TinyPod – Apple Watch case with scroll wheel(thetinypod.com)
thetinypod.com
TinyPod – Apple Watch case with scroll wheel
https://thetinypod.com/
362 comments
Funnily enough the inspiration may have come from Apple themselves, before the Watch was announced they covertly tested it in cases made to resemble an iPod knock-off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmgFk5hT6d8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmgFk5hT6d8
Adds a layer of authenticity and nostalgia to the product
> It's of course very silly, and I'm sure commenters here are going to talk about all the ways that it isn't practical or that it's a niche idea, but I love whimsical silly niche hardware ideas that make it into actual hardware
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...
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...
I don't think this is silly in the slightest. There are lots of folks like me who deliberately want to break our phone addictions, which is why things like www.thelightphone.com exist.
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.
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.
> but I do need things that are essentially task-oriented tools: Uber/Lyft, Weather apps, Maps, Authenticator Code apps
> 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.
> 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.
>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
It's okay to not pretend that Apple trademarked the word "watch".
Calling it "Watch" looks/sounds incredibly awkward.
It's okay to not pretend that Apple trademarked the word "watch".
Calling it "Watch" looks/sounds incredibly awkward.
I've had the issue in the past where Apple's auto-correction would capitalize "Watch" every time I typed it.
It doesn't seem to do it on my iPhone now unless it's directly preceded by "Apple." But I wonder if they're hitting that because I notice a lot of different people are capitalizing the word.
It doesn't seem to do it on my iPhone now unless it's directly preceded by "Apple." But I wonder if they're hitting that because I notice a lot of different people are capitalizing the word.
But that is a function of apple doing their best to make the watch an extension of the phone rather than its own device.
There is nothing inherent in the hardware limiting you from doing these things, but my understanding is that Apple makes it hard to do.
There is nothing inherent in the hardware limiting you from doing these things, but my understanding is that Apple makes it hard to do.
For better or worse, that is the inherent assumption - that a smartwatch is a companion device to a smartphone. The idea of ditching the phone entirely is, arguably, an unintended consequence of releasing smartwatch variants with built-in LTE connectivity. Giving the app developers the benefit of doubt, it's understandable they don't want to make a standalone app for a fraction off the smartwatch models, where they can do with one simpler extension app for all smartwatches.
Yes, the watch GUI for apps is pretty limited. If you are okay using Siri you’ll find a lot of functionality is actually available.
>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.
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.
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.
This entire point of this product is to use the apple watch inside this case instead of a phone. If you're using this product, no, you won't have a phone nearby and synced to it.
They recently announced a v3 of the light phone that might actually be useful - I also have a light phone II sitting in a drawer somewhere.
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.
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.
I feel like once you set third-party apps like Uber, bike rental or banking apps as requirements, the only possible solution is sadly a mostly standard cut-down Android phone. The third parties won't support any bespoke OS, so you're stuck with iOS or Android, and moreover they won't support exotic configurations like a tiny display.
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.
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.
There are other options in the Android space. Very very few, sadly, but they exist: check out the Qin phones like the F21 Pro: it's Android on a 2007's Nokia form factor!
But you can already do this with a smart watch without this case, right?
I've long wanted a lanyard for my watch. Maybe they can add an eyelet (loop?) to the bottom of these cases.
So we are going full cycle? Pocket watches?
> pocket watches
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)
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)
I remember from my kid/teenage years that there used to be a lot of clocks in the environment, both analog and digital, both public and private (e.g. digital clock scrolling between ads on a LED billboard over a store). I do also remember you couldn't exactly trust them - often enough, they would be broken, or they would show the wrong time for weeks after switching from/to DST. Analog clocks were the worst, because they rarely had a second hand, so you couldn't easily tell if they're working at all.
Pish posh! How dare you even insuate it.
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.
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 unapologetically love this thing.
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.
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.
I think I love this too! An interesting concept for enhancing the functionality and aesthetic of the Apple Watch
The offline storage is a nice touch
> it's of course very silly
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.)
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.)
Doesn’t the watch also emit radiation?
Yes, but this way of ensconcing it reduces the radiation exposure since the device now likely won't be kept constantly in contact with the body.
That makes no sense. Phones and watches mostly use 4g and wifi band signals which both go through thin plastic shells and indeed your entire body without interference.
Distance decreases the intensity of exposure. I'm not trying to achieve complete avoidance, just a decrease of risk.
To those who down-voted (actually or even as a psychological reaction) my original comment: consider for a moment that while this might be a fringe opinion, it is not without some evidence.
https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/07/01/health-risks-of-cell-ph...
If you think rats getting cancer from radiation is not relevant evidence, that's your personal opinion, not the most scientifically validated hypothesis.
To those who down-voted (actually or even as a psychological reaction) my original comment: consider for a moment that while this might be a fringe opinion, it is not without some evidence.
https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/07/01/health-risks-of-cell-ph...
If you think rats getting cancer from radiation is not relevant evidence, that's your personal opinion, not the most scientifically validated hypothesis.
From the linked NIH page about the study (via the Wayback Machine):
> “The exposures used in the studies cannot be compared directly to the exposure that humans experience when using a cell phone,” said John Bucher, Ph.D., NTP senior scientist. “In our studies, rats and mice received radio frequency radiation across their whole bodies. By contrast, people are mostly exposed in specific local tissues close to where they hold the phone. In addition, the exposure levels and durations in our studies were greater than what people experience.”
'Beware the man of one study.'
> “The exposures used in the studies cannot be compared directly to the exposure that humans experience when using a cell phone,” said John Bucher, Ph.D., NTP senior scientist. “In our studies, rats and mice received radio frequency radiation across their whole bodies. By contrast, people are mostly exposed in specific local tissues close to where they hold the phone. In addition, the exposure levels and durations in our studies were greater than what people experience.”
'Beware the man of one study.'
Sure, but is causing a little damage to a tiny part of the body acceptable? Exposure levels and durations -- common sense would suggest those are going up with people using more devices for more time every day.
