This Device Turns Your Apple Watch Into an Old-School iPod

This Device Turns Your Apple Watch Into an Old-School iPod

The TinyPod is one of the more ingenious ideas I've seen in a while: It's a little case for a strapless Apple Watch, which essentially turns it into a miniature iPod, complete with an old-school clickwheel.

There's a lot you can do with an Apple Watch these days, from playing music to making calls to navigating from A to B with Apple Maps. All of that functionality is kept, but the device moves from your wrist into your pocket with this compact plastic casing.

That has its advantages and disadvantages: You can't track your steps and heart rate if it's not on your wrist, for example, but it does mean you can use the device more easily. The back of the watch is kept accessible, so you can still charge it in the normal way.

TinyPod case
The TinyPod has that classic iPod look. Credit: TinyPod

While a lot of the focus is on playing music via a pair of connected AirPods, the TinyPod is also being marketed as a fully featured mini phone you can use for those times when you want to leave your main iPhone at home, which is a fair assessment of what this is—and it works even better if you have an LTE-enabled Apple Watch that can get online on its own.

However, it's also worth pointing out that the TinyPod doesn't really do anything except take the Apple Watch off your wrist and add a clickwheel for easier navigation—otherwise it's just the same Apple Watch. It could appeal if you don't want to wear your Apple Watch, or have an older one lying around, or just love the classic iPod.

Wrist detection

There's an important security issue to bear in mind with the TinyPod, which is that wrist detection will need to be disabled, unless you want to enter your Apple Watch PIN every time you pick it up (the PIN will still be required for Apple Pay, whether wrist detection is enabled or disabled).

With wrist detection turned off, that means everything on your Apple Watch is potentially available to anyone who picks it up. You'll need to keep a close eye on your TinyPod at all times, and might want to switch off some of the syncing that it does with your iPhone (for emails, for example), just to be on the safe side.

TinyPod case
You can access all of your Apple Watch apps on the TinyPod. Credit: TinyPod

I emailed the TinyPod team to ask about how much battery life to expect, and how wrist detection might impair the functionality of the Apple Watch in one of these cases, but I've yet to hear back—I'll update this article if they return a comment.

It's not necessarily a reason not to get a TinyPod, but it's something to consider. And there is actually a perk: The makers of the TinyPod say that without wrist detection enabled, battery life on the Apple Watch will stretch to several days. I haven't been able to test one yet, so I can't vouch for that.

If you're sold on the idea, you can order online. The TinyPod Lite (without a clickwheel) starts at $29.99, while the full TinyPod starts at $79.99. Different sizes are available to fit 40mm, 41mm, 44mm and 45mm Apple Watch sizes, as well as the 49mm Apple Watch Ultra size, so you can pick the one you need.



* This article was originally published here

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Download All Your Media From Google Photos

Image
Cloud storage has changed the way we take care of our data. In the past, you needed to backup and transfer files between devices directly, or else you wouldn't have them in multiple locations. If you took photos on your iPhone or Android, for example, you'd often want to plug it into your computer to make sure those photos were both backed up and easily accessible for sharing with friends, family, and the internet at large. The problem is, we've changed the way we deal with data these days. If you plug your smartphone into your computer expecting to transfer all the photos and videos you see in your photos app of choice, you might be surprised to find that only a fraction of the images actually make their way to your PC. It's confusing, considering that media is accessible on the phone: Why can it just be a seamless transfer? Google Photos makes it confusing to know which images are stored on-device That's exactly what happened with Reddit user Spax123 , who took
Read more

The Best U.S. Cities for Tech Jobs (Aside From the Obvious)

Image
Working in tech no longer means having to live in one of a handful of increasingly unaffordable cities, like New York City, Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco. Instead, as jobs involving artificial intelligence and product security, among other areas, continue to grow, cities that weren't previously considered tech hubs now offer opportunities for both tech-related employment and affordable living. Here are a few examples, compiled using data from job market reports and cities, as well as input from tech recruiters and hiring managers. Bentonville, Arkansas Perhaps best known for being Walmart's home city, Bentonville has been on the rise as a tech center for the last seven or eight years, according to Eóin O'Toole, a tech recruiter and managing partner at Riviera Partners . In addition to the big-box store giant, O'Toole says that there's a "surging ecosystem both directly and indirectly related to Walmart," as well as other major employers, like JB H
Read more

How to Choose Between Alexa and Google Assistant

Image
If you’re looking to have a hands-free experience with your smart home, you need a voice assistant. By merely talking in the direction of a device enabled with the assistant, you can get information about the weather, time, local businesses, or anything else from their knowledgbase. You can control smart devices or send an email or SMS, and it’s all done by interacting vocally with the assistant, who speaks in a human-ish way. There are three well-known voice assistants: Siri, which is exclusive to Apple devices, Alexa , which is operated by Amazon, and Google Assistant . Since people are generally Apple or Android loyalists , it makes sense that if you run Apple products, you’d stick with Siri for your assistant. For everyone else, which voice assistant should you choose: Alexa or Google?  When it comes to smart home technology, there are two factors to consider: the hub you’ll use to connect your smart devices so you can control them, and what voice assistants you might want to use
Read more