Nike + iPod Expanding to Include Gym Equipment

[Macsational]

To all those who doubt the usefulness of the nike+ iPod kit, I say - they just haven't used one yet.

My lifestyle dictates that I have to stay motivated for exercise - add to that that I have the attention span of a gnat and am a WoW geek - running has never been high on my list of priorities. In my former life I biked, swam, danced, played rugby & all other sorts of things. I HATED RUNNING.

These days, and for the past 5 years, I spend most of my life in Planes, buses & hotels with varying arrays of equipment (usually not much at all), but a few of the guys in my group have the + kits & the big motivator for us at the moment.... Pride.

I've joined the Macrumors challenge on the (admittedly crappy) nike website & love updating my page every day or so to see how much I, without a doubt the worst runner I know of, am in front of all the other guys in the group distance wise.

It's a digital training partner that has really helped me and many others like me.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

[joemama]

To all those who doubt the usefulness of the nike+ iPod kit, I say - they just haven't used one yet.

Here Here! The Nike+ is one of the SMARTEST things Nike (and Apple) has done. I've run my entire life, and never owned a pair of Nike sneakers until the Nike+ came out.

Now you don't even need nike shoes (I'm back to Asics) with one of those accessories, but Nike still made $30 bucks off me from the sensor.

It's not even so much the use WHILE your running with the pace, powersong, etc. It's the interactivity AFTER you upload your data on the Nike + website. The experience is amazing, although I agree it's a little slow with the Flash processing.

It is the future of running, and Nike was smart to patent the sensor technology. You really have to try it.

 

[joemama]

That's great news.

Wish there was a connector for just a regular bicycle though - I think they would make a bunch of cash then.

I'm hoping for that too. They would sell like hotcakes too. and then a Nike+ website for biking. How great would that be to challenge other teams and discover new rides?

 

[big dainjerus]

Just because you might fit into the 1% (number exaggerated for argumentative purposes!) who can't live without an update or have had a problem with a Mac, don't assume you speak for the greater good. Apple continues to make quality computers that more and more people are enjoying. Yes, they have taken a hit in some of discussion board sites, but to the general public, there satisfaction rate is through the roof.

I have actually never had a problem with a mac, nor do I care for updates. I am happy (read; satisfied) with my 3 year old powerbook. With that said it cannot be representative for the general public (maybe it can be actually), as I know people left and right who have had their computers die on them (come to think of it I had an ibook die on me, but I already got my powerbook so I didn't care too much). I am happier than most seem to be, and I always defend apple and am ecstatic they have gone more mainstream and are starting to take over. But they are dropping the ball this time around.

It is absurd how cheap apple is regarding their computer lines. You spend 4,000 dollars on a computer that ships with a piece of crap hard drive? Or heyyy lets charge 10x the market price for ram so the dumb **** apple consumers will shell out even more money, while we keep the people happy with their ipods and nike workout machine collaborations.

It is more than apple just getting a bad rap on the boards, there is a problem now. People are spending 1,000s of dollars only to have to send their computer back to get a new one with the same problem. Did they not check to see if something was going wrong with the mac pros before they started shipping? Or were they too busy synching their ipods with their ellipticals?

I have always been a mac man, and will always be, I just hope they fix this crap and get their priorities straight (and for the record this new nike collaboration doesn't sound like a bad idea; just fix the damn computers first!)

 

[DTphonehome]

It is absurd how cheap apple is regarding their computer lines. You spend 4,000 dollars on a computer that ships with a piece of crap hard drive? Or heyyy lets charge 10x the market price for ram so the dumb **** apple consumers will shell out even more money, while we keep the people happy with their ipods and nike workout machine collaborations.

Please enlighten us as to which Apple laptop costs 4k and has a crap HD. I'd really love to know.

(Before you waste your time trying to find it, the most expensive Apple laptop is the MBA, which is 3k and has an SSD.)

 

[3nm]

that's pretty neat. i just wish that apple will partner w/ NB or asics someday.

 

[Applespider]

I hope everyone here is in the Macrumors Nike+ challenges. We have a group challenge to hit 25,000 miles this year and we'll need help!

I don't get it. What makes sense about Nike+iPod in the first place? I mean, sure, it give nonvolatile storage for data, but what does this have to do with music?