I was not inclined to believe this whole radiation business for such reasons too -- "it's one study", "if it were so bad this would make front-page of the NYT", "entire labs of scientists and governments cannot be lying about this", "it's non-ionizing radiation, that's why it's safe you idiot!" etc.
What made me look a little deeper was Huberman's AMA on EMF. It's become fashionable to dunk on him now but it gave me a pause in that I began to wonder if there might be some merit to this after all.
Ultimately, this is like assessing the evidence for any other controversial topic -- unless you're working in R&D on radiation yourself, individual retail consumers of research like us can rely on the published evidence only to a certain extent. Beyond that, it's your priors, risk thresholds and heuristics for who to trust that will determine what you believe.
I was not inclined to believe this whole radiation business for such reasons too -- "it's one study", "if it were so bad this would make front-page of the NYT", "entire labs of scientists and governments cannot be lying about this", "it's non-ionizing radiation, that's why it's safe you idiot!" etc.
What made me look a little deeper was Huberman's AMA on EMF. It's become fashionable to dunk on him now but it gave me a pause in that I began to wonder if there might be some merit to this after all.
Ultimately, this is like assessing the evidence for any other controversial topic -- unless you're working in R&D on radiation yourself, individual retail consumers of research like us can rely on the published evidence only to a certain extent. Beyond that, it's your priors, risk thresholds and heuristics for who to trust that will determine what you believe.
Would that be Andrew Huberman? The podcaster and self-promoter whose former research specialism has nothing remotely to do with RF, or indeed radiation of any variety? You should consider the possibility it has become fashionable to dunk on him because he deserves to be dunked on.
> Sure, but is causing a little damage to a tiny part of the body acceptable?
I'll answer that question once you've shown credibly that it is meaningful in this context.
> Sure, but is causing a little damage to a tiny part of the body acceptable?
I'll answer that question once you've shown credibly that it is meaningful in this context.
Huberman is not citing any evidence or meaningful research in his conclusions. He’s fear mongering over a fringe concern without merit. He’s dunked on because he leans on bunk science
You don't plan to carry this in a pocket?
I think their point is pocket as opposed to against wrist the whole time.
Or hanging around your neck with a lanyard.
Does it at least do anything well? An iPod replacement would be fun, but the best thing about an iPod was the wired headphones.
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.
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.
The best thing about an iPod was most certainly not the wired headphones, it was how much music you could store compared to most preceding devices.
The second best thing was the scroll wheel. Interfaces for music devices before it were so janky. I loved my iPod.
Beyond storage some of the other "best things" were the easy to navigate UI with the click wheel, instead of the finicky buttons or multiple repeated swipes that other devices required. Also the iTunes integration. Having a solid music app on the desktop, that made it easy to create playlists, which could that automatically sync with the iPod so everything was there without a bunch of work, was a game changer when it launched. I bought my first Mac to get iTunes, because the software on Windows at the time sucked so bad.
I got my first MP3 player in 1999 or the early 00s. The SAN disk card had 16MB and I had to cut a song in half so I could fit 3/4 songs.
They could theoretically add a headphone port to this and a bluetooth to headphone adapter. I don't think the chips for that take up much space at all.
It's funny how we went from using iPod Nano as a watch with a third party case, to using an Apple Watch as an iPod Nano with a third party case.
I still own multiple nanos with the watch bands and the kids love playing with them as a ”more kid-safe Apple Watch”. Even after all these years they’re still immaculate and work great. More than can be said by lots of other more recent technology.
A bit ironic how the evolution of technology and user preferences can come full circle
Oh man I loved my iPod nano! I had the square one, and used to fill it with music and podcasts through a cable. I wish I had known there were cases to turn it into a watch
I was literally thinking what you said and I scrolled to your comment. WILD!
We did? I don’t recall an accessory like that for the nano. Seems it would have been too tall (wide?) to function as a watch. Happy to be proven wrong though.
It was called the TikTok: https://ujeezy-blog.tumblr.com/post/2869125971/unboxing-the-...
I thought you were making a joke about TikTok the social media app at first. I wonder how many other products were named TikTok.
It was a ver common phrase. I think its been lost to history but right before "TikTok" the phrase "tic tock" was getting popular as a way to say, "the second-by-second run down", e.g. give me the tic tock.
I believe that by the end of the century half of the most common words of the English language will have been hostilely taken over and ruined by tech companies.
This was common in journalism: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-tock_(journalism)
But I haven’t heard it in a while.
But I haven’t heard it in a while.
I feel like the most popular pre-app wide popular usage would’ve been the Ke$ha song.
>I feel like the most popular pre-app wide popular usage would’ve been the Ke$ha song.
Agreed, a lot of the alternative usages that people are mentioning seem fake and I don't recall any of them being a thing. The only usage I recall being widespread was people saying tick tock to tell you to hurry up implying that the hands of a clock are moving. That and the little known novel from the 80's about a sentient murderous robot.
Agreed, a lot of the alternative usages that people are mentioning seem fake and I don't recall any of them being a thing. The only usage I recall being widespread was people saying tick tock to tell you to hurry up implying that the hands of a clock are moving. That and the little known novel from the 80's about a sentient murderous robot.
Came for TikTok - Stayed for TikInABox - I feel low-key rick-rolled :)
It's a web search away, but here's an example from an article posted at the premiere of the watch: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/2015-apple-watch-vs-the-201...
Just search for "iPod nano watch".
https://www.macworld.com/article/667363/ipod-nano-6g-with-st...
https://www.macworld.com/article/667363/ipod-nano-6g-with-st...
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Yeah, my cousin did this years ago. Wore it religiously too.
I absolutely love this, but I hate websites like this so much, especially on mobile. I’m haphazardly scrolling hitting breakpoints trying to get to content that either lags well behind my gestures to animate a device spinning around, or zips past everything I wanted to actually read. If you want to show a video, please just show a video.
It's funny, you can basically play back the first animation in dev tools by just scrolling through all the media requests. Each frame of the animation is a separate PNG.
