

https://thetinypod.com/

by herbertl • 2 years ago

934 335 2 years ago

thetinypod.com

chant47473• 2 years ago

Seizure warning.

Edit for clarification:

The scrolling implementation here flashes rapidly on Firefox for Mac OS.

mrstone• 2 years ago

I'm on Firefox and it doesn't flash for me.

RIMR2• 2 years ago

Firefox for MacOS?

Zambyte• 2 years ago

I'm on Firefox Focus on Android and it is flashing for me.

Clamchop• 2 years ago

Flashes on first scroll for me as well, Firefox on Android here.

ioshaan• 2 years ago

Yes, the top half of the webpage acts as a power point presentation, with image flashes - instead of a smooth animation. - firefox on linux

mmanfrin• 2 years ago

Should probably check that your site works in firefox before submitting to hn.

stronglikedan• 2 years ago

Seems like they did, considering it works well for me on the latest version of FF.

LegitShady3• 2 years ago

do you have javascript disabled via noscript or ublock origin? It works fine on firefox for me.

wvenable• 2 years ago

Works fine for me on FF and I have copious plugins installed.

robofanatic• 2 years ago

TinyPod -> TinyPhone -> TinyPad

RIMR2• 2 years ago

Wow, this pitch really hooks you, and then halfway through the glitch-heavy presentation you're made aware that this is just a cheap controller for your Apple Watch, and that literally every feature they are advertising is a feature of the Watch, not their product.

I would never buy this because it sounds like drop-shipped garbage. The marketing should be more straightforward and tell you what this thing actually is upfront, instead of burying the lede and acting like they made a new kind of phone.

snapcaster• 2 years ago

Were you actually confused? Did you not read the title of the article but still somehow clicked it? really baffling comment

aketchum• 2 years ago

a lot of negative comments here but i think this is really neat! It is unclear what the case adds besides the form factor and buttons. Is that the main value or does the case provide charging or additional memory or anything like that?

Thanks for sharing!

chadhutchins10• 2 years ago

How does the scroll wheel work? Is it mechanical or it has some connection/interface with the software?

asadm2• 2 years ago

I feel it must be mechanical since it interfaces with crown?

laweijfmvo2• 2 years ago

tried to find that as well. the "How it works" section is completely useless.

JadoJodo• 2 years ago

"What goes around, comes around! Rediscover the delight of tactile scrolling with tinyPod’s physical scroll wheel. And yes, it actually scrolls. How? Through carefully mechanized components inside, tinyPod's wheel makes direct rotation contact with your Apple Watch crown, letting it naturally scroll anything across the OS."

Etheryte2• 2 years ago

The how it works section says the following when you expand it:

Through carefully mechanized components inside, tinyPod's wheel makes direct rotation contact with your Apple Watch crown, letting it naturally scroll anything across the OS.

orenlindsey2• 2 years ago

It has to be mechanical, there are no input ports on the (current) Apple Watches.

flemhans• 2 years ago

Wonder if the diag port would allow for it.

It's basically Lightning minus the PWR and ID1 pins, because those are for satellite accessories.

rcarmo5• 2 years ago

I'm sort of expecting a rubber band around the crown going down to a gear tied to the wheel.

ldayley• 2 years ago

this kinda serves of a proof of concept for just how minimal we can get with a smartphone while retaining most of the "smart". I might even try this for a bit...

LegitShady3• 2 years ago

I dont think the average consumer wants this. They want a big screen, and flashy features, and a camera that makes ugly people beautiful.

ecjhdnc2025• 2 years ago

Finally I am not the average consumer!

I think the parent comment's point is good -- if Apple are watching (pun not intended): you could make a truly tiny phone out of watchOS, please do it.

orenlindsey2• 2 years ago

Yeah, the lack of a camera is a big reason why the Apple Watch isn't a great phone replacement.

roughly• 2 years ago

Thank god they’ve got every existing product on the market to choose from, then.

darby_nine• 2 years ago

Hard to say without phones available that cater towards other needs. I'm waiting for one that brags about not having access to most functionality outside of phone, gps, sms, and camera.

compscistd• 2 years ago

One thing the Apple Watch is missing is being able to call a Lyft or Uber. Not something I do super often but it really would let me leave the phone at home more often.

Also would have liked to see a little hole in the corner to thread a loop to.

testfrequency• 2 years ago

Maybe an iOS shortcut could do it? Could even add inputs for address or current location…

Looks like Maps lets you “request ride”, so possibly even the native maps method could work here.

m0dest• 2 years ago

From what I can tell, the "Request Ride" intent for Uber is broken (throws error on any request) and has been like this for at least 2 years.

The Ride Request API [1] seems closed off to developers now, too.

[1] https://developer.uber.com/docs/riders/introduction

rcarmo5• 2 years ago

Shortcuts was massively downgraded within one or two Apple-first releases (the original app was amazing, let me do local automations on the watch that included texting and API calls)

colingoodman2• 2 years ago

Uber used to have a watch app that allowed you to do this. I assume they canned it due to lack of usage.

jon-wood• 2 years ago

The one time I used the Uber Apple Watch app it requested a car but no destination. I assumed they’d just ask me where I’m going but the driver was adamant that I had to provide one, which was impossible because the reason I was using the watch app is that I’d left my phone at home.

kolja005• 2 years ago

Uber has a phone number that you can call to hail a ride. https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/17/you-can-now-hail-an-uber-b...

camillomiller• 2 years ago

I don’t get it. The Watch locks itself everytime it’s remove from the wrist and doesn’t stay unlocked if you unlock the screen when you’re not wearing it then let it go to standby. So… you would have to input a pin every single time you use this contraption? Seems quite annoying compared to, you know, wearing the watch.

asadm2• 2 years ago

cant that be disabled? I think it can be

borski• 2 years ago

Yes.

laweijfmvo2• 2 years ago

i guess it's the same as phones, before biometric authentication? but in general yeah, the watch was not designed to be used like this and anyone who's used a watch should be able to predict how bad the UX is gonna be...

thoughtsimple• 2 years ago

You can turn off wrist detection so it stays unlocked.

0vermorrow• 2 years ago

It's funny how we went from using iPod Nano as a watch with a third party case, to using an Apple Watch as an iPod Nano with a third party case.

chant47473• 2 years ago

We did? I don’t recall an accessory like that for the nano. Seems it would have been too tall (wide?) to function as a watch. Happy to be proven wrong though.

jmah• 2 years ago

Just search for "iPod nano watch".

https://www.macworld.com/article/667363/ipod-nano-6g-with-st...

