This Device Will Turn Your Apple Watch Into an Old-School IPod
The TinyPod is one of the most ingenious ideas I’ve seen in a while: it’s a little strapless case for the Apple Watch that essentially turns it into a miniature iPod with an old-school click wheel.
You can do a lot with your Apple Watch these days, from playing music to making calls to navigating from point A to point B using Apple Maps. All this functionality remains, but thanks to the compact plastic housing, the device moves from your wrist to your pocket.
This has its advantages and disadvantages: you can’t track your steps and heart rate unless it’s on your wrist, for example, but it does mean you’ll have an easier time using the device. The back of the watch remains accessible so you can charge it as usual.
While the focus is on playing music through a pair of connected AirPods, the TinyPod is also positioned as a full-featured mini phone that can be used for times when you want to leave your main iPhone at home, which is fair enough. assessment of what it is – and it works even better if you have an LTE-enabled Apple Watch that can go online on its own.
However, it’s also worth noting that the TinyPod doesn’t really do anything other than take the Apple Watch off your wrist and add a click wheel for easier navigation—otherwise, it’s the same Apple Watch. This might appeal if you don’t want to wear an Apple Watch, have an old watch around, or just love the classic iPod.
Wrist detection
There’s an important security issue to consider when using the TinyPod: you’ll need to turn off wrist detection unless you want to enter your Apple Watch PIN every time you pick it up (the PIN will still be needed for Apple Pay whether you have wrist detection enabled or disabled ).
If wrist recognition is turned off, it means everything on your Apple Watch is potentially accessible to anyone who picks it up. You’ll need to keep a close eye on your TinyPod at all times, and may want to turn off some of the syncing it does with your iPhone (for email, for example), just in case.
I emailed the TinyPod team to find out how much battery life to expect and how wrist detection might impair Apple Watch functionality in one of these cases, but I haven’t heard back yet—I’ll update this article if they return a comment.
This isn’t necessarily a reason not to buy a TinyPod, but it’s worth considering. And there’s actually a benefit: TinyPod’s creators say that without enabling wrist detection, the Apple Watch’s battery life will increase to several days. I haven’t had a chance to test it yet, so I can’t vouch for it.
If you like this idea, you can order online . The TinyPod Lite (without click wheel) starts at $29.99, and the full TinyPod starts at $79.99. There are a variety of sizes available to fit Apple Watch sizes 40mm, 41mm, 44mm and 45mm, as well as Apple Watch Ultra 49mm, so you can choose the one you need.
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