Why don't they provide an MP4 and show it frame-by-frame on scroll? It would be much more efficient than hundreds of PNGs.
this pains me :-(
I agree, but I also enjoy the way that they've emulated the apple website experience for product pages.
Except Apple's product pages are smooth and performant.
I guess it looks nice when cached, but i am just scrolling empty page and when I stop, after a second I get random picture. An epitome of atrocious design
Agreed, at this point a lot of websites have become laggy human-powered movies.
Wouldn't be hacker news without a comment shedding the bike to talk about the design of the page and make no mention of the actual product.
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.
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.
Bike shedding is bike shedding because the color we paint the bike shed at the nuclear power plant doesn't matter. If people can't use your scroll-jacked website to even learn about your product, that matters.
Wouldn't be hacker news without a comment explaining why their bike shedding is actually good and necessary.
This website is impressive. It's almost more apple than apple.
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.
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.
I strongly disagree. It doesn't render correctly on FireFox on my Mac. And while those animated pages might look cool, they are very bad on giving you information. The product looks really cool, but as a Apple Watch owner I would really like to know what exactly it does and how.
It does exactly what your watch does now. It merely provides a way to interact with the watch in a similar way to the original iPod. Many people have their own personal reasons why they might enjoy this.
And that is fine. It definitely looks cute.
strong disagree. as i scrolled, the animation blinked as it loaded the image sequence and felt very staccato and not smooth at all. at least what apple does works
What browser? It was smooth for me in Safari.
I had a lot of blinking in safari on iPhone. I think it’s something to do with downloading images.
Any abuse of the scroll is outright hostile and leads to immediate closure of the tab.
I was going to rant how unusable this page is (it is) when I realized that it's just another form of content.
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.
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 love the concept! I think TinyPod is an outcry over the sizes of the smartphones today. The smallest most recent iPhone you could buy was iPhone 13 mini and it was discontinued. Don't know about other brands, but from what I am seeing nothing fits the pocket anymore. There must but a niche for those who don't read or watch movies on their hand-held devices, and if the apps are well designed a smaller screen is just fine.
Not even the pocket, all modern flagship phones are so large that I can't use them well with one hand. I'll stick with the mini till the day it does and just hope there's a better something out there by that time.
I'm hoping that Apple releases a new mini on a 3 year cadence. Maybe there wasn't enough demand to continue the line every year, but they'll bring it back occasionally?
I would enjoy this as well, but they need to be transparent about the plans, so people who want small phones can get them. On several occasions I bought something new (that I hated), because I thought the line I liked was dead. Then a year later they release something new to fill the gap.
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.
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.
My issue is I want a mini with the pro features. I’d happily pay the same price as the pro. But I doubt I’m a common type of customer.
I just posted the same thing. I think there are more of us than Apple thinks, at least I like to believe that. I think Steve Jobs was in that camp as well.
When the 12 mini was released I bought it and Apple sent me a survey. It seemed like have the questions were asking if I bought the mini because it was cheaper. It seemed like that was the assumption they were going with. I answered over and over again that I didn’t care about price, and if there were comments I wrote that I was price insensitive and cared about the size, not the price.
I get steep discounts on phone hardware through work, but if they released an iPhone 16 mini Pro tomorrow, I’d pay full price out of pocket, no questions asked.
When the 12 mini was released I bought it and Apple sent me a survey. It seemed like have the questions were asking if I bought the mini because it was cheaper. It seemed like that was the assumption they were going with. I answered over and over again that I didn’t care about price, and if there were comments I wrote that I was price insensitive and cared about the size, not the price.
I get steep discounts on phone hardware through work, but if they released an iPhone 16 mini Pro tomorrow, I’d pay full price out of pocket, no questions asked.
I'm in the same boat. Want a small phone with premium features. My hope is that the next generation of iphone SE is at least on par with the 13 mini that I currently have. Otherwise, not sure what I'll do when my mini dies since the current SE is a pretty big step down from the 13 mini.
Agreed. The moment the iPhone mini comes back, I am buying one straight away
same, but they'll ruin it by putting a stove in the back.. iPhone 5 still is the perfect form factor for a phone, at least for me
They'll pry my mini from my cold dead (regular sized) hands
> if the apps are well designed a smaller screen is just fine.
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.
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.
I have a pro max and even with this size some websites are cramped and badly designed. I can’t imagine with a mini version… such a shame because it’s really nice to have a small phone at all time
My hope was that the mini would be a success and they'd eventually had a Pro Mini line, but sadly the mini form-factor hasn't sold well. I would buy a Pro Mini in a heartbeat.
Pockets? So 20th Century. I’m seeing people wear their massive phones on lanyards around their neck all day.
Really? What city or part of the world do you observe this? That is a wild fashion statement.
I see this in Berlin a lot and even though it disturbed me first I came to think that it suits the value (amount of use) phones have for most people
I really like this product, but I have been on this journey, and will repost a comment i made to a recent thread about replacing your phone with an apple watch.
—
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.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39982713#39988624
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.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39982713#39988624
I think the biggest issue for many is using it in a car? As far as I know, the watch will not pair like a phone does for calls using the typical bluetooth standards that work just fine across all conventional cellphones.
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.
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.
I haven't used my watch as a replacement phone, but my experience is quite different of the tech to yours.
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.
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.
Real happy to hear this. As i said, it was series 4 and the first airpods pro and here in europe (where we sometimes lag a bit behind in features), so maybe things are different now.
Re forwarded calls: maybe i misremember, maybe it was my local carrier or maybe apple has changed things but i’m glad things have changed. Can you recieve sms too? I couldn’t and this reply corroborates my experience https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40994017
Also, if you take your watch for a run with music playing on your aipods, does your watch stop the playback once you’re back in phone range? Mine does and i hate it.
I think music and podcasts are synced through iphone too, right? If you leave your phone turned off, will watch sync everything correctly?
In other words, constant sync and connection issues was what made me ditch my watch as any sort of replacement phone.