DHPersonal• 2 years ago

It's a web search away, but here's an example from an article posted at the premiere of the watch: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/2015-apple-watch-vs-the-201...

ujeezy• 2 years ago

It was called the TikTok: https://ujeezy-blog.tumblr.com/post/2869125971/unboxing-the-...

simonklitj• 2 years ago

Yeah, my cousin did this years ago. Wore it religiously too.

sen• 2 years ago

I still own multiple nanos with the watch bands and the kids love playing with them as a ”more kid-safe Apple Watch”. Even after all these years they’re still immaculate and work great. More than can be said by lots of other more recent technology.

interestingsoup• 2 years ago

I was literally thinking what you said and I scrolled to your comment. WILD!

ziofill• 2 years ago

Oh man I loved my iPod nano! I had the square one, and used to fill it with music and podcasts through a cable. I wish I had known there were cases to turn it into a watch

Xeyz0r3• 2 years ago

A bit ironic how the evolution of technology and user preferences can come full circle

gnicholas2• 2 years ago

This claims multi-day battery life, since wrist detection can be turned off. I’m curious to know how much of a difference this one change makes. I haven’t bought an AW because the battery life isn’t good enough for a “watch” in my book, but if it can get multiple days of life, and it’s more like a phone replacement, then I’d be more likely to give it a try.

nicce2• 2 years ago

My charged watch (series 6)on the table without any use runs out of battery in 24 hours…

My main reason why I don’t use my watch anymore is that it needs to be charged all the time.

dangus• 2 years ago

Get your battery replaced?

gnicholas2• 2 years ago

I have never understood why AWs consume so much battery at rest. I have a Garmin that lasts for several days, and I would be happy to have an AW what doesn't do all the stuff the AW does, but which is made by Apple. It could be a dumbed-down version that just vibrates and displays messages that I receive. I basically want a smartwatch so I can avoid phantom vibrations, and so I can quickly see what messages have come in so I don't have to get out my phone all the time.

Is this an issue with WatchOS, the chipset being used, or the size of battery they have chosen? I know a lot of people out there who do not consider an AW or any other smartwatch because they don't want to have yet another device to charge daily. There are other companies that have achieved very good battery life (Amazfit, Garmin, Pebble), so it is clearly possible to have weeks-long battery life with a feature set that is more than enough for people like me.

I feel like I'll never have an AW until they decide to make an AWU-sized device, but with more battery and fewer hardcore workout sensors. I don't need to dive with my watch, or have it utilize multiple satellites for GPS. What I do need for a watch is to have it last for more than a day or two, so I don't have to bring a charger whenever I go on a trip.

macintux• 2 years ago

I've found the Ultra comfortably lasts for two days if I don't wear it overnight, but that might change if I used it more actively in this form factor.

adregan• 2 years ago

I've always wanted to take an apple watch and use it like a flip phone! This is pretty fun! I've never wanted the distraction of an apple watch and I appreciate the ability to put this thing in a pocket.

sithadmin• 2 years ago

Along similar lines of thought: there is an Apple Watch case from Japan that replicates the once-popular Infobar 'candybar' phone handset: https://www.multicore.blog/p/infobar-apple-watch-case-review...

Unfortunately the buttons are purely for aesthetics.

nirav72• 2 years ago

That is neat. I wonder if the antenna is there for aesthetics ?

Also, would've been better if it folded up like a clamshell phone from the early 2000s.

peppertree• 2 years ago

Watch Ultra are very capable mobile devices. This came out of left field but I can see it working for some.

neolefty• 2 years ago

Which Watch Ultra do you mean? Both Apple and Samsung products come up in web searches for "Watch Ultra" for me.

mynameisvlad• 2 years ago

This article is pretty clearly about an "Apple Watch case with scroll wheel". Pretty sure which one it is can be inferred from context.

ykl• 2 years ago

I unapologetically love this thing. It's of course very silly, and I'm sure commenters here are going to talk about all the ways that it isn't practical or that it's a niche idea, but I love whimsical silly niche hardware ideas that make it into actual hardware. I love that they put in all of the effort to figure out a mechanical linkage between the clickwheel and the digital crown!

I don't think all hardware needs to be take-over-the-world hundred-million-unit ideas; I think sometimes it's fine for hardware to be whimsical niche things like this Apple Watch case or Andrew McCalip's doomscroller doo-dad [1]!

[1] https://doomscroller.xyz

jsheard• 2 years ago

Funnily enough the inspiration may have come from Apple themselves, before the Watch was announced they covertly tested it in cases made to resemble an iPod knock-off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmgFk5hT6d8

Xeyz0r3• 2 years ago

Adds a layer of authenticity and nostalgia to the product

nsxwolf• 2 years ago

Does it at least do anything well? An iPod replacement would be fun, but the best thing about an iPod was the wired headphones.

This would only work with my AirPods, which almost never work without fiddling with something either in the UI or by taking them in and out of their case.

obmelvin• 2 years ago

The best thing about an iPod was most certainly not the wired headphones, it was how much music you could store compared to most preceding devices.

wil421• 2 years ago

I got my first MP3 player in 1999 or the early 00s. The SAN disk card had 16MB and I had to cut a song in half so I could fit 3/4 songs.

Suppafly5• 2 years ago

They could theoretically add a headphone port to this and a bluetooth to headphone adapter. I don't think the chips for that take up much space at all.

achrono4• 2 years ago

it's of course very silly

Beg to differ -- this is quite valuable as a new kind of paging device that you want to keep around instead of your higher end iPhone's battery constantly draining, and more importantly, for people who'd like to keep radiation at a distance.

(Yeah, no, I'm not saying you should keep away from radiation, just that some people do prefer to and it's therefore a market segment.)

bobthepanda2• 2 years ago

Doesn’t the watch also emit radiation?

specialist• 2 years ago

I've long wanted a lanyard for my watch. Maybe they can add an eyelet (loop?) to the bottom of these cases.

highcountess• 2 years ago

So we are going full cycle? Pocket watches?

hn_throwaway_99• 2 years ago

I don't think this is silly in the slightest. There are lots of folks like me who deliberately want to break our phone addictions, which is why things like www.thelightphone.com exist.

My problem with the Light Phone (owner of version II) is that it's too limited. I don't want to be distracted by notifications or social media or doom scrolling on the browser, but I do need things that are essentially task-oriented tools: Uber/Lyft, Weather apps, Maps, Authenticator Code apps (and, now, using my phone as a passkey), etc.