Nike+iPod doesn't seem a viable contender, though. They seem like the poor-man's Garmin, without the GPS tracking

Because most casual runners run to music and take their iPods anyhow. They're unlikely to fork out for a Garmin and carry another gadget on their run. Besides, I tend to run on the treadmill or round my neighbourhood and I don't need a GPS to do that.

The casual runner (and I'm one of them) can be motivated by the challenges etc. Serious runners would be out running anyhow. And the small inaccuracies aren't as important to joggers - so it's a hundred feet out, who cares so long as it isn't short!

I think this is great news. I use the elliptical and cardio wave machines at the gym too and it would be sweet to get some credit for those sessions although I'm guessing they wouldn't count for mileage since it's easy to ramp up the kms on them.

 

[megfilmworks]

I bike but don't run. If they tied this together with a cyclometer, I'd be all over it.

Sounds like a great third party app and accessory.

 

[big dainjerus]

Please enlighten us as to which Apple laptop costs 4k and has a crap HD. I'd really love to know.

(Before you waste your time trying to find it, the most expensive Apple laptop is the MBA, which is 3k and has an SSD.)

I was referring to the mac pro, I don't know why you assumed I was talking about lap tops. I'm pretty sure you should have realized this when I threw the 4k price tag out. And before you waste your time claiming the mac pro is only 2700 or whatever, after some basic configurations the price easily reaches 4,000 dollars, and regardless, still ships with a **** hard drive (and a **** graphics card and a **** computer that restarts upon sleep or a **** computer that can't even go to sleep in the first place and on and on...you get my point)

 

[DTphonehome]

I was referring to the mac pro, I don't know why you assumed I was talking about lap tops. I'm pretty sure you should have realized this when I threw the 4k price tag out. And before you waste your time claiming the mac pro is only 2700 or whatever, after some basic configurations the price easily reaches 4,000 dollars, and regardless, still ships with a **** hard drive (and a **** graphics card and a **** computer that restarts upon sleep or a **** computer that can't even go to sleep in the first place and on and on...you get my point)

If you've got a real problem with the drive or video card the MP ships with, just order the lowest config and switch them out yourself. If enough people truly had a problem and did this, Apple would change the specs. Since they haven't, I doubt it's as big a problem as you make it out to be. The sleep issue is only experienced by a few as far as I've heard, and that's supposedly being worked on anyway. No product has 100% perfection out the gate, and neither did the PowerMacs back before the iPod.

 

[emw]

<rant>

When did this become an Apple-bashing thread? This is completely off-topic.

--------

Sounds like a great third party app and accessory.

This is an interesting comment - I haven't done any real research, but I don't remember seeing any 3rd party add-ins to the Nike+ product line. Are there any? I thought it was pretty much a closed environment.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Nike + iPod + Gyms = $mart

Seems an obvious extension of a proven formula.

For those that have never experienced Nike + iPod, it’s pretty kick@ss.
Especially for unmotivated, visual people (like myself)... It really gives “the workout” an identity. A personality. Makes it more real, in a sense.
And at the end of the day, it has more people exercising* - which is good.



* their bodies & wallets.

 

[grappler]

I hope that an iPhone can eventually record heartrate from a bluetooth heart monitor such as this one:

http://www.blatand.net/brustgurt+M52087573ab0.html

That'd be awesome! Combine that with the Nike+ shoe kit, or something like this for a bike to measure cycling performance:
http://www.cycle-ops.com/t-CycleopsPower.aspx

Now you'd have logs over your whole trip for both effort and performance. Divide one by the other and you have a measure of fitness that you can watch rise over time as you improve. You can use all kinds of software to help you plan workouts for specific purposes without overtraining, like this watch does:
http://www.suunto.com/t6

And what better platform to tie all this together than the little computer you already carry around for music, web browsing, email and phone calls?


Now we just need to tie all that to this bike (grin):
http://www.optibike.com

 

[averyash]

Nike access to SDK

I just want the iPhone/Touch support for this stuff already.

This announcement would seem to set Nike up nicely to be one of the intial apps announced... potentially on Thursday. The opportunity for a full fleged application from Nike to run on the iPhone/iTouch has a lot of potential.

 

[stagi]

To all those who doubt the usefulness of the nike+ iPod kit, I say - they just haven't used one yet.