Re forwarded calls: maybe i misremember, maybe it was my local carrier or maybe apple has changed things but i’m glad things have changed. Can you recieve sms too? I couldn’t and this reply corroborates my experience https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40994017
Also, if you take your watch for a run with music playing on your aipods, does your watch stop the playback once you’re back in phone range? Mine does and i hate it.
I think music and podcasts are synced through iphone too, right? If you leave your phone turned off, will watch sync everything correctly?
In other words, constant sync and connection issues was what made me ditch my watch as any sort of replacement phone.
SMS fine. Music stopping when phone is in range is new to me - airpods swiching back perhaps?
I've tried this several times too and still do phone less days quite often thanks to the watch, but my big obstacle has been the lack of Uber/Lyft which I use instead of having a car. They used to have those apps on the watch but unfortunately they don't.
If I could use Uber/Lyft on the watch I would mostly leave my phone on the charger.
If I could use Uber/Lyft on the watch I would mostly leave my phone on the charger.
[deleted]
You can set up your watch using a phone, and then turn the phone off and the watch still works. What doesn't work is SMS messages from non-apple users, because they are forwarded from the phone.
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.
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.
Along similar lines of thought: there is an Apple Watch case from Japan that replicates the once-popular Infobar 'candybar' phone handset: https://www.multicore.blog/p/infobar-apple-watch-case-review...
Unfortunately the buttons are purely for aesthetics.
Unfortunately the buttons are purely for aesthetics.
That is neat. I wonder if the antenna is there for aesthetics ?
Also, would've been better if it folded up like a clamshell phone from the early 2000s.
Also, would've been better if it folded up like a clamshell phone from the early 2000s.
I bought an Apple Watch to get away from the “screen” but of all evils, Apple don’t let their watches pair to my car, not even for hands free coms. If only they would allow for regular stereo bluetooth and handsfree I would ditch my iPhone.
Perhaps that is what they fear?
Having tried hard to only wear LTE watch instead of phone, I can confirm that yes, that is what Apple fears. They could easily turn AW into an iPhone replacement with a few fixes, but they won't.
I'd jump at this (or even just a straight Apple watch) to replace my phone if it didn't require an iPhone in order to use it (I currently use Android; seems a bit silly to buy an iPhone purely to enable a watch). Hoping they consider this use case eventually, and it's worth remembering that early ipods required a mac to use, and early iphones required a computer to set them up.
In my case, my wife has an iPhone, so I was able to setup an Apple Watch as my primary phone, while I do not have any phone other than my watch. So if you're on a family plan, maybe that's an option
I'm not getting a family just to get an apple watch, cmon ;)
I just wear one AirPod, good enough for podcasts and phone calls.
Fun fact: back when the original Apple Watch was being developed, Apple internally produced something similar for people secretly working on it to pretend it wasn’t a new product category. It was more or less a silicon sleeve that would show a fake keyboard. I may or may not still have one 0:-)
> for people secretly working on it to pretend it wasn’t a new product category
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.
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.
ok that's crazy :) and super interesting!
also it makes me think there must be so much secrecy, paranoia and politics within apple
any other juicy stories??
any other juicy stories??
Oh look, carcinisation for Apple products.
ipodisation: the tendency for non-iPod Apple products to evolve iPod-like features over time.
ipodisation: the tendency for non-iPod Apple products to evolve iPod-like features over time.
Implying apple products are not cancer on their own right.
Carcinisation is a term unrelated to cancer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation
It is, however, a term related to Cancer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_(constellation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_(constellation)
Lol, I was thinking in terms of the disease or the Internet slang, but you're right of course.
Cancers are serious conditions that are the cause of 25%-30% of all deaths. 1 in 2 people will have a form of cancer in their lifetimes. Cancers can have devastating long-term consequences beyond the illness itself, even if you survive. Treatment, recovery and sometimes remission is physically and mentally damaging.
But perhaps I'm the one who is wrong. Please, explain what you meant exactly so I can understand your perspective.
But perhaps I'm the one who is wrong. Please, explain what you meant exactly so I can understand your perspective.
I am not the OP, but "cancer" is used as, and I quote, "(figuratively) Something damaging that spreads throughout something else". In that sense, the commenter could be implying, for example, that Apple products damage the electronic gadgets industry with their closed and anticompetitive policies, spreading silently (because users buy more of them to use the whole ecosystem).
That, and cause some hard to repair changes to people's understanding and evaluation of hardware and software.
Can you give some other examples?
I'm curious how, in this configuration, the Apple Watch handles things that require the various sensors? Obviously the ECG won't work, since it's not on your wrist. I'm assuming the "Stand" notifications won't work either, among other things. If you're buying this, I'm sure you're willing to make those tradeoffs. It just has me thinking what features of the watch you're losing that you might not realize at first.
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.
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.
The website does say that it turns wrist detection off to save battery, so I wonder if that or some other combination of settings to turn off the ECG and stand notifications takes care of those potential issues.
> What if sometimes you could just…
leave your phone at home? With all the essentials to stay connected, tinyPod makes that actually possible.
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.
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 thought it was funny that they are listing features like apple pay and magnetic charging as if these features have anything to do with the case.
It also tells the time.
This. Coupled with the fact that all their promotional material looks like renders and there isn’t a single photo/video of someone actually using it, makes the whole thing feel sketchy.
One real feature: improved battery life. This might let me leave my phone in my bag and stop worrying about the watch battery.
Plus I'd look goofy with my tan arms with my snow white watch tan mark.
I also seldom, if ever, leave my house with my iPhone.
I also seldom, if ever, leave my house with my iPhone.
How does the scroll wheel work? Is it mechanical or it has some connection/interface with the software?
The how it works section says the following when you expand it:
> 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.
> 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 has to be mechanical, there are no input ports on the (current) Apple Watches.
Wonder if the diag port would allow for it.
> It's basically Lightning minus the PWR and ID1 pins, because those are for satellite accessories.