I'm not an iOS user, but this makes be almost wish I were, because it's exactly what I'd want. It's too small to make me want to scroll YouTube randomly, but has all the tools that I don't want to forego. I think this is a fantastic product if it works as advertised.

ricardobeat• 2 years ago

They recently announced a v3 of the light phone that might actually be useful - I also have a light phone II sitting in a drawer somewhere.

It ditches e-ink in favor of an OLED + matte glass that looks amazing. Having 60hz refresh rate means we can get nice responsive apps while keeping the minimalist UI. Hopefully they will make it easier to develop and run custom apps on this one.

jader201• 2 years ago

but I do need things that are essentially task-oriented tools: Uber/Lyft, Weather apps, Maps, Authenticator Code apps
because it's exactly what I'd want.

I’m not sure it is.

Most of the things you list aren’t that functional on Watch, in my experience. It’s ok-ish to pull up on Watch after you’ve set it up on your phone, but without a phone, Watch is much more limited, IME.

You can definitely use Watch for a number of things without an iPhone — Weather is one you list that is mostly functional, Timer, and Calculator.

But beyond these basic by-design limited functionality apps, Watch doesn’t do a great job as the main driver of most apps — just more as a companion to the iPhone apps.

fgd135• 2 years ago

But you can already do this with a smart watch without this case, right?

andrepd• 2 years ago

There are other options in the Android space. Very very few, sadly, but they exist: check out the Qin phones like the F21 Pro: it's Android on a 2007's Nokia form factor!

dvdkon• 2 years ago

I feel like once you set third-party apps like Uber, bike rental or banking apps as requirements, the only possible solution is sadly a mostly standard cut-down Android phone. The third parties won't support any bespoke OS, so you're stuck with iOS or Android, and moreover they won't support exotic configurations like a tiny display.

Thankfully on Android it's easy enough to remove/disable any distractions, and there are phones like the ones from Unihertz that are just different enough to be worth trying.

BolexNOLA2• 2 years ago

The offline storage is a nice touch

cbau• 2 years ago

It's art!

FerretFred• 2 years ago

Ah, that'll be why it's so (too) expensive

lloeki2• 2 years ago

It's of course very silly, and I'm sure commenters here are going to talk about all the ways that it isn't practical or that it's a niche idea, but I love whimsical silly niche hardware ideas that make it into actual hardware

It's crazy how I miss my 2nd gen iPod Nano, even though I wouldn't really have any use for it today. It was really a stupendously satisfying specialised device whose use is completely obviated today by general purpose smartphones.

But then again I wear watches...

Xeyz0r3• 2 years ago

I think I love this too! An interesting concept for enhancing the functionality and aesthetic of the Apple Watch

Suppafly5• 2 years ago

I unapologetically love this thing.

I'm not really into the apple ecosystem, but I kinda like this as well. Smart watches don't really appeal to me, but something like this does.

Jeremy10262• 2 years ago

This looks amazing. I do wonder though, how long it'll last before Apple C&Ds it.

RandallBrown• 2 years ago

They might be able to C&D the name, but I doubt they'd do anything (or get anywhere if they tried) about the case.

Jeremy10262• 2 years ago

The website is trade dress to the max. The average user would probably scroll through the page and assume this is an official product from Apple. Their logo is deceptively similar to Apple's, the name of the product is similar, the click wheel design is possibly infringing on some patent Apple owns.

segasaturn• 2 years ago

This is great, it's the streaming iPod I always wanted! Preordered.

miniatureape• 2 years ago

I think my perfect phone would be if Apple chopped an inch or an inch and a half off the bottom of the iPhone 12 mini and ran a slightly improved watchOS on it.

makmanalp• 2 years ago

OK, in this vein, why oh why did Lyft and Uber remove their apple watch apps? I just need an app that's a single "take me home now" button so I don't have to worry about my phone battery dying when I'm out and about. Pretty please?

atlasunshrugged• 2 years ago

Yes! This is one of the critical things I need from an on the go device

free_energy_min• 2 years ago

if your watch can call

https://www.uber.com/au/en/ride/call-to-ride/

https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/make-phone-calls-apdc3...

hrrsn• 2 years ago

Amazing, they've reinvented a taxi.

btown• 2 years ago

Completely speculating, but when an App Store review process can drive business decisions (we have to push the launch of X back because we're having trouble lobbying Apple to approve our changes), it's reasonable to see a second app as doubling the likelihood that you end up in that situation. And even if it weren't for the review processes, would every launch be at the mercy of reporters saying "this isn't supported on my watch, so..."?

It's also possible that each company simply lost all the people who knew the watchOS APIs, and the incremental revenue generated wasn't worth hiring for that role again, or trying to convince someone else at the company to add it to their scope.

Perhaps, as well, there was an expectation that Apple would be the one encouraging Uber to maintain and build the app, and give them favorable treatment on the App Store review processes as a way to sweeten that deal... and then when the larger relationships started to become more acrimonious, any ideas here fell by the wayside.

saagarjha4• 2 years ago

Almost certainly usage that doesn't justify the investment

praisewhitey2• 2 years ago

Would be cool if it also had a headphone jack

rtkwe2• 2 years ago

It's a fully mechanical shell with no electronics so you're asking for a jack in the watch itself which would be pretty comical. For this to add a jack you'd need Apple to have put in a port for 3rd party accessories and provide an API for using it.

praisewhitey2• 2 years ago

There are Bluetooth adapters for wired headphones on Amazon that work with the Apple Watch.

luxuryballs3• 2 years ago

How does it provide 32gb of offline storage? I can’t figure it out.

oaththrowaway• 2 years ago

I'd love to replace my phone with something like this. If only I could get Slack and Telegram to run natively without requiring a linked phone

thih9• 2 years ago

What if sometimes you could just… leave your phone at home? With all the essentials to stay connected, tinyPod makes that actually possible.

But that’s a feature of an Apple Watch, this case doesn’t impact this in any way - I already leave my phone at home like this and I don’t own this case.

colingoodman2• 2 years ago

I also thought it was funny that they are listing features like apple pay and magnetic charging as if these features have anything to do with the case.

lawlessone• 2 years ago

It also tells the time.

yibbix• 2 years ago

This. Coupled with the fact that all their promotional material looks like renders and there isn’t a single photo/video of someone actually using it, makes the whole thing feel sketchy.

zikduruqe• 2 years ago

Plus I'd look goofy with my tan arms with my snow white watch tan mark.

