I forgot I even ordered a tinyPod until it showed up at my door Wednesday. I ordered it a very long time ago. (Checked the mail after posting this: 10 months ago!)
It, uh, it turns your Apple Watch into an Apple Watch encased in plastic with a scroll wheel.
I think the logic of this purchase was:
- I don’t really like my Apple Watch as a watch anymore. I am wearing my field watch these days.
- It seems like a neat idea to have a little iPod-like thing with cellular connectivity.
- I like the idea of having access to things like calendar, weather, directions, etc. without having my phone along.
One could say, “if you’re getting all that utility out of the watch anyhow, one easy way to carry it would be on your wrist.”
Fair point!
In this case, I had just sort of moved on from wearing any kind of wearable and was back to my trusty titanium field watch, and I couldn’t bring myself to sell the Apple Watch because I doubted I’d get much for it. The <$100 I paid for the tinyPod meant I could have a little connected device that wasn’t a phone, and do something with the watch that I kept not selling.
I think the natural niche for these is probably “get a deal on a used Apple Watch, convert it to one of these things to have a smart iPod nano.”
Oh, details, I guess:
A few of the buttons are a little stiff/vague, but the main one works well enough. The scroll wheel is fine; though you sort of want the middle bump to be a clicker and it isn’t. The natural way to operate the screen is with your thumb and that works fine. There’s a cutout in the back so you can use your watch charger with it. It feels very nice and solid in the hand. They did a nice job with most of the design: It fits right in with an AirPods case.
I’d really like it if someone just made something like this that was a purpose-built connected smart device in a tiny, non-phone form-factor. There is some serious wasted space in this thing that could go to battery. In low power mode with all the health detection features turned off, it sips power. I think a solid week from a charge could be a reasonable expectation.
And the why is just “I don’t like carrying a slab around in my pocket, and I don’t like all the things that slab does, but I do want access to a limited amount of data now and then.”
A few years back I got into a habit I liked of just leaving my phone and not having it around the house, and leaving it behind sometimes when I went out for coffee or whatever. My job affords me some roaming and flexibility, and it’s nice to be able to go, “oh, when’s that thing I’ve got to be back at my desk for?” without having a phone to do that.
I guess it’s partly an esthetic thing, partly a bent kind of over-optimization, and partly contrarianism. I guess I like some of the things that smartphones allow, but sort of hate that smartphones continue to get bigger and do more.
Anyhow, I guess I have a tiny connected device that can do all that stuff now, and I don’t need to haul my phone around or have it to fuck around with when I’ve generally been happier when, sitting and waiting for my order, or for the movie to start, or whatever, I’m not doing anything but sitting quietly and thinking about whatever.
Okay. I guess I’m okay with this thing. Thank you past me. You were momentarily inscrutable and mysterious, but you made a good call.