> It's basically Lightning minus the PWR and ID1 pins, because those are for satellite accessories.
I'm sort of expecting a rubber band around the crown going down to a gear tied to the wheel.
I feel it must be mechanical since it interfaces with crown?
> "What goes around, comes around! Rediscover the delight of tactile scrolling with tinyPod’s physical scroll wheel. And yes, it actually scrolls. How? 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."
tried to find that as well. the "How it works" section is completely useless.
Watch Ultra are very capable mobile devices. This came out of left field but I can see it working for some.
Which Watch Ultra do you mean? Both Apple and Samsung products come up in web searches for "Watch Ultra" for me.
This article is pretty clearly about an "Apple Watch case with scroll wheel". Pretty sure which one it is can be inferred from context.
Should probably check that your site works in firefox before submitting to hn.
Seems like they did, considering it works well for me on the latest version of FF.
do you have javascript disabled via noscript or ublock origin? It works fine on firefox for me.
Works fine for me on FF and I have copious plugins installed.
a lot of negative comments here but i think this is really neat! It is unclear what the case adds besides the form factor and buttons. Is that the main value or does the case provide charging or additional memory or anything like that?
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!
Hold on… if you turn off wrist detection then doesn’t that leave the watch unlocked all the time unless you manually lock it which is quite a hassle? For me that’s the only fly in an otherwise pretty delightful jar of ointment.
One thing the Apple Watch is missing is being able to call a Lyft or Uber. Not something I do super often but it really would let me leave the phone at home more often.
Also would have liked to see a little hole in the corner to thread a loop to.
Also would have liked to see a little hole in the corner to thread a loop to.
Maybe an iOS shortcut could do it? Could even add inputs for address or current location…
Looks like Maps lets you “request ride”, so possibly even the native maps method could work here.
Looks like Maps lets you “request ride”, so possibly even the native maps method could work here.
From what I can tell, the "Request Ride" intent for Uber is broken (throws error on any request) and has been like this for at least 2 years.
The Ride Request API [1] seems closed off to developers now, too.
[1] https://developer.uber.com/docs/riders/introduction
The Ride Request API [1] seems closed off to developers now, too.
[1] https://developer.uber.com/docs/riders/introduction
Shortcuts was massively downgraded within one or two Apple-first releases (the original app was amazing, let me do local automations on the watch that included texting and API calls)
Uber has a phone number that you can call to hail a ride.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/17/you-can-now-hail-an-uber-b...
Uber used to have a watch app that allowed you to do this. I assume they canned it due to lack of usage.
The one time I used the Uber Apple Watch app it requested a car but no destination. I assumed they’d just ask me where I’m going but the driver was adamant that I had to provide one, which was impossible because the reason I was using the watch app is that I’d left my phone at home.
Have to resist the urge to spend $80 on a cool gadget that I will use exactly once and throw away in a drawer somewhere..
It's a piece of molded silicone.
Cool gadgets can't be made of molded silicone?
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.
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.
https://files.catbox.moe/nwvrf5.png
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?
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?
What about the screenshot supports the claim it's vaporware?
And in what way do the tolerances not make sense? Just from your vibe check? We don't know anything about what tolerances are being used/held on any of the parts involved with the product, so this doesn't even make sense as a thing to talk about?
Here's the video you're asking for: https://x.com/thetinypod/status/1813589903722311784
And in what way do the tolerances not make sense? Just from your vibe check? We don't know anything about what tolerances are being used/held on any of the parts involved with the product, so this doesn't even make sense as a thing to talk about?
Here's the video you're asking for: https://x.com/thetinypod/status/1813589903722311784
>Just from your vibe check?
Yes.
Thanks.
Yes.
Thanks.
Resembles what The Onion predicted 15 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA
Now that I've finally mastered replacing Apple Watch batteries (and replacing one incredibly small battery connector I managed to lift off the board), I asked my son just this morning what we do with the three outdated models we have lying around (we "abandoned" the watches when the batteries wouldn't last even 1/2 a day).
This looks like a great solution to repurposing our old watches.
This looks like a great solution to repurposing our old watches.
Do you have any guides for that? I'd like to try my hand at it.
I should have a guide, but haven't created one yet - don't want to derail the thread, but here are a few pointers:
- 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
- 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
You should post that someplace (of course I’m keeping a copy).
I have 0 old watches/ phones lying around - always sell them on or give them to recycling…
This claims multi-day battery life, since wrist detection can be turned off. I’m curious to know how much of a difference this one change makes. I haven’t bought an AW because the battery life isn’t good enough for a “watch” in my book, but if it can get multiple days of life, and it’s more like a phone replacement, then I’d be more likely to give it a try.
My charged watch (series 6)on the table without any use runs out of battery in 24 hours…
My main reason why I don’t use my watch anymore is that it needs to be charged all the time.
My main reason why I don’t use my watch anymore is that it needs to be charged all the time.
I have never understood why AWs consume so much battery at rest. I have a Garmin that lasts for several days, and I would be happy to have an AW what doesn't do all the stuff the AW does, but which is made by Apple. It could be a dumbed-down version that just vibrates and displays messages that I receive. I basically want a smartwatch so I can avoid phantom vibrations, and so I can quickly see what messages have come in so I don't have to get out my phone 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.
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.
Is this an issue with WatchOS, the chipset being used, or the size of battery they have chosen?
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.
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.
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> he AW is doing a lot more in the background
For Apple-blessed stuff only. They tightened third-party widget update budget so badly third-party widgets that should provide up-to-date information are essentially unusable. E.g. large Weathergraph widget still works because it shows a day-long forecast, so being an hour old is rarely noticeable, but Fantastical (can keep showing outdated event for a while and miss the actual schedule) or Battery Grapher (can be up to 30 percent points off from the actual battery status) are absolutely unusable.
For Apple-blessed stuff only. They tightened third-party widget update budget so badly third-party widgets that should provide up-to-date information are essentially unusable. E.g. large Weathergraph widget still works because it shows a day-long forecast, so being an hour old is rarely noticeable, but Fantastical (can keep showing outdated event for a while and miss the actual schedule) or Battery Grapher (can be up to 30 percent points off from the actual battery status) are absolutely unusable.