I also seldom, if ever, leave my house with my iPhone.

pbronez• 2 years ago

One real feature: improved battery life. This might let me leave my phone in my bag and stop worrying about the watch battery.

lokimedes• 2 years ago

I bought an Apple Watch to get away from the “screen” but of all evils, Apple don’t let their watches pair to my car, not even for hands free coms. If only they would allow for regular stereo bluetooth and handsfree I would ditch my iPhone. Perhaps that is what they fear?

nehal3m• 2 years ago

I just wear one AirPod, good enough for podcasts and phone calls.

askvictor• 2 years ago

I'd jump at this (or even just a straight Apple watch) to replace my phone if it didn't require an iPhone in order to use it (I currently use Android; seems a bit silly to buy an iPhone purely to enable a watch). Hoping they consider this use case eventually, and it's worth remembering that early ipods required a mac to use, and early iphones required a computer to set them up.

dmattia• 2 years ago

In my case, my wife has an iPhone, so I was able to setup an Apple Watch as my primary phone, while I do not have any phone other than my watch. So if you're on a family plan, maybe that's an option

tomaskafka3• 2 years ago

Having tried hard to only wear LTE watch instead of phone, I can confirm that yes, that is what Apple fears. They could easily turn AW into an iPhone replacement with a few fixes, but they won't.

graypegg• 2 years ago

Damn... I know it won't happen, but imagine Apple building out a device in a form factor similar to this case, using the extra internal space (compared to an apple watch) for a really nice DAC + headphone jack... I'd buy it. A streaming iPod! WatchOS would need some tweaks, but really most of the software is there.

popcalc6• 2 years ago

really nice DAC

Is there a Tidal app for WatchOS?

bastien2• 2 years ago

Oh look, carcinisation for Apple products.

ipodisation: the tendency for non-iPod Apple products to evolve iPod-like features over time.

jojobas3• 2 years ago

Implying apple products are not cancer on their own right.

PaulRobinson3• 2 years ago

Cancers are serious conditions that are the cause of 25%-30% of all deaths. 1 in 2 people will have a form of cancer in their lifetimes. Cancers can have devastating long-term consequences beyond the illness itself, even if you survive. Treatment, recovery and sometimes remission is physically and mentally damaging.

But perhaps I'm the one who is wrong. Please, explain what you meant exactly so I can understand your perspective.

evilduck2• 2 years ago

Carcinisation is a term unrelated to cancer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation

ClassyJacket4• 2 years ago

Can you give some other examples?

sqeaky2• 2 years ago

What a fun and cool idea on such a horrid web page. I am curious what it can do, but whatever is going on is illegible and busted for me. I literally couldn't read any text on the left half of the page.

I managed to scroll down to a price and for what appears to be a tech toy $80 isn't the worst price, people burn more on a 3d only to make 1 toy boat that doesn't float then stuff it in a closet.

EDIT - Why the rollercoaster of upvotes and downvotes?

Their page is busted, the toy seems neat. If you are downvoting can you explain why? Do you disagree about the toy? Did the webpage work for you?

cocacola1• 2 years ago

I absolutely loved the page. Had a lot of fun scrolling up and down and thought it was cleverly designed. Similar, but better, than what Apple does on their own pages.

chant47473• 2 years ago

Then you’re not experiencing the bugs that some others are experiencing.

sqeaky2• 2 years ago

I suppose there is some novelty to this sort of thing. I have already had all that drained away years ago when this single all in one scrolling thing was a big fad.

I never really liked this all-in-one scroll capturing pages, they violate so many user expectations. But I don't complain unless they are actually broken, others reported weird flashing, I am reporting bad Z-order and bad responsiveness.

mesh• 2 years ago

Yeah, page is busted for me also, super janky, images flashing in and out.

Firefox on macOS

tills13• 2 years ago

clearly built on a macbook with smooth scrolling. My mouse has a discrete scroll-wheel -- it snaps to the next position -- it makes this site a stuttering, jittery mess.

serial_dev2• 2 years ago

There are lots of things wrong with that page, but I didn't expect getting dizzy, motion sickness was going to be one of them.

I guess it's my fault for putting up with such a garbage website because I was curious enough about the product...

DistractionRect• 2 years ago

Firefox for Android here, it's a strobing mess. I have to purposely and very slowly scroll and wait for frames/images(?) to load in order to get any kind of cohesive experience/information out of the site. I think the product is really neat and I love the idea, but the site is insufferable.

ninininino• 2 years ago

I want to know it's water resistance.

Kirby642• 2 years ago

There's 0 electronics in it. It should be fully water resistant, unless somehow there's an opportunity for the mechanical function on the scroll wheel portion to rust or something.

rtkwe2• 2 years ago

It's just a mechanical shell that connects the click wheel to the watch crown so in theory it should be about as good as the Apple Watch itself electronically. It might get a little gummy in the mechanism though.

anon115• 2 years ago

the website is adorable

sktrdie• 2 years ago

Cool but doesn't the Apple Watch have all kinds of sensors to make it work against your wrist? Putting in this case will kind of remove the point of all those nifty hardware gadgets.

mmmlinux• 2 years ago

Yep, How to make your smartwatch not have half of its interesting features.

mikestew3• 2 years ago

If I’m reading your comment correctly, most if not all of that can be turned off. Turn off the passcode, and it no longer cares if you’re wearing it or not (“wrist detection “ is just to save you entering the passcode). Apple Pay and some other stuff won’t work, but if just want an iPod/tiny iPhone, it should be functional enough.

alentred• 2 years ago

I love the concept! I think TinyPod is an outcry over the sizes of the smartphones today. The smallest most recent iPhone you could buy was iPhone 13 mini and it was discontinued. Don't know about other brands, but from what I am seeing nothing fits the pocket anymore. There must but a niche for those who don't read or watch movies on their hand-held devices, and if the apps are well designed a smaller screen is just fine.

Etheryte2• 2 years ago

Not even the pocket, all modern flagship phones are so large that I can't use them well with one hand. I'll stick with the mini till the day it does and just hope there's a better something out there by that time.

hanley• 2 years ago

I'm hoping that Apple releases a new mini on a 3 year cadence. Maybe there wasn't enough demand to continue the line every year, but they'll bring it back occasionally?

RulerOf• 2 years ago

if the apps are well designed a smaller screen is just fine.

This was the problem I ran into. They're not.

I held onto the iPhone SE for quite a while. Everything became progressively more cramped as the years went by. Some app UI controls were cut off. All sorts of web stuff was laid out funny.

While everything did _work_, I get too annoyed at knowing that I'm having a sub-par UX every time I see it.

shinycode• 2 years ago

I have a pro max and even with this size some websites are cramped and badly designed. I can’t imagine with a mini version… such a shame because it’s really nice to have a small phone at all time

meroes• 2 years ago

Pockets? So 20th Century. I’m seeing people wear their massive phones on lanyards around their neck all day.

