Just like VHS: Cassette app sorts videos on the iPhone
Sorting your video collection was not easy in the past: it was often contained in numerous VHS tapes. A new iPhone app now imitates this.
Icon of the Cassette app: If you want it to be more complicated, make it fun.
(Image: Creative Interactions Limited)
Why keep it simple when you can complicate it? A new video app for the iPhone follows this premise. Cassette from independent New Zealand developer Devin Davies is a “home video player” that sorts the iPhone photo library in a very special way, similar to the way VHS tapes were once known. The retro-designed tool turns existing clips into virtual home videos.
Taptic Engine imitates the insertion of a video
These are sorted into graphic sleeves reminiscent of BASF, 3M, TDK & Co. and organized chronologically before being inserted into a “video recorder.” There you will find the usual buttons of a VHS device and information about the recording time and location in pixel font as soon as you have played a clip. Another fun feature is the “Take Me Somewhere” button, which allows you to watch a random video from the archive. The player also has a shuffle button.
The haptic feedback is also nicely done: using the Taptic Engine (the iPhone's vibration motor), the app even imitates the removal and insertion of the cassette. Playback takes place either in a small “TV” directly on the main screen of the app or in full screen. Fortunately, creator Davies has not implemented a VHS filter that explicitly degrades the picture. Cassette is reminiscent of similar approaches to music playback, such as the Solos app, which is based on music cassettes.
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Access to the photo library
Davies offers Cassette free of charge, but the app has some shortcomings. For example, you cannot explicitly select individual videos. If you want to unlock the app completely—and support the maker—you pay 8.99 euros for a one-off activation. Originally, monthly and annual subscriptions (99 cents or 6.99 euros) were also planned, but these can no longer be accessed at present. For Cassette to work, you have to give the app access to your photo library. However, the developer does not collect this data.
Cassette can also forward videos to tvOS devices and other compatible receiver hardware via AirPlay. Incidentally, the idea behind Cassette came from a friend of Davies. He had complained that watching home videos on the iPhone was no longer as enjoyable as it used to be with physical video cassettes.
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