Thanks - Weathergraph author here. The tightened update budgets are just a part of a puzzle, another bad parts are:
- no background updates (for non-Apple apps, of course) once the low power mode is enabled
- a buch of long unfixed bugs, like this one https://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=5568946145067008 - a WidgetKit cache of rendered widgets gets randomly corrupted (race issue when rendering maybe? seems to happen more often with a complex widgets), and once it happens, the specific widget stops updating until device restart (and app has no way of finding out that this happens)
- no background updates (for non-Apple apps, of course) once the low power mode is enabled
- a buch of long unfixed bugs, like this one https://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=5568946145067008 - a WidgetKit cache of rendered widgets gets randomly corrupted (race issue when rendering maybe? seems to happen more often with a complex widgets), and once it happens, the specific widget stops updating until device restart (and app has no way of finding out that this happens)
Off-topic: thank you for the app! It's (subjectively, of course) by far the best weather widget out there - and I've tried a number of them. Really appreciate your work.
If you know about the events in advance, you can hand them to watchOS and have it display them for you. So I'm surprised to see calendar apps struggling with this…
You are correct. Calendar apps are less affected than e.g. battery monitor, but still suffers from meeting reschedules or new events.
I've found the Ultra comfortably lasts for two days if I don't wear it overnight, but that might change if I used it more actively in this form factor.
This is great, it's the streaming iPod I always wanted! Preordered.
This thing kinda looks like a Playstation PocketStation..
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!
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!
Damn... I know it won't happen, but imagine Apple building out a device in a form factor similar to this case, using the extra internal space (compared to an apple watch) for a really nice DAC + headphone jack... I'd buy it. A streaming iPod! WatchOS would need some tweaks, but really most of the software is there.
>really nice DAC
Is there a Tidal app for WatchOS?
Is there a Tidal app for WatchOS?
I wonder if there is a market for a spiritual iPod successor.
I've thought for a while Apple itself could probably have some pretty decent success bringing back a new generation of the iPod. There's a (somewhat) popular community of people who mod old iPods to give them ssd's, better batteries, bluetooth, better screens, etc.
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
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
I took my old iPod video and swapped out the hard drive for an adapter that just uses micro sd cards. I suppose you can’t use wireless headphones but it’s now ultra light and the battery life is great.
There is at least some market for it, judging by the amount of money raised by Tangara: https://www.crowdsupply.com/cool-tech-zone/tangara
I just went out on Printables and found the perfect anti pattern:
https://www.printables.com/model/866937-tamagotchi-case-for-...
https://www.printables.com/model/866937-tamagotchi-case-for-...
Pocket watch!
All it needs is a little loop for a chain. Neat concept.
All it needs is a little loop for a chain. Neat concept.
Slightly off-topic: To the web developer gurus in here, how do you build a site with those scrollable 3D animations? Is there a name for it, or better, a tutorial? Maybe not the minimal one, but it’s still cool.
Cool but doesn't the Apple Watch have all kinds of sensors to make it work against your wrist? Putting in this case will kind of remove the point of all those nifty hardware gadgets.
If I’m reading your comment correctly, most if not all of that can be turned off. Turn off the passcode, and it no longer cares if you’re wearing it or not (“wrist detection “ is just to save you entering the passcode). Apple Pay and some other stuff won’t work, but if just want an iPod/tiny iPhone, it should be functional enough.
Yep, How to make your smartwatch not have half of its interesting features.
TinyPod -> TinyPhone -> TinyPad
I think my perfect phone would be if Apple chopped an inch or an inch and a half off the bottom of the iPhone 12 mini and ran a slightly improved watchOS on it.
This is a better "lite" phone than all the current lite phones out there
It does very little, but also does all the essentials: maps, payment, music streaming, etc.
It does very little, but also does all the essentials: maps, payment, music streaming, etc.
I actually really like this concept. Recently, I added OneSec (https://one-sec.app/) to most of the apps I use to create some type of friction. It works great on the apps I added it to, but the addiction is so real that I find myself doom-scrolling on apps I rarely use, such as LinkedIn
I used to have the 5th generation iPod nano that had the scroll wheel and looked like this and I would buy it just for the nostalgia!
I think Apple Pay is going to require you to tap in a pin every time since you won’t have it against your wrist
So, how did they got around Apple Watch locking up once the heartrate sensor detects it's been taken off the hand?
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.
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.
you know there's a setting to turn that off, right?
I love this. The website branding seems so close to Apple I think they will send a cease and desist.
What a fun and cool idea on such a horrid web page. I am curious what it can do, but whatever is going on is illegible and busted for me. I literally couldn't read any text on the left half of the page.
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 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 absolutely loved the page. Had a lot of fun scrolling up and down and thought it was cleverly designed. Similar, but better, than what Apple does on their own pages.
I suppose there is some novelty to this sort of thing. I have already had all that drained away years ago when this single all in one scrolling thing was a big fad.
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 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.
clearly built on a macbook with smooth scrolling. My mouse has a discrete scroll-wheel -- it snaps to the next position -- it makes this site a stuttering, jittery mess.
There are lots of things wrong with that page, but I didn't expect getting dizzy, motion sickness was going to be one of them.
I guess it's my fault for putting up with such a garbage website because I was curious enough about the product...
I guess it's my fault for putting up with such a garbage website because I was curious enough about the product...
Firefox for Android here, it's a strobing mess. I have to purposely and very slowly scroll and wait for frames/images(?) to load in order to get any kind of cohesive experience/information out of the site. I think the product is really neat and I love the idea, but the site is insufferable.
Yeah, page is busted for me also, super janky, images flashing in and out.
Firefox on macOS
Firefox on macOS
Not sure if this a bug or an Easter egg but when I go to the buy form and choose the Ultra version the price always jumps by $10 when I pick it ($89.99 vs $79.99, $39.99 vs $29.99) ;-. Is this tiny surge pricing?