DiggyJohnson• 2 years ago

Really? What city or part of the world do you observe this? That is a wild fashion statement.

panopticon• 2 years ago

My hope was that the mini would be a success and they'd eventually had a Pro Mini line, but sadly the mini form-factor hasn't sold well. I would buy a Pro Mini in a heartbeat.

heyrikin• 2 years ago

I'm a fan!

serial_dev2• 2 years ago

There is a reason "boring" websites are popular... It's cause they work...

crazygringo• 2 years ago

Wow, I just assumed this was going to be another "design concept" page.

But it actually has a price at the bottom and says "Shipping this Summer".

As a design concept, I think this is funny and clever.

But as a "business", I'm a bit confused. It's hard to imagine that more than a few hundred people might ever actually buy this, if even that. So then how does the hardware manufacturing work? This seems way too mechanically complex to just be 3D printed, but this seems far too niche to be manufactured at scale.

I mean it's very cool if this is a kind of hobby project made out of love. I just don't understand how a hobby project can sell this at $80, and 3 size variants no less. Is it some kind of 3D printing of all the individual plastic parts, and then each one is hand-assembled by the creator on demand? But it looks way too smooth with exact tolerances for 3D printing.

I just don't get how the financial aspect here works at all -- not even to make money, but just not to lose money. Can anyone enlighten me?

its_ethan4• 2 years ago

The main body could pretty easily be injection molded plastic, which can be very cheap and still quite precise. You could even overmold the plastic onto other components (at more cost, and depending on what the deisgn "inside" actually entails).

A teardown of this thing would be pretty cool to see what's taking the scrollwheel motion and translating it into movement on the watches crown. That could be a (relatively) simple set of gears set onto some stamped aluminum sheet, which can also be fairly cheap.

Also never underestimate a Chinese OEM when it comes to making something (at any scale) fast and cheap. They could maybe be in on a % of sales too or something? The company selling them may also be gambling and put an order in for 10s of thousands to get the price they want/need and may have to sit on their inventory for quite a while and are risking losing money on the whole. Who knows.

herpdyderp• 2 years ago

All I need is for Prism player to make an Apple Watch app and then I'll be all over this.

paxys• 2 years ago

Have to resist the urge to spend $80 on a cool gadget that I will use exactly once and throw away in a drawer somewhere..

popcalc6• 2 years ago

It's a piece of molded silicone.

its_ethan4• 2 years ago

Cool gadgets can't be made of molded silicone?

There's definitely more to it inside that's taking the scrollwheel motion and translating that to motion at the watches crown.. I'm personally curious what the gadget that does that looks like.

awesomeMilou• 2 years ago

I wonder if there is a market for a spiritual iPod successor.

its_ethan4• 2 years ago

I've thought for a while Apple itself could probably have some pretty decent success bringing back a new generation of the iPod. There's a (somewhat) popular community of people who mod old iPods to give them ssd's, better batteries, bluetooth, better screens, etc.

Apple could make a really cool product again, and pitch it as like the "anti-phone" or "anti-social media" vibe that seems to be gaining some popularity.

I'm imagining like a weeks long battery life, large screen (but not like an iPod touch), bluetooth for wireless headphoens, ability to have more apps (basically just allowing watch apps), WiFi+GPS, maybe speakers if they're feeling bold... idk it could be cool but maybe it'd be too niche still

spaceisballer• 2 years ago

I took my old iPod video and swapped out the hard drive for an adapter that just uses micro sd cards. I suppose you can’t use wireless headphones but it’s now ultra light and the battery life is great.

jordemort• 2 years ago

There is at least some market for it, judging by the amount of money raised by Tangara: https://www.crowdsupply.com/cool-tech-zone/tangara

callalex• 2 years ago

I’m unable to scroll this website on a stock iPhone running the latest software. It just says “Say Hello to tinyPod”. Why do people think it’s ok to hijack scrolling? You’re never going to get it right and now I have no idea what your product is even though I’m the exact target audience.

petsfed• 2 years ago

If its any consolation, their scroll hijacking is also hot garbage on desktop firefox.

Granted, its a hardware company, so I'm not that upset that their web design is atrocious, but the fact that a minimal level of review would've told them this was a problem suggests to me that the product itself won't be as polished as the videos suggest.

popcalc6• 2 years ago

a hardware company

They are pseudonymous individual(s) promising a piece of molded plastic. This is marketing, not technology. As such, you'd expect them to know how to put together a website that sells.

Northrop Grumman is a hardware company.

HumblyTossed• 2 years ago

The device is really neat. The web site is shit. Good grief, I can't even put into words how much I hate having UI/UX like this.

chankstein38• 2 years ago

Agreed the pages that override scrolling are horrible.

amelius• 2 years ago

That's because you don't have the tiny scroll wheel ;)

ClassyJacket4• 2 years ago

I despise the flickering, it's intensely distracting.

localfirst• 2 years ago

was just gonna mention this it feels annoying having to scroll multiple times to see a fancy animation

devin• 2 years ago

When did this scrolly website thing come back into fashion?

I feel like it was hot about 10 years ago, and recently that daylight computer website and now this one use it. It's an incredibly bad experience that I thought we'd grown out of.

MrJagil2• 2 years ago

I really like this product, but I have been on this journey, and will repost a comment i made to a recent thread about replacing your phone with an apple watch. —

on: One year of using an Apple Watch Ultra as a phone ...

I have done this as well, but with series 4. Some notes:

- Apple Watch receives calls forwarded from your phone which creates a bunch of weird problems: 1) Imagine you’re at a bar and get a phone call. You need to either answer on your watch immediately on speakerphone which means its hard to hear the caller and hard for them to hear you, and your conversation is not private. Or, dismiss the call, go outside, put your airpods in, hope they connect, call back, hope they answer, and hope the traffic isnt too bad around you because airpods do not have best mics. 2) connecting airpods really suck, especially at home. You have to have your phone in the charger for it to forward calls to your watch, so when you put on your airpods, they will likely connect to your phone, so you run to your phone, then your airpods “magically” connect to your watch all the while your caller is shouting “hello” into the void. Not ideal for work calls.

- I really hated not having a notes.app

- messages are kinda bad, especially if you’re non-english. And again, if you’re out at a bar and meeting someone, you cant really wait to get home to message back, you have to noodle around on the small screen.

- Your friends will tease you. I didnt mind, but its good to be prepared.

- its a teeny bit annoying wearing a tech-watch. Can get a bit hot etc.

- You need an iphone to update the watch. This really suck because you never really feel you actually let go of your phone, its a hassle updating over bluetooth, installing apps etc. I would LOVE an ipad/mac watch.app.

- You need Siri for many things, like maps.app, searching for certain things etc. It really sucks, like, completely unusable.

- doesnt work well switching from wifi to celluar. So many of the watches problems stems from connectitivty issues between wifi, bluetooth and celluar. That said, i agree with every upside the OP mentioned. I will go back to watch+airpods again when it can work without an iPhone for calling and software updates. I think one new way to get around it is to setup watch with Family Setup. That way it can get calls without iPhone.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39982713#39988624

giobox• 2 years ago

I think the biggest issue for many is using it in a car? As far as I know, the watch will not pair like a phone does for calls using the typical bluetooth standards that work just fine across all conventional cellphones.

Not being able to field calls in the car would make this an instant deal breaker before I even tried. If I have to bring a phone along to ensure car support, I'm stuck bringing a full-size cellphone with me most days anyway.

Losing Apple CarPlay (potentially no navigation app at all in your car) will also be massive detractor for a lot of folks. If you don't own a car, it's probably a ton more feasible with how the watch functions today though.

thingsilearned• 2 years ago

I've tried this several times too and still do phone less days quite often thanks to the watch, but my big obstacle has been the lack of Uber/Lyft which I use instead of having a car. They used to have those apps on the watch but unfortunately they don't.

If I could use Uber/Lyft on the watch I would mostly leave my phone on the charger.

PaulRobinson3• 2 years ago

I haven't used my watch as a replacement phone, but my experience is quite different of the tech to yours.

Connecting AirPods is pretty straight forward. I don't recognise the pain. I also don't think it's always necessary, yes, not every call can be on speakerphone, but you can pick up, explain you're switching to headphones if necessary, it's fine.

I have AirPod Pros. The mic quality is great, even when on a busy street. Noise cancelling and adaptive audio is great.

I do not need my phone to be in the charger for call forwarding. I have the cellular version, and my watch buzzes on every call, no matter what state my phone is in. This might be a setting, I've never changed anything, but I absolutely do not have the experience you have.

Messages are fine if you realise the keyboard works as a swipe keyboard with auto-correct. You can also voice dictate, and the accuracy is decent, but then I'm British, so maybe it's trained on a data set that is more like my voice than many.

If your watch is getting hot, there might be a fault. I've had an Apple Watch since the Series 2, and I've never had it get hot unless it's in direct sunlight, and then it's like any other metal case watch.

Apple Watch requiring an iPhone is a major limitation, but I also don't mind it too much, as I'm always going to have an iPhone for those apps that I wouldn't want on my watch, but around me from time to time - banking, games, video players, and so on. I don't see my watch as a full replacement for my phone, but as a means to leave my phone home when it's too cumbersome - going out for a run, for example - or as a backup if my phone battery dies. Having it as Apple Pay and being able to use the transit card thing on TfL barriers in London makes it a slam dunk easy thing to use.

In short: it's still an extension of your phone, not a replacement. If you want it as a replacement, you might be waiting a while, and if you don't want to use speakerphone or figure out AirPods with it, that could be a frustrating experience.

MrJagil2• 2 years ago

Real happy to hear this. As i said, it was series 4 and the first airpods pro and here in europe (where we sometimes lag a bit behind in features), so maybe things are different now.

Re forwarded calls: maybe i misremember, maybe it was my local carrier or maybe apple has changed things but i’m glad things have changed. Can you recieve sms too? I couldn’t and this reply corroborates my experience https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40994017

Also, if you take your watch for a run with music playing on your aipods, does your watch stop the playback once you’re back in phone range? Mine does and i hate it.

I think music and podcasts are synced through iphone too, right? If you leave your phone turned off, will watch sync everything correctly?

In other words, constant sync and connection issues was what made me ditch my watch as any sort of replacement phone.

dools2• 2 years ago

You can set up your watch using a phone, and then turn the phone off and the watch still works. What doesn't work is SMS messages from non-apple users, because they are forwarded from the phone.

I set up my daughter's Apple Watch SE which we got her because phones are depression machines for teen girls (according to the Biden controlled MSM anyway) and I just set it up using my backup phone. I then backed up her setup, restored my setup, and when I need to update her watch or do something else administrative I just restore her backup to the phone, do what I need, then restore my backup to the phone, ready to fill in at a moment's notice if my phone needs to be repaired or gets lost or whatever.

I also take calls on my airpods connected to my watch pretty frequently because I exercise without my phone. I've never really had a problem with it.

insane_dreamer• 2 years ago

brings back good memories of the iPod Nano 2nd Gen; still the best music player ever

ethagknight• 2 years ago

I love this! I doubt I would buy it because I'm perpetually frustrated with WatchOS's reasonless limitations (someone texts you a photo and you want to zoom in on your tiny screen? sorry nope! plus a thousand other little things). Reminds of the 'naked robotic core' discussions from Accidental Tech Podcast, could create some really interesting possibilities and a way to sell a whole lot more 'watch cores'.

imoverclocked• 2 years ago

Pocket watch!

All it needs is a little loop for a chain. Neat concept.

higgins• 2 years ago

i love that the content is organized as:

What > How > Why > Buy

i don't mind the shiny scroll effects and didn't know it was such a hot topic!

anonygler• 2 years ago

This is hilariously brilliant. I love it.

idle_zealot• 2 years ago

I love this thing! Phones are so huge nowadays. This nails hand feel and covers all the essentials (provided you pair it to an iPhone, ugh). Though at this size, it has me thinking... if it were just a little smaller, maybe if they moved the wheel to the side, you could probably wear this on your wrist, and then you wouldn't even need a pocket or bag for it! Imagine that, a little portable computer on your wrist. Pretty futuristic.

ClassyJacket4• 2 years ago

If only the Apple Watch worked without an iPhone, I would buy this today.

sssilver2• 2 years ago

You’re in luck because it does and that’s exactly how my daughter uses it at school.

0cf8612b2e1e• 2 years ago

Is that a workaround for the increasing number of “no phone” policies?

ClassyJacket4• 2 years ago

How? I mean without owning an iPhone at all, not without yours nearby. I'm aware they have 4G. I mean for Android/dumbphone users.

adamwong246• 2 years ago

Good grief, just make me a smaller phone. Like, the size of pack of playing cards would be perfect. Just big enough to be useful, not big enough to be distracting.

ymir_e• 2 years ago

This website is impressive. It's almost more apple than apple.

Are pages like this typically "storyboarded", then designed in framer (or another tool) and from there the code is generated, or how does it work?

People do amazing things with pure CSS, but this seems beyond what is sensible without some sort of tool to make the job a bit easier.

dylan604• 2 years ago

strong disagree. as i scrolled, the animation blinked as it loaded the image sequence and felt very staccato and not smooth at all. at least what apple does works

al_borland4• 2 years ago

What browser? It was smooth for me in Safari.

jojobas3• 2 years ago

Any abuse of the scroll is outright hostile and leads to immediate closure of the tab.

Gazoche• 2 years ago

My phone just chokes trying to render this page. That's on Chrome, Android, on a model that's a few years old (but not ancient).

closewith• 2 years ago

As GP said, more Apple than Apple.

_ph_2• 2 years ago

I strongly disagree. It doesn't render correctly on FireFox on my Mac. And while those animated pages might look cool, they are very bad on giving you information. The product looks really cool, but as a Apple Watch owner I would really like to know what exactly it does and how.

asp_hornet• 2 years ago

It does exactly what your watch does now. It merely provides a way to interact with the watch in a similar way to the original iPod. Many people have their own personal reasons why they might enjoy this.

rakoo• 2 years ago

I was going to rant how unusable this page is (it is) when I realized that it's just another form of content.

The web was created for providing documents, like research papers. Then it evolved into applications, like Google Maps. This kind of website is different from others: it's a movie.

Just like a movie it is expected you start at the middle and go through every single part in order until the end. You are not expected to start at the middle. You are not expected to search inside of it. You are supposed to consume it entirely from beginning to end.

I like movies because they entertain me; this website is trying to go the entertainment way and I highly dislike it. I want to understand what the thing does, how it can be used: I'm looking for information, not a pleasant time.

racl1012• 2 years ago

This is cool!

racl1012• 2 years ago

One way they could take the watch analogy full circle is to give the case a hook and sell a little chain with it. Then it's a pocket watch.

xeonmc• 2 years ago

Pocket watch -> wristwatch -> phones -> smartwatch - smart pocket watch

mountain_peak2• 2 years ago

Now that I've finally mastered replacing Apple Watch batteries (and replacing one incredibly small battery connector I managed to lift off the board), I asked my son just this morning what we do with the three outdated models we have lying around (we "abandoned" the watches when the batteries wouldn't last even 1/2 a day).

This looks like a great solution to repurposing our old watches.

f_allwein• 2 years ago

I have 0 old watches/ phones lying around - always sell them on or give them to recycling…

rcarmo5• 2 years ago

Do you have any guides for that? I'd like to try my hand at it.

mountain_peak2• 2 years ago

I should have a guide, but haven't created one yet - don't want to derail the thread, but here are a few pointers:

- The iFixit Apple Watch teardown is surprisingly effective - way more heat (and patience) is required then they indicate

- Using an X-Acto blade between the frame and glass really works well without damaging a single component (please be careful and alternate heat and prying)

- You may also need to replace the deep-press bezel - consider ordering one prior to your repair

- The battery glue is very, very persistent - lots of unnerving heat and prying

- Use a needle to separate the upper and lower battery connection on one side of the connector

- Three different replacement bezel glue rings all released over time - Permatex black gasket maker is the only thing that worked to reattach the display

Good luck, and I hope this helps save a few watches from being recycled prematurely

kalyantm• 2 years ago

I used to have the 5th generation iPod nano that had the scroll wheel and looked like this and I would buy it just for the nostalgia!

mistyvales• 2 years ago

This thing kinda looks like a Playstation PocketStation..

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PocketStation

It would be kinda cool, but I just don't need more devices in my life right now. Wish it could be standalone with a headphone jack though!

Pufferbo• 2 years ago

How do they keep the watch from locking up while using it? My Apple Watch will always auto lock after a few seconds if not on my wrist and I’m not constantly tapping the screen.

_rs• 2 years ago

I think that's done as part of disabling wrist-detection

abaymado• 2 years ago

I actually really like this concept. Recently, I added OneSec (https://one-sec.app/) to most of the apps I use to create some type of friction. It works great on the apps I added it to, but the addiction is so real that I find myself doom-scrolling on apps I rarely use, such as LinkedIn

dostick• 2 years ago

Aren’t images mixed up where you choose the product ? One that’s “with crown” has no crown and one without has the crown.

Aeroi• 2 years ago

Wow, who did the branding and the web design!?

jonwest• 2 years ago

I absolutely love this, but I hate websites like this so much, especially on mobile. I’m haphazardly scrolling hitting breakpoints trying to get to content that either lags well behind my gestures to animate a device spinning around, or zips past everything I wanted to actually read. If you want to show a video, please just show a video.

MaxikCZ• 2 years ago

I guess it looks nice when cached, but i am just scrolling empty page and when I stop, after a second I get random picture. An epitome of atrocious design

OvbiousError• 2 years ago

Agreed, at this point a lot of websites have become laggy human-powered movies.

bschwindHN• 2 years ago

It's funny, you can basically play back the first animation in dev tools by just scrolling through all the media requests. Each frame of the animation is a separate PNG.

jagged-chisel• 2 years ago

this pains me :-(

niutech• 2 years ago

Why don't they provide an MP4 and show it frame-by-frame on scroll? It would be much more efficient than hundreds of PNGs.

lopis2• 2 years ago

Rest assured the website is as smooth as gravel on desktop too.

agmater• 2 years ago

Almost gave myself a seizure trying to scroll down.

beezlebroxxxxxx• 2 years ago

I agree, but I also enjoy the way that they've emulated the apple website experience for product pages.

caseyohara• 2 years ago

Except Apple's product pages are smooth and performant.

fkyoureadthedoc2• 2 years ago

Wouldn't be hacker news without a comment shedding the bike to talk about the design of the page and make no mention of the actual product.

The scrolling worked fine for me for what it's worth, and is obviously a knockoff of apple product pages. Satirical even I'd say.

wmeredith• 2 years ago

Bike shedding is bike shedding because the color we paint the bike shed at the nuclear power plant doesn't matter. If people can't use your scroll-jacked website to even learn about your product, that matters.

bert2002• 2 years ago

Love it. Always wanted to have something like this for the Google Watch. Easy to stay update and receive alerts, but dont need to setup a second phone/device.

dpunjabi24• 2 years ago

This is dope.

nsonha• 2 years ago

what is in the lite version? Just a hollow case?

bux93• 2 years ago

I love this as an expression of peak consumerism. Let those warehouses full of cheap mp3 players rot, don't bother trying to upgrade an old ipod with a new battery and storage (which it wasn't designed to be upgraded with anyway), buy the most expensive gadget you can and then add another gadget to it! In the grand scheme of things it's not as bad as my overseas holiday or anything, but conceptually it's quite impressive.

wiseowise2• 2 years ago

Must be a sad living being miserable all the time.