I agree, for a casual runner like myself it is such a great motivational tool to keep me running. I set goals every month and try to login every few days to check my progress. and setting up challenges is great also, I have setup some challenges with friends from all over the country and also joined the macrumors challenge (just moved up to 15th place ) in the 500 club.

 

[big dainjerus]

If you've got a real problem with the drive or video card the MP ships with, just order the lowest config and switch them out yourself. If enough people truly had a problem and did this, Apple would change the specs. Since they haven't, I doubt it's as big a problem as you make it out to be. The sleep issue is only experienced by a few as far as I've heard, and that's supposedly being worked on anyway. No product has 100% perfection out the gate, and neither did the PowerMacs back before the iPod.

I agree with your last sentence. However enough people have an issue. Apple wouldn't change the specs, they are cheap. Enough people already do swap out the hard drives. But you can't swap out the video card because the alternative doesn't work either right now.

And the sleep issue is only experienced by a few? Is 50% a few? Go put down your ipod accessories and peruse the mac pro forum for a bit, or the mac pro support forum on apple's page. For real, its a problem. People are sending back multiple thousand dollar computers only to get replacements that have the same exact problems. You shouldn't of let these things out of the gate in the first place if they weren't ready. Quality control.

Oh and sorry the rant mr fanboy emw, back to topic, Ipod And Ellipticals rock! (seriously its a good idea though)

 

[addicted44]

addicted

I wish they'd move on iPhone/iPod Touch support already. My understanding of the whole nano exclusivity was that it was the only flash-based iPod with a display when the whole Nike+ thing came out. They didn't want people running around with their hard drive-based iPods complaining about skipping or potentially damaging moving parts. With all of the armbands and cases for the iPhone and Touch, dropping it should not be a huge concern.

To my way of thinking, the larger displays on the iPhone and Touch would allow them to do something even cooler with the UI ... like maybe a live-updating run graph, or more info like average pace/speed, etc.

Can you even imagine the number of class action lawsuits apple would be facing if the iphone broke or its screen got scratched while running down the street with the Nike+ system? You would have all these people screaming that Apple encouraged it with Nike+ but it could not handle it, so it is defective. Do you remember the times Apple has gotten into lawsuits for things like "I forgot to remove my Mini from my pant before putting it in laundry, and now the screen is scratched!! Defective! Lawsuit!"

 

[addicted44]

I agree with your last sentence. However enough people have an issue. Apple wouldn't change the specs, they are cheap. Enough people already do swap out the hard drives. But you can't swap out the video card because the alternative doesn't work either right now.

And the sleep issue is only experienced by a few? Is 50% a few? Go put down your ipod accessories and peruse the mac pro forum for a bit, or the mac pro support forum on apple's page. For real, its a problem. People are sending back multiple thousand dollar computers only to get replacements that have the same exact problems. You shouldn't of let these things out of the gate in the first place if they weren't ready. Quality control.

Oh and sorry the rant mr fanboy emw, back to topic, Ipod And Ellipticals rock! (seriously its a good idea though)

Right, because all these people whose Mac Pros are working just fine, are clogging the internets discussing how well it is working [/Sarcasm]

A forum (a support forum, nonetheless) is no way to gauge how widespread an issue is. There may very well be an issue, but the fact that there are people complaining in forums does not preclude it just being the small minority of defective pieces that any product has.

 

[TravisReynolds]

so now apples going to be in the gym? Holy cow, apples the future guys

 

[twoodcc]

i would love to see this happen. i love nike+, even though it's not perfect by any means

 

[big dainjerus]

Right, because all these people whose Mac Pros are working just fine, are clogging the internets discussing how well it is working [/Sarcasm]

A forum (a support forum, nonetheless) is no way to gauge how widespread an issue is. There may very well be an issue, but the fact that there are people complaining in forums does not preclude it just being the small minority of defective pieces that any product has.

Yeah, but it is a lot of the same people who were on the forum before they got the mac pros in the first place. If a large percentage of consumers who were on this forum before they purchased the mac pro, post and report problems, I think it is a decent gauge of how widespread a problem is. They didn't come here to complain or in search of support, they have been here and are just reporting their experiences. And its not like every person who gets a mac and has a problem jumps on this forum and posts. I liken a place like this to an exit poll in an election, which is usually representative of the people at large.