Edit: I only get this behavior on my phone.
Edit: I only get this behavior on my phone.
Not about the product itself, but about the subtle detail of the title tag using mathematical chars to simulate bold in the titlebar "Pod".
I'm not sure what it implies accessibility-wise, but it looks cute.
edit: HN removes those chars, sorry
I'm not sure what it implies accessibility-wise, but it looks cute.
edit: HN removes those chars, sorry
Epilepsy warning: This page flickers like crazy when scrolling. (On Mac Firefox)
I've always wanted to take an apple watch and use it like a flip phone! This is pretty fun! I've never wanted the distraction of an apple watch and I appreciate the ability to put this thing in a pocket.
Part of me wants something like this to break my addiction to the back catalog of apps I doom scroll. Part of me knows that it's my own doing.
The UI and industrial design of this is cute and approachable. Love it.
The UI and industrial design of this is cute and approachable. Love it.
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this kinda serves of a proof of concept for just how minimal we can get with a smartphone while retaining most of the "smart". I might even try this for a bit...
I dont think the average consumer wants this. They want a big screen, and flashy features, and a camera that makes ugly people beautiful.
Thank god they’ve got every existing product on the market to choose from, then.
Finally I am not the average consumer!
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.
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.
isn't apple getting so far out of the tiny phone game they've cancelled all the minis and even cancelled the next iphone SE?
Hard to say without phones available that cater towards other needs. I'm waiting for one that brags about not having access to most functionality outside of phone, gps, sms, and camera.
Yeah, the lack of a camera is a big reason why the Apple Watch isn't a great phone replacement.
Love it. Always wanted to have something like this for the Google Watch. Easy to stay update and receive alerts, but dont need to setup a second phone/device.
This is such an interesting concept I'd love to try it but since I have a Wi-Fi only Watch I'd have to tag my iPhone along anyways :/
unless you find WiFi right? and that’s only for connection required apps, it can certainly do more than an iPod, GPS should even work without data connection I think? you just have to store the maps/media
That’s true, but I’m thinking I’d still like to pick up calls or answer important texts. And can you connect a watch to WiFi without an iPhone?
A Kids Version of this would be great. Robust, drop and splash/dust resistent. My son would love this to listen to his audiobooks on Spotify.
Have you tried the Yoto player? Our daughter loves hers and they are pretty cheap. You can load them with your own mp3s too, which we download from BBC Sounds.
I'd love to replace my phone with something like this. If only I could get Slack and Telegram to run natively without requiring a linked phone
This has made me want the Apple Watch more than any ad
I don’t get it. The Watch locks itself everytime it’s remove from the wrist and doesn’t stay unlocked if you unlock the screen when you’re not wearing it then let it go to standby.
So… you would have to input a pin every single time you use this contraption? Seems quite annoying compared to, you know, wearing the watch.
You can turn off wrist detection so it stays unlocked.
i guess it's the same as phones, before biometric authentication? but in general yeah, the watch was not designed to be used like this and anyone who's used a watch should be able to predict how bad the UX is gonna be...
i love that the content is organized as:
What > How > Why > Buy
i don't mind the shiny scroll effects and didn't know it was such a hot topic!
What > How > Why > Buy
i don't mind the shiny scroll effects and didn't know it was such a hot topic!
Wow, who did the branding and the web design!?
Aren’t images mixed up where you choose the product ? One that’s “with crown” has no crown and one without has the crown.
I love this thing! Phones are so huge nowadays. This nails hand feel and covers all the essentials (provided you pair it to an iPhone, ugh). Though at this size, it has me thinking... if it were just a little smaller, maybe if they moved the wheel to the side, you could probably wear this on your wrist, and then you wouldn't even need a pocket or bag for it! Imagine that, a little portable computer on your wrist. Pretty futuristic.
I really really wish I could use the Apple Watch as a stand-alone phone without having an iPhone to manage it
All I need is for Prism player to make an Apple Watch app and then I'll be all over this.
This looks amazing. I do wonder though, how long it'll last before Apple C&Ds it.
They might be able to C&D the name, but I doubt they'd do anything (or get anywhere if they tried) about the case.
The website is trade dress to the max. The average user would probably scroll through the page and assume this is an official product from Apple. Their logo is deceptively similar to Apple's, the name of the product is similar, the click wheel design is possibly infringing on some patent Apple owns.
There is a reason "boring" websites are popular... It's cause they work...
I love this! I doubt I would buy it because I'm perpetually frustrated with WatchOS's reasonless limitations (someone texts you a photo and you want to zoom in on your tiny screen? sorry nope! plus a thousand other little things). Reminds of the 'naked robotic core' discussions from Accidental Tech Podcast, could create some really interesting possibilities and a way to sell a whole lot more 'watch cores'.
If only the Apple Watch worked without an iPhone, I would buy this today.
You’re in luck because it does and that’s exactly how my daughter uses it at school.
How? I mean without owning an iPhone at all, not without yours nearby. I'm aware they have 4G. I mean for Android/dumbphone users.
yeah it’s kinda lame, I would like to switch to a epaper phone and still use my Apple Watch
Is that a workaround for the increasing number of “no phone” policies?
More of an attempt to give a kid a communication device that doesn’t make it too easy and pleasant to be distracted from real life.
What an awesome thing in the spirit of the early internet, love it.
Cool, but I'd have to wait to see how annoying it is in use.
That's awesome. Can someone please make a wristband for it?
When did this scrolly website thing come back into fashion?
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.
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.
the website is adorable
Wow, I just assumed this was going to be another "design concept" page.
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?
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?
The main body could pretty easily be injection molded plastic, which can be very cheap and still quite precise. You could even overmold the plastic onto other components (at more cost, and depending on what the deisgn "inside" actually entails).
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.
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.
