📱 iPhones need a "Classic iPod" mode
The Music app needs a demake.
Apple needs a Music demake that emulates the iPod. More than a skin, an "iPod Classic mode" would restore, at least for a moment, a time when your camera didn't get pizza notifications and your GPS didn't get Amazon flash deals.
Maximalist Glass. When the iPod became the iPhone, we traded focus for functionality. Lately, the smartphone feels symbolic of an overly cluttered, overly complicated, overly connected world. It does too much and demands too much.
All-in-one became all-consuming.
Of course, I could silence all notifications, delete all non-phone apps, and download a minimalist interface. Or buy a light phone.
In the meantime, what if the Music app had a demake?
How It Would Work. If Game Boy emulators overlay the device itself on the screen, why not emulate the iPod with a new skin? Load your Music app and start visualizing:
Functionality. Hit Edit in the home screen upper right. What if an "iPod Classic" mode appeared like sorting albums by album, genre, and song? This button could be moved.
Look. When activated, the screen becomes the classic iPod with a clickwheel. That's it. Everything else becomes view only.
Feedback. While the clickwheel feel will linger in my dreams, vibrations could provide basic feedback for moving the wheel.
Focus. In "Classic iPod" mode, notifications would be silenced. Maybe activating the interface would hit Focused mode by default?
Bonus. While we're at it, purely for nostalgia, add a "visualizer" mode. I can't be the only person from the 2000's who remembers that vibe.
Prior Attempts. If you search "iPod classic," the app store finds a handful of relevant results. And I mean no disrespect to the creators, but the reviews show more work is necessary. How about Apple buy them out, consult with them, and move forward?
Advertising. Imagine the iconic iPod commercials making a comeback, then slapping a "Classic iPod Mode" announcement at the end. For anyone born after 2005(?), would this be fresh or antiquated? Very frutiger areo.
Yes, but. "So you just want a skin with a focus mode?" Yeah. So what? I’m sure you look silly in… whatever you’re wearing.
The Bottom Line. Steve Jobs envisioned the computer as a bicycle for the mind—not as the mind itself. I was the last high school class not to know smartphones. (Go Class of 2007!) We're all cyborgs now. (Or maybe just Ood?) Unless we glass ourselves or brick all devices, there's no returning to a pre-2007 world.
But sometimes, just for an hour, dumbing down my device would be nice.
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