The TinyPod turns the Apple Watch into a hybrid iPod-iPhone gadget
As you’ll see in our Apple Watch 9 review and Apple Watch Ultra 2 review, Apple’s smartwatch is a powerful little computer – and you don’t necessarily have to wear it on your wrist, as a new hardware project called the TinyPod proves.
As announced on social media (through 9to5Mac) as “coming soon”, the TinyPod places a strapless Apple Watch in a case that looks like a miniature iPod. There’s even a click wheel on the front for controlling apps and actions.
When you think about everything you can do with the Apple Watch, it’s essentially a smaller and more limited version of the iPhone: you can make calls, text, listen to music, take notes, and more.
Add to that the iPod-inspired hardware design and some of the best AirPods, and you have something that combines the ideas of an iPhone and an iPod – all in a small gadget that fits easily in your pocket or straps to your clothes.
A phone away from the phone
This summer. Live differently pic.twitter.com/7qvu5Sm3XvMay 24, 2024
In one of the TinyPod teaser trailers that has already appeared, the device is described as “your phone away from the phone,” which gives you an idea of how it’s being targeted. It’s like a secondary device to complement your phone (just like the Apple Watch itself).
Perhaps everything this mini phone can’t do (surf the web, scroll through social media, play videos) makes it a less distracting and less stress-inducing alternative to your real iPhone. It may be suitable for times when you don’t need a full phone with you.
Now there’s still a lot we don’t know about the TinyPod, not least of which is how much it will cost or when we can buy it (in the US it’s apparently coming in the summer). But from what we’ve seen so far, it’s a promising idea.
This isn’t actually the first project we’ve seen to try to turn the Apple Watch into something else: there’s that too the Cake Gadgetwhich looks a lot like the Rabbit R1, and is currently in the prototype phase.