Will sure sell like hot cakes, just because of novelty
I’m unable to scroll this website on a stock iPhone running the latest software. It just says “Say Hello to tinyPod”. Why do people think it’s ok to hijack scrolling? You’re never going to get it right and now I have no idea what your product is even though I’m the exact target audience.
If its any consolation, their scroll hijacking is also hot garbage on desktop firefox.
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.
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.
>a hardware company
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.
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.
I want to know it's water resistance.
It's just a mechanical shell that connects the click wheel to the watch crown so in theory it should be about as good as the Apple Watch itself electronically. It might get a little gummy in the mechanism though.
There's 0 electronics in it. It should be fully water resistant, unless somehow there's an opportunity for the mechanical function on the scroll wheel portion to rust or something.
This is hilariously brilliant. I love it.
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brings back good memories of the iPod Nano 2nd Gen; still the best music player ever
This got me to charge my watch.
This is amazing. Well done.
a smart beeper, that's the evolution i needed!
Awesome, but then no health data apart from steps if held like this
what is in the lite version? Just a hollow case?
I'm a fan!
This is dope.
This is cool!
Would be cool if it also had a headphone jack
It's a fully mechanical shell with no electronics so you're asking for a jack in the watch itself which would be pretty comical. For this to add a jack you'd need Apple to have put in a port for 3rd party accessories and provide an API for using it.
There are Bluetooth adapters for wired headphones on Amazon that work with the Apple Watch.
How does it provide 32gb of offline storage? I can’t figure it out.
can you call an uber/lyft?
OK, in this vein, why oh why did Lyft and Uber remove their apple watch apps? I just need an app that's a single "take me home now" button so I don't have to worry about my phone battery dying when I'm out and about. Pretty please?
Yes! This is one of the critical things I need from an on the go device
Completely speculating, but when an App Store review process can drive business decisions (we have to push the launch of X back because we're having trouble lobbying Apple to approve our changes), it's reasonable to see a second app as doubling the likelihood that you end up in that situation. And even if it weren't for the review processes, would every launch be at the mercy of reporters saying "this isn't supported on my watch, so..."?
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.
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.
Almost certainly usage that doesn't justify the investment
if your watch can call
https://www.uber.com/au/en/ride/call-to-ride/
https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/make-phone-calls-apdc3...
https://www.uber.com/au/en/ride/call-to-ride/
https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/make-phone-calls-apdc3...
Amazing, they've reinvented a taxi.
A taxi with pre-calculated price, driver and vehicle rating, that actually arrives on time and the driver can't take you around the city with a boosted taxameter to overcharge you. Amazing indeed.
On time? Here in europe (Germany, Poland, CZ) you get ETA 7 minutes, but real time is 10-12 minutes every time. It's going down and only the cost agreement is now better than taxi. Money, as always, is the only matter working here.
Thanks for perfectly illustrating the impact of Uber - now you complain about few minutes!
I used a "real taxi" a lot in Germany, Poland and CZ before Uber. The best approximate they gave me was "in half an hour" and it usually was more like 45-60 minutes, if it arrived at all. The usual thing to do was to take one passing by, but that got you a terrible smelly car with a ganster driver that overcharged 2x-5x.
Since you mention CZ - the taxi mafia in Prague was especially legendary. Can't thank Uber enough for disrupting that.
I used a "real taxi" a lot in Germany, Poland and CZ before Uber. The best approximate they gave me was "in half an hour" and it usually was more like 45-60 minutes, if it arrived at all. The usual thing to do was to take one passing by, but that got you a terrible smelly car with a ganster driver that overcharged 2x-5x.
Since you mention CZ - the taxi mafia in Prague was especially legendary. Can't thank Uber enough for disrupting that.
I don't know anything about germany but here in the US except for a few select cities, taxi service was garbage and user hostile. Uber improved it in every way. Uber gives me confidence that almost everywhere in the US I can get a predictable ride.
You’re complaining about a five minute difference between estimated and actual time of arrival? U. S. taxis would have you standing in the rain for an hour past promised pickup, and maybe they just don’t show at all. There are good reasons that Uber, et al., were practically overnight successes.
Same in France. The initial ETA is always a lie.
What’s even worse is the ETA they give you before booking the ride. Still better than taxi in general , but that’s a low bar.
What’s even worse is the ETA they give you before booking the ride. Still better than taxi in general , but that’s a low bar.
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The device is really neat. The web site is shit. Good grief, I can't even put into words how much I hate having UI/UX like this.
Agreed the pages that override scrolling are horrible.
That's because you don't have the tiny scroll wheel ;)
was just gonna mention this it feels annoying having to scroll multiple times to see a fancy animation
I despise the flickering, it's intensely distracting.
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Seizure warning.
Edit for clarification:
The scrolling implementation here flashes rapidly on Firefox for Mac OS.
Edit for clarification:
The scrolling implementation here flashes rapidly on Firefox for Mac OS.
Yes, the top half of the webpage acts as a power point presentation, with image flashes - instead of a smooth animation.
- firefox on linux
Flashes on first scroll for me as well, Firefox on Android here.
I'm on Firefox and it doesn't flash for me.
I'm on Firefox Focus on Android and it is flashing for me.
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Good grief, just make me a smaller phone. Like, the size of pack of playing cards would be perfect. Just big enough to be useful, not big enough to be distracting.
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tantalor(3)
I love this as an expression of peak consumerism. 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), buy the most expensive gadget you can and then add another gadget to it!
In the grand scheme of things it's not as bad as my overseas holiday or anything, but conceptually it's quite impressive.
Must be a sad living being miserable all the time.
> 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?
> 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?
> Any of those can integrate into modern Apple ecosystem?
They can't because Apple does not want them to.
They can't because Apple does not want them to.
Wow, this pitch really hooks you, and then halfway through the glitch-heavy presentation you're made aware that this is just a cheap controller for your Apple Watch, and that literally every feature they are advertising is a feature of the Watch, not their product.
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.
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.
Were you actually confused? Did you not read the title of the article but still somehow clicked it? really baffling comment
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]!
[1] https://doomscroller.xyz