Credits: Social Media
Nostalgic new TinyPod case turns your Apple Watch into an iPod Nano
“Apple Watch users, maybe theres a secondary use for your watch after all, says TikToker Tyler Morgan in his brief video review of the new tinyPod, which he calls the “iWatch Nano.“
Retailing with a scroll wheel at $79.99, the new tech release is a case for your Apple Watch that promises to be your phone away from phone – and it might look rather familiar.
TinyPods Apple Watch feels like an iPod Nano
Nostalgia for the iPods of yesteryear comes and goes, but tinyPod’s success depends on it sort of.
Its a case for your Apple Watch you have to take off the strap first that is designed to emulate the look and feel of an iPod Nano. What this really means for tech consumers is: that you can have your scroll wheel back.
Apple first rolled out the click wheel in 2004 with the iPod Mini, but it was invented by Norihiko Saito in 1998. The last Apple product to have a click wheel was the iPod Nano 5th Generation, which Apple discontinued in 2010. Touchscreens have since taken over, but nostalgia sells.
The people are yearning for an iPod, writes one commenter on TikTok Apple user Tyler Morgans video promoting the product.
But the click wheel isnt tinyPods only feature, even if it is the one thats most likely to make headlines.
What other features does the tinyPod have?
Maybe the dumbphone of our dreams was just a smartwatch all along, reads The Verges review of the tinyPod, published shortly after the product hit Mac Rumors front page. Dumb phones and phones made without key features do exist but are even more expensive than their smarter contemporaries.
The idea is that you put your Apple Watch in it and it functions as a covers-all-basics secondary phone. It charges magnetically, has Apple Pay functionality, has a multi-day battery life, and functions as a phone, music player and internet communicator.
In other words, its a basic smartphone, which is actually a watch, which is designed to feel like an iPod nano from 15+ years ago.
It costs $79.99 for the case with a scroll wheel, or $29.99 for the tinyPod lite. And its compatible with 41/40mm, 45/44mm and 49mm (Ultra) Apple Watches.
In case it wasnt clear: it is a case; the cases houses a watch; it is not a watch. Nor is it an Apple product, although it leans on Apple’s aesthetic for its marketing. The tagline, “Live different,” is a play on Apple’s “Think different” (without the “-ly” adverbs tend to have, which would make it grammatically correct), and the typeface and general mood of the ad are very Apple-esque.
Find the ad itself embedded below, after Tyler’s reaction video.
The age-old question: why?
Perhaps the most liked comment on Tyler Morgans TikTok video about the product is both short and sweet, and to the point: My question is why tho.
Others have pointed out that the tinyPod enables people to do the reverse of what they used to do, which was to wear their iPod Nano on their wrist, like a watch.
CNET wrote about the craze in 2011: I’m wearing an iPod Nano on my wrist as a watch. I already own an iPhone. And an iPad. What’s wrong with me?
If, as The Verge notes, people purchase the tinyPod with a view to minimizing their social media and general smartphone use, it begs the question of why consumers dont swap out their high tech gadgets for actual dumb phones.
Only time will tell if the gap in the market the tinyPod aims to fill actually exists.
