Foldman CD
Shut the lid. Hear it spin.
Foldman - CD player turns a book-style foldable into a portable CD player. Open the phone to pick a disc from the CD bag. Shut it, and the cover screen becomes the player, with the disc turning under a smoked lid.
Testers get the CD player before anyone else. Request tester access and say which phone you have. Needs Android 8.0 or newer on a book-style foldable, tuned first for the Galaxy Z Fold 8.
APPxygen mix, CD
Press ▶‖ to play. Hold ◀◀ or ▶▶ to search. STOP twice opens the lid.
Tape or disc?
The CD player grew out of Foldman - Cassette player. It reads the same music and the same library, then hands it to you as CDs instead of cassettes.
| What | Cassette player | CD player |
|---|---|---|
| An album becomes | a tape with side A and side B | a disc, one run of tracks |
| Your albums live in | a rack of tapes | a CD bag, one disc to a fleece leaf |
| Finding a song | wind the reel with a finger | skip, hold to search, or tap a track to cue it |
| The cover screen | a cassette deck, in 43 bodies | a portable CD player, in five bodies |
| Over time | tapes yellow, scratch and stretch | a disc doesn't stretch. It just spins. |
| Sound | only with the phone closed, from the cover screen | |
| Labels and cover photos | shared, when both apps use the same folder | |
The CD bag
Open the phone like a book. On the left is a wallet of fleece sleeves with one disc on each leaf. On the right, the player stands open beside its track list.
- Turn the leaves. Swipe to fold a leaf over the spine, or drag the scrubber to run through the whole bag.
- Load a disc. Drag it out of the bag and drop it on the player.
- Read a disc. Tap it for its details: edit the label, add a cover photo, or take it out of the bag.
- Cue a track. Tap it in the list and the sled slides there. Double-tap the disc to put it back in its sleeve.
The hinge rule: unfolding the phone fades the music out, and folding never starts it. Close the phone and press PLAY on the cover screen.
Five bodies, one disc
The cover screen can wear five different players, each with its own keys and its own finishes. Swipe three fingers across the cover to change the body, and up or down to change the finish. You can also pick one in settings.
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CD-01
Studio
The disc as big as the case allows, on its bare circuit board. Numbered round keys in a row.
greycreamgraphite
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D-84
Heritage
The first portable: a round window in a square body, flat tab keys along the edge and a slide for volume. It's the one you can play with at the top of this page.
silverblackchampagne
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OP-CD
Field
A black screen, four coloured knobs and a grid of keys. Turn the knobs for track, volume, search and mode.
whiteblacksand
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BX-90
Boombox
A top-loading CD boombox: chunky keys on top, two speakers that pump, and a big volume dial.
blacksilverpastel
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J-1
Jog
A DJ deck where the disc is the jog wheel: turn it to search. Big CUE and PLAY keys, and a fader for volume.
blackwhitered
Hidden tracks
Small things that make it feel like a real player.
- The disc slows down as the laser moves out toward the edge, the way a real CD does.
- Press STOP, then STOP again, and the lid opens.
- Hold a skip key to search through a track. Repeat one track or the whole disc.
- One disc per album, or one per artist.
- Every key has its own mechanical sound and a bump of haptics. Turn them off in settings.
- Play, pause and skip from the lock screen and the notification, while the phone is folded.
- Tracks under 20 seconds stay out of the bag unless you ask for them.
No discs in the box
Like the cassette player, the CD player doesn't come with any songs. It plays music files you own on your phone, like CD rips and albums bought as downloads, and every album becomes a disc. It doesn't play Spotify, YouTube or YouTube Music: here's why.
Where the idea came from
The CD player started as the cassette player's sibling. Some of us grew up with tapes, some with CDs, and a foldable can be both: the same music and the same library, a different object in your hand.
An independent tribute to 90s portable CD players, not made, endorsed or sponsored by Sony.
Privacy, in short
- Your music stays on your phone. The CD player never uploads it.
- It goes online for one thing: looking up a cover when you ask, after you switch that on. Only the artist and album names are sent.
- No account, no ads, no analytics.
Become a tester
Foldman - CD player is still in development. Testers get it before it's out and help shape it. Request tester access and say which foldable you have.