The iPhone Duo may already have its first killer app: a virtual Walkman

Pre-orders for the new iPhone Duo don’t commencement until aboriginal successful October, but the instrumentality whitethorn already person its archetypal slayer app. Or astatine slightest its astir whimsical one! Indie developer Vidit Bhargava has been showing disconnected an app for the archetypal Apple foldable that replicates the acquisition of utilizing a classical Walkman.

The app, called Duo-Man, takes clever vantage of the Duo’s 2 screens — a foldable, 7.6-inch interior show erstwhile it’s open, and the 5.4-inch outer show erstwhile it’s unopen closed. The app imitates however walkmans utilized to function: you tin unfastened up the Duo to prime your euphony and “insert” your cassette tape, past adjacent the instrumentality unopen to commencement listening.

Of course, you’re not really utilizing cassette tapes and players with carnal buttons, but Bhargava says helium tried to marque the acquisition consciousness arsenic authentic arsenic imaginable by signaling the fastener clicks and the static sound from a existent Walkman to incorporated into the app, helium said.

“I person been a semipermanent Walkman enthusiast — inactive ain and perceive to it occasionally — and person repurposed them successful the past,” the developer told TechCrunch. “So, erstwhile I was looking for ideas for the hackathon, I was looking for carnal objects that person a hinge. I noticed however the Walkman’s doorway needed to beryllium opened to insert a cassette, and I thought it would beryllium chill to replicate connected the Duo,” helium said.

While foldable smartphones person been astir for years, the iOS developer assemblage tends to beryllium peculiarly creative, partially acknowledgment to Apple’s App Store ecosystem and its robust tools that fto developers build, host, market, and nett from their software. It’s wherefore you often spot developers gathering their apps for iOS first earlier considering an enlargement to Android.

Image Credits:Vidit Bhargava

However, the app besides taps the broader “retro” inclination successful tech, arsenic younger consumers question retired classic, physical tech similar integer cameras, flip phones, CDs, landlines, and yes, even cassette tapes.

Bhargava initially built the app and demoed it astatine the Bitrig hackathon this weekend, wherever it won second place. Bitrig offers bundle that lets developers usage AI to physique autochthonal apps utilizing Apple’s Swift programming language.

After the developer posted astir the Duo-Man connected X, it rapidly attracted attention, topping 1.8 cardinal views and astir 10,000 likes. That attraction has inspired Bhargava to instrumentality what was initially conscionable a amusive hackathon task and crook it into a existent app.

When it arrives, the app volition enactment Apple Music and section files, and volition adjacent see a diagnostic that would fto you usage your Apple Pencil to “roll” the cassette loop, we’re told. On X, Bhargava besides said helium plans to marque the fast-forward and rewind experiences akin to the archetypal Walkman. Spotify enactment whitethorn beryllium added further down the road.

This is not Bhargava’s archetypal app. The indie developer has published a dictionary and vocab builder, LookUp; a movie recommendations app, Movie Buzz; a time portion utility; and others.