Let those warehouses full of cheap mp3 players rot, don't bother trying to upgrade an old ipod with a new battery and storage (which it wasn't designed to be upgraded with anyway),

Any of those can integrate into modern Apple ecosystem?

ragazzina2• 2 years ago

Any of those can integrate into modern Apple ecosystem?

They can't because Apple does not want them to.

wiseowise2• 2 years ago

What an awesome thing in the spirit of the early internet, love it.

steakscience• 2 years ago

This is a better "lite" phone than all the current lite phones out there

It does very little, but also does all the essentials: maps, payment, music streaming, etc.

trumbitta2• 2 years ago

Awesome, but then no health data apart from steps if held like this

WhereIsTheTruth2• 2 years ago

a smart beeper, that's the evolution i needed!

rcarmo5• 2 years ago

I just went out on Printables and found the perfect anti pattern:

https://www.printables.com/model/866937-tamagotchi-case-for-...

tasoeur• 2 years ago

Fun fact: back when the original Apple Watch was being developed, Apple internally produced something similar for people secretly working on it to pretend it wasn’t a new product category. It was more or less a silicon sleeve that would show a fake keyboard. I may or may not still have one 0:-)

kome• 2 years ago

ok that's crazy :) and super interesting! also it makes me think there must be so much secrecy, paranoia and politics within apple

any other juicy stories??

Suppafly5• 2 years ago

for people secretly working on it to pretend it wasn’t a new product category

Ah, someone earlier posted a link to a youtube of it, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why they had used it, I had assumed maybe the interface needed work still or something. I didn't realize it was just to keep people from realizing it was a watch, that's kind of brilliant.

personjerry• 2 years ago

This has made me want the Apple Watch more than any ad

varispeed• 2 years ago

How long until Apple releases firmware update that will brick this?

sammyteee• 2 years ago

How could they?

DaveTheSane• 2 years ago

A Kids Version of this would be great. Robust, drop and splash/dust resistent. My son would love this to listen to his audiobooks on Spotify.

pea• 2 years ago

Have you tried the Yoto player? Our daughter loves hers and they are pretty cheap. You can load them with your own mp3s too, which we download from BBC Sounds.

msephton• 2 years ago

Cool, but I'd have to wait to see how annoying it is in use.

dools2• 2 years ago

Hold on… if you turn off wrist detection then doesn’t that leave the watch unlocked all the time unless you manually lock it which is quite a hassle? For me that’s the only fly in an otherwise pretty delightful jar of ointment.

ibdf• 2 years ago

That's awesome. Can someone please make a wristband for it?

tuetnsuppe• 2 years ago

Not sure if this a bug or an Easter egg but when I go to the buy form and choose the Ultra version the price always jumps by $10 when I pick it ($89.99 vs $79.99, $39.99 vs $29.99) ;-. Is this tiny surge pricing?

Edit: I only get this behavior on my phone.

bentt• 2 years ago

This got me to charge my watch.

WesleyJohnson• 2 years ago

I'm curious how, in this configuration, the Apple Watch handles things that require the various sensors? Obviously the ECG won't work, since it's not on your wrist. I'm assuming the "Stand" notifications won't work either, among other things. If you're buying this, I'm sure you're willing to make those tradeoffs. It just has me thinking what features of the watch you're losing that you might not realize at first.

I guess the nice thing is, you just take it out of the case, snap on the band and put it back on if you need to.

Pretty nice concept.

LetsGetTechnicl3• 2 years ago

The website does say that it turns wrist detection off to save battery, so I wonder if that or some other combination of settings to turn off the ECG and stand notifications takes care of those potential issues.

micromacrofoot• 2 years ago

I really really wish I could use the Apple Watch as a stand-alone phone without having an iPhone to manage it

plandis• 2 years ago

I love this. The website branding seems so close to Apple I think they will send a cease and desist.

spandrew• 2 years ago

Part of me wants something like this to break my addiction to the back catalog of apps I doom scroll. Part of me knows that it's my own doing.

The UI and industrial design of this is cute and approachable. Love it.

dwighttk• 2 years ago

I think Apple Pay is going to require you to tap in a pin every time since you won’t have it against your wrist

pcdoodle• 2 years ago

This is amazing. Well done.

lnxg33k12• 2 years ago

Take something that stays comfortably on your wrist and turn it in something else to keep in your pocket and that needs to be held with an hand to be used, genius!

cogman10• 2 years ago

Don't forget to block every one of the sensors you paid extra for.

lnxg33k12• 2 years ago

Yes, awesome!

LetsGetTechnicl3• 2 years ago

This is such an interesting concept I'd love to try it but since I have a Wi-Fi only Watch I'd have to tag my iPhone along anyways :/

luxuryballs3• 2 years ago

unless you find WiFi right? and that’s only for connection required apps, it can certainly do more than an iPod, GPS should even work without data connection I think? you just have to store the maps/media

LetsGetTechnicl3• 2 years ago

That’s true, but I’m thinking I’d still like to pick up calls or answer important texts. And can you connect a watch to WiFi without an iPhone?

RedNifre• 2 years ago

Epilepsy warning: This page flickers like crazy when scrolling. (On Mac Firefox)

SeenNotHeard• 2 years ago

Resembles what The Onion predicted 15 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA

kart23• 2 years ago

can you call an uber/lyft?

tamimio• 2 years ago

Slightly off-topic: To the web developer gurus in here, how do you build a site with those scrollable 3D animations? Is there a name for it, or better, a tutorial? Maybe not the minimal one, but it’s still cool.

luismedel• 2 years ago

Not about the product itself, but about the subtle detail of the title tag using mathematical chars to simulate bold in the titlebar "Pod".

I'm not sure what it implies accessibility-wise, but it looks cute.

edit: HN removes those chars, sorry

tomaskafka3• 2 years ago

So, how did they got around Apple Watch locking up once the heartrate sensor detects it's been taken off the hand?

They didn't, and they were extremely careful not to mention the issue anywhere on the page. So, be aware that you'll have to enter the PIN code every time you pick it up.

fragmede• 2 years ago

you know there's a setting to turn that off, right?

tantricked• 2 years ago

Will sure sell like hot cakes, just because of novelty

TinyPod – Apple Watch case with scroll wheel

Related Stories