Exciting retro app turns iPhone Duo into a Sony Walkman
A new application is being created for the upcoming foldable Apple smartphone iPhone Duo before its market launch. A developer uses an app to transform the device into a classic Walkman that makes functional use of the two screens.
Nostalgia for the iPhone Duo
Even before the official pre-orders for the first foldable Apple smartphone start on October 16, 2026, an initial application for the device is already coming into focus. One is particularly exciting, at least for people who grew up with cassettes: The independent developer Vidit Bhargava has programmed Duo-Man, a software that transforms the upcoming iPhone Duo into a classic Sony Walkman from the 1980s and cleverly uses the special properties of the folding device. The program takes advantage of the phone’s folding design to simulate inserting a real cassette.
Users of classic smartphones don’t need to get their hopes up here: this operation only works with a foldable format. Users open the device to select and insert a virtual cassette on the 7.6-inch inner display. As soon as the phone is closed again, music playback automatically starts on the 5.4-inch outer screen via a customized interface. Like the news portal TechCrunch reported, the programmer attached great importance to authenticity when using it. For the project, he specifically recorded the mechanical clicking of the keys and the background noise of a real cassette player to round off the experience.
Features of the Retro application
The software combines nostalgic design with modern interfaces. Support for Apple Music and local audio files is available to users, with a later connection to the Spotify streaming service possible. Bhargava also wants to recreate the fast-forwarding and rewinding of the original Walkman. Perhaps the most “realistic” function: The band can also be wound manually using the Apple Pencil. The support for the input pen is of course a special nod to the past: users should be able to rotate the virtual magnetic tape with the pen, which is reminiscent of manually winding cassettes.
In this way, the software also takes up a broader retro trend in which younger target groups are increasingly demanding classic physical technology such as flip cell phones or CDs. After a video of the application on X generated over several million views, Bhargava is now planning a regular release. The developer has already launched programs such as LookUp and Movie Buzz in the past. An exact release date for Duo-Man is still pending.
Amit Gohar is Technical writer at ResearchSnipers.com, he is well versed Technology News writer, he has completed is MS computer Science in 2020. He can be reached at amit.g@researchsnipers.com
