Roughly seven years ago, my already ancient iPod Classic fell out of my back pocket while walking down the hallway at work, smashed on the tile floor, and then never turned on again.
Since then, I’ve longed to purchase another iPod Classic, but given the expensive price tag of the now not-very-useful music playing artifact, I likely never will. Fast-forward to 2019 and an inventive developer seems to have created a solution to my existential crisis.
Elvin Hu (@elvin_not_11), the creator of the project, has developed an iPhone app that recreates the nostalgic magic of the iPod Classic, including even the iconic ‘Click Wheel.’ Hu recently tweeted a video of the app in action, which you can view below. The first tweet featuring a video of Hu swiping through the iPod Classic ‘Cover Flow’ album art has been viewed over a million times since November 27th.
Making an iOS music app that looks like Cover Flow in #SwiftUI… pic.twitter.com/29Nfil70I3
— Elvin ?️? (@elvin_not_11) November 9, 2019
Turned my iPhone into an iPod Classic with Click Wheel and Cover Flow with #SwiftUI pic.twitter.com/zVk5YJj0rh
— Elvin ?️? (@elvin_not_11) November 27, 2019
In an interview with The Verge, Hu explained that he was never able to afford Apple products as a child and would often draw the UI of the iPhone on the lids of Ferrero Rocher boxes. He says that the iPod Classic, along with Windows Vista and even Microsoft’s ill-fated Zune HD, influenced his decision to go into a career in design.
Hu has been working on the app for a few months and aims to complete it by the end of the year. The more important question is whether Apple will approve it in the App Store.
On the surface, it doesn’t seem to break any of Apple’s stringent App Store rules, but there’s also a possibility the tech giant could reject the Hu’s iPod Classic project because it violates a patent of some sort. If this happens, Hu says that he will likely release the app as an open-source project.
Source: @elvin_not_11), The Verge
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