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Duo-Man turns your 2026 iPhone Duo into a 1980s Sony Walkman
Long before the iPod, the Sony Walkman was the device of choice for those who wanted to add a soundtrack to their life. Now a Duo-Man app recreates the experience for those of us old enough to have owned one, and you’ll be able to use it with Apple Music …
Prior to the Walkman, if you wanted to listen to music on the move, your options were limited. Most cassette players of the time were heavy and bulky. When Sony took an audio recorder designed for journalists and shrunk it into the smallest possible cassette player, it quickly became an iconic product.
Developer Vidit Bhargava created the app at a hackathon – and given that many of those present would never have seen one, he brought along the real thing to show them what it looked like.
Duo-Man offers the complete walkman experience on the iPhone Duo. Open the Duo to pick and 'insert' the cassette, Close the Duo to start listening.Yes, I actually recorded the button clicks and static noise from a real Walkman!It was fun making this at @bitrig hacks today. pic.twitter.com/juSrLhofrH
You open the Duo, choose your album to insert the tape, and then close it to play.
Bhargava said he originally only created it as a demo app for fun, but will now be releasing it as an actual app. The best comment in the X thread is this one, an image that will only make sense to people of a certain age.
What was your first ever music player? Please share in the comments.
Walkman photo: Binarysequence/CC4.0. Via Daring Fireball.
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