Five (impossibly cute) mini gadgets

Screen test

With the average size of the domestic TV screen rising from about 22in to more than 50in in the past 25 years, it’s clear that we’ve collectively bought into the idea that bigger TVs are better. And in some ways they are, but something beautiful is also happening at the other end of the spectrum. The one-inch screen and half-inch speaker of the TinyTV 2 is completely preposterous (definitely not how Paul Thomas Anderson intended us to watch There Will Be Blood) but it represents a triumph of ingenuity — and what’s more, it’s cute. People love this thing.

“It brings joy,” says TinyCircuits’ founder, Ken Burns. “Some people say, ‘What’s the point?’ but others say, ‘I don’t know why I need this, but I need this.’” The case, which resembles a splay-legged TV set from the early 1960s, contains a Raspberry Pi RP2040 processor and 8GB of video storage. After switching it on, turning the “channel” rotary knob lets you cycle through video files stored thereon, with each turn accompanied by a burst of authentic static. The left knob controls volume, and a USB-C connector on the back doubles as a charging port and a means of transferring videos from a computer. (A software converter, downloadable from the TinyCircuits website, scales your MP4s and AVIs to the right size.) You can’t forward or rewind, and there are no other connectivity options. But it feels churlish to point out any supposed deficiencies, because the whole point of the product is to create something delightful within very strict parameters. “We’re riding the wave of advances in consumer electronics,” says Burns. “Raspberry Pi came out with a new processor that was just powerful enough to do what we needed to do at a low price point.” It doesn’t replace your TV, tablet or phone; it just sits in an enchanting little category of its own — and the functional mini remote control, weighing just three grams, is the icing on the cake. 

Who’s the moss?

With a desktop footprint smaller than a smartphone, the Moss Air is an unusually compact humidifier — and yes, this may raise questions about its ability to humidify effectively, but let’s talk about the moss. It comes with a green, living tray of the stuff, installed vertically within the unit and gently illuminated with LEDs. By moving the position of a magnetic metal ball on the top, you can flip between terrarium mode (where the moss is auto-moistened every three hours) and humidifier mode (which pumps vapour into the room). Moss is known to be one of nature’s best air filters; I can’t confirm whether its presence here has any tangible effect on the air I’m breathing, but occasionally glancing at it feels mentally beneficial.

Return of the Mac

It’s a cheeky move to put a Windows PC inside a case that resembles a scaled-down Macintosh from 1984, but I embrace Ayaneo’s rejection of the age-old Mac vs PC platform war and wholesome celebration of retro computing. Besides, this thing is powerful. A test unit came with a zippy Ryzen 7 processor, putting my (five-year-old) desktop machine in the shade; everything from office apps (it comes with Windows 11) to online games ran super smoothly. But it’s the tiny footprint of the AM01 that makes it so useful: it can be an office desktop, a living- room entertainment hub, a standalone gaming machine or smart home controller. Expandable and versatile, it’s whatever you want it to be.

Feed your Atari addiction

The slogan accompanying the 1979 launch of the Atari 400 was: “We took a big idea and made it simple.” It’s been made even more simple by UK-based Retro Games, which has put a 400 emulator inside a faithfully reproduced, half-size facsimile of the original case, albeit with non-functional keys. It’s powered by USB and hooked up to a screen via HDMI, and you can play a range of original Atari games out of the box (including the hugely influential Miner 2049er) using a full-size joystick, also modelled on the original. Any old, forgotten Atari games you might find online can also be imported into the unit via a USB stick. The graphics are blocky, the sound is bleepy and it’s as addictive as it was the first time around.

An instant winner

While Polaroid found itself embroiled in legal woes in the early 2000s, Fujifilm’s Instax kept the flag flying for the instant camera. Its latest fully analogue model (no memory card, no USB) shoots onto dinky Instax Mini film (images are 46mm x 62mm) and cleverly incorporates non-digital versions of features that we, the Instagram generation, have come to rely upon — internal LEDs let you shoot in a range of colour modes from sepia to faded green, while a mechanical vignette switch on the front softens the edges of your shots. Exposure and shutter-speed settings offer additional flexibility — but as with any instant camera, you’re never fully in control of the pics that pop out; its appeal lies in its maverick behaviour.

@rhodri