The iPhone Duo isn't out yet, but it has already found an app that's nothing if not original — and one that might well make you want to blow two months' wages on Apple's foldable (please don't, I'm begging you). An independent developer has come up with Duo-Man, an app that turns the phone into a fully fledged virtual Walkman and makes clever use of the device's two screens. Once it's open, the iPhone Duo lets you pick your music or outright choose a cassette (a virtual one, naturally). Then you simply close the phone to start playback, just like snapping shut the lid of an old personal stereo.
The idea comes from one Vidit Bhargava, a developer with a genuine soft spot for last century's tech (things were better back then, as we keep telling you), Walkmans in particular — he still uses one now and again. To build his app, he drew on the very specific way those old machines worked, especially the flap you had to open to slot a cassette in. And to make the immersion complete, he even recorded the button clicks and background hiss of a real Walkman to make the experience as convincing as possible.
Old school is cool
Duo-Man has been built to make the most of the iPhone Duo's "passport" format. The inner screen is where you line up your music and pick your cassette, while the outer screen takes over once the phone is closed. Vidit Bhargava points out that he didn't just recreate an old Walkman visually: he also rebuilt the fast-forward and rewind functions, and you'll be able to use a stylus to wind the tape back by hand. Either way, the project has been a big hit on social media, particularly Twitter, where the video has already passed 2 million views.
That said, Duo-Man arrives at just the right moment, at a time when old objects are enjoying a real resurgence, especially among younger people. Digital cameras, flip phones, CDs, vinyl and cassettes are all part of this trend for rediscovering physical tech that the smartphone had almost entirely replaced. We know the vinyl market has been booming for years now, but today there's a considerable swell of interest in the return of the cassette. And you know what? The iPhone Duo's foldable format lends itself rather nicely to this sort of experiment.
Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo are due to open later in October.
