TinyPod – Apple Watch case with scroll wheel
thetinypod.com
thetinypod.com
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]!
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...
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.
> 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.
It's okay to not pretend that Apple trademarked the word "watch".
Calling it "Watch" looks/sounds incredibly awkward.
There is nothing inherent in the hardware limiting you from doing these things, but my understanding is that Apple makes it hard to do.
Don't you normally still have a phone nearby and synced to the watch? I don't think I know anyone that uses a smart watch in lieu of a phone, just as an accessory that keeps them from having to pull out their phone.
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.
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.
Which, when you think of it, (smart or dumb) mobile phones kind of have been for a while already for people that don't wear (smart or dumb) watches.
Tangentially I sort of lament the progressive disappearance of wall and street clocks, presumably caused by the constant availability of time in one's pocket (before that not everyone wore a watch but everyone soon had a mobile phone with time)
Meanwhile, I am tired of my internal drives running out of space, and I don't trust the cloud. Flash drives and external drives are too expensive. I have a totally original idea of removable media that is inexpensive, flat for easy travel, uses magnetic high capacity storage, and even had a writable surface to remember what's on it with a simple marker! Brilliant, I know. And I have big plans to use BOTH sides for even more storage, as well as a special notch to distinguish when the contents are read only.
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.
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.)
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.
https://www.macworld.com/article/667363/ipod-nano-6g-with-st...
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.
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.
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.
I bought an iPhone 13 mini the day the iPhone 15 was released and the 13 mini was discounted, with plans to keep it until it was pried from my cold dead hands. Now, less than a year later, I’m not sure how that’s going to go. While I love the size, and have hated every other iPhone since the 5/5S/SE, the lack of RAM on this thing is a real problem. The browser can’t handle some pages, things constantly reload causing me to lose stuff. It’s not great. Some developers have also seemed to stop caring about making sure things work well on the smaller screen. I sent 1Password a bug report, they tested and confirmed it was an issue and said they do still support the Mini, yet the issue remains a year later, last I noticed.
I’ve also wanted the Pro camera setup for years, but it’s only on larger phones, so I didn’t get it. There is this misguided idea that people want small phones because they’re cheaper. I’d pay a premium for a small Pro phone. If they need to make it thicker to fit everything in and give it the same size battery, I’m good with that… it would eliminate the camera bump, which would be great.
I buy my phones through work, so my next upgrade opportunity isn’t for another 14 months. When the time comes, I’m not sure if I’ll be as excited to hold onto the mini. I want to make my point, but also want a usable phone. Not to mention probably wanting some of those Apple Intelligence features. I’m troubled by the whole situation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If I could use Uber/Lyft on the watch I would mostly leave my phone on the charger.
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.
Unfortunately the buttons are purely for aesthetics.
Also, would've been better if it folded up like a clamshell phone from the early 2000s.
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.
any other juicy stories??
ipodisation: the tendency for non-iPod Apple products to evolve iPod-like features over time.
But perhaps I'm the one who is wrong. Please, explain what you meant exactly so I can understand your perspective.
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.
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.
I also seldom, if ever, leave my house with my iPhone.
> 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.
> It's basically Lightning minus the PWR and ID1 pins, because those are for satellite accessories.
Thanks for sharing!
Also would have liked to see a little hole in the corner to thread a loop to.
Looks like Maps lets you “request ride”, so possibly even the native maps method could work here.
The Ride Request API [1] seems closed off to developers now, too.
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.
Based on this screenshot of the render gif you could argue at this point it's vaporware. The tolerances and geometry for the scrollwheel housing just don't make intuitive sense. Maybe we should get some actual footage of a prototype working?
This looks like a great solution to repurposing our old watches.
- 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
My main reason why I don’t use my watch anymore is that it needs to be charged 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.
It is the screen (and cell radio, as I’ll note below). Note that when Garmin started putting OLED screens in their watches, the battery life dropped dramatically compared to a watch with similar innards, but a MIP display.
However, Garmin will still beat an Apple Watch for battery life even with an OLED display, because as you point out, the AW is doing a lot more in the background. And firing up that cellular radio is not cheap on battery, either. I’ve got a Garmin 945LTE with an LTE radio, and let me tell you that when that thing can’t find a cell tower, it’ll crank that radio up and burn through a battery in no time. Not so much that I’ve run out, but enough that I definitely noticed a large difference. It makes me wonder if that isn’t the reason the 945 LTE has been neglected and no other adult watches have been made with cell radios.
But, yes, make a “not so much stuff in the background” mode. If I’m in the middle of a 50 mile race, I don’t need email. I don’t need a lot of background refreshing. The AW does have a mode like that, but without going into a long spiel, I think Apple could do better.
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!
Is there a Tidal app for WatchOS?
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
https://www.printables.com/model/866937-tamagotchi-case-for-...
All it needs is a little loop for a chain. Neat concept.
It does very little, but also does all the essentials: maps, payment, music streaming, etc.
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.
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?
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.
I guess it's my fault for putting up with such a garbage website because I was curious enough about the product...
Firefox on macOS
Edit: I only get this behavior on my phone.
I'm not sure what it implies accessibility-wise, but it looks cute.
edit: HN removes those chars, sorry
The UI and industrial design of this is cute and approachable. Love it.
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.
What > How > Why > Buy
i don't mind the shiny scroll effects and didn't know it was such a hot topic!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Edit for clarification:
The scrolling implementation here flashes rapidly on Firefox for Mac OS.
> 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?
They can't because Apple does not want them to.
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.