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Apple Exercise iPod Tempo Patents

If this sees the light of day (past development), this would be an extremely useful feature for everyone, especially if they determine the bpm in iTunes. Then people can have slow/fast smart mixes determined by the tempo of the song, and i can create playlists for how fast I run. I do tend to run towards the tempo of the music I'm listening to =)
 
fahlman said:
It doesn't adjust the tempo of the song, but chooses a song that matches the tempo that you are running at.
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I ithink you're incorrect. The patent states "The hand-held media player additionally includes a processor configured to control the output of the music items based on the motion of the media player.", which can be interpretated as adjust tempo of a song, which isn't hard to do and can be done without you noticing it, as you probably only will adjust it for 10-20%. Pitch will not change, so the song will sound very natural.
 
Correction

The post is slightly wrong in describing the new Nike+Apple device. It is not an accelerometer (which would make sense) but rather a piezoelectric which generates a voltage every time pressure is applied. For this reason you need to input your weight, and "running style" before you start the first time. It does not actually measure the distance traveled, but rather it measures each step and estimates the distance traveled from that, kind of like a crazy expensive version of the pedometers that McDonalds gave away (altho the wirelessness, data analysis, and iPod integration pretty much make it worth it...but I digress).
 
SciTeach said:
Or the theme from ROCKY.....

"That would be a pretty cool feature if I had a Nano and could get up off my butt and go run"

Can we say electric shock? The batteries are suppose to be better.🙄
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Do you realise that Eye of The Tiger was the theme from rocky, lol.

That does sound cool though, and it's good cos im in America when theyre released so i can get them without being ripped off... for once.
 
This would be very useful. I stopped using my iPod when I run because my candence changed with the beat. Now if I could set a tempo, like a metronome, then I would be good to go.
 
Cobrien said:
Do you realise that Eye of The Tiger was the theme from rocky, lol.

That does sound cool though, and it's good cos im in America when theyre released so i can get them without being ripped off... for once.
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I think he is referring to the original theme to Rocky.. the one where he is running through the streets with the crowd following. Eye of the Tiger was from Rocky III (I think).
 
Abstract said:
Yeah, then people like you can sue Apple for selling an iPod that seems to play no music for most of the day.
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Ah, touche. Dosn't matter anyway, my 1st gen iPod is still motering on and I hope it isn't compatable. Then I have no excuse to exercise.
But I could never sue Apple. NEVER!
 
macbookAPRIL1 said:
Is there any reason why this shouldnt be compatible with the ipod video?
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Because the iPod video has a physical hard drive where as the nano has flash memory. In my opinion exercising with a hard drive based iPod is crazy and will shorten the life of your iPod. You could walk with an iPod just fine, but while running (or any other cardio exercise) the HD is being shaken. This will cause errors and the data is thrown out, preventing the music from loading into the buffer. I believe the buffer is 32mg which will last you roughly 20mins. For serious runners 20mins is just their warm up.
 
Very cool stuff - it's all part of the evolution of the iPod, which is a good thing. The iPod can't stay the same forever, and we've already seen it evolve to color screens, video, etc. It needs to keep changing in order to stay on top and competitive, and I think introducing additional functionality like this is a great way to accomplish that.

I know I would use some of these rumored features for my workouts, so it will be interesting to see what comes out of this. 😎
 
What

j-a-x said:
The tempo thing sounds kinda dumb to me, I don't wanna listen to my music with a funky temp...

But the Nike shoe thing with running stats sounds pretty cool.
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So you have never heard a dj before! wow you need to get out a bit.
 
tkidBOSTON said:
The real question is can it play Eye of the Tiger when I'm running up stairs... 😛
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It already does...kinda. You can cue up your "power song" by a push of a button.
 
wickermac said:
Because the iPod video has a physical hard drive where as the nano has flash memory. In my opinion exercising with a hard drive based iPod is crazy and will shorten the life of your iPod. You could walk with an iPod just fine, but while running (or any other cardio exercise) the HD is being shaken. This will cause errors and the data is thrown out, preventing the music from loading into the buffer. I believe the buffer is 32mg which will last you roughly 20mins. For serious runners 20mins is just their warm up.
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In theory, perhaps, but my experience has been the complete opposite, so I have to disagree with you. I have been doing cardio with my 3G iPod for over 2 years now - jogging, running, sprinting, marathon, interval training, inclines, stair training, you name it. I've been shaking it up quite a bit and yet it has never once skipped on me and the battery life is only minimally less than what it was when I purchased it over 2 years ago.

I can see the logic behind what you're saying, however the simple fact is that (at least in my case) this is simlpy not true, and exercising with a HD-based iPod is definitely not "crazy". 😎
 
hmmmm....

how come in the patent pictures, the iPod in the drawings is a 3G, not a nano or a 5G iPod. strange eh?
 
~Shard~ said:
In theory, perhaps, but my experience has been the complete opposite, so I have to disagree with you. I have been doing cardio with my 3G iPod for over 2 years now - jogging, running, sprinting, marathon, interval training, inclines, stair training, you name it. I've been shaking it up quite a bit and yet it has never once skipped on me and the battery life is only minimally less than what it was when I purchased it over 2 years ago.

I can see the logic behind what you're saying, however the simple fact is that (at least in my case) this is simlpy not true, and exercising with a HD-based iPod is definitely not "crazy". 😎
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you sir are lucky. harddrive + shaking = bad idea. a friend of mine was running with her mini and the head of the harddrive crashed😱 i think apple just doesn't want to encourage running with harddrive based players.
 
MarcelV said:
You may not realize it, but it is done daily on the radio. Most radio stations use this kind of method to speed up the play time of a song. I can asure you that you don't notice the difference.
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I assure you I do and it really bugs me (if I've heard the original tempo).
-------
I think its also saying it can change to a song with a faster or slower tempo based on the input, not just change the tempo of the current one.
 
drgnmstrnik said:
The post is slightly wrong in describing the new Nike+Apple device. It is not an accelerometer (which would make sense) but rather a piezoelectric which generates a voltage every time pressure is applied. For this reason you need to input your weight, and "running style" before you start the first time.
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I wonder what the Nike+ bean is- the apple website says "The sensor uses a sensitive accelerometer to measure your activity, then wirelessly transfers this data to the receiver on your iPod nano."... i suppose we'll see what the iPod software and hardware is like when it's released.. battery life on the nike bean could be a killer of this

It does not actually measure the distance traveled,
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but neither do accelerometers
 
weitzner said:
you sir are lucky. harddrive + shaking = bad idea. a friend of mine was running with her mini and the head of the harddrive crashed😱 i think apple just doesn't want to encourage running with harddrive based players.
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Just stating the facts, that's all. And thanks for calling me sir. 😀
 
This is EXACTLY why I never listen to music while I'm running. I never wanted the tempo of the music to screw up the tempo of my running.

But this new idea sounds insanely promising and I'd really want to try it!
 
This does look really promising. I have noticed that a lot of people (or at least a good amount) use those tiny creative mp3 players while working out. BUT this addition could really attract the healthy/gym crowd even moreso than it already does. I have a 5G and then a shuffle that I use at the gym, but once this whole thing pans out I may be tempted to upgrade to the nano.

Also, it would be awesome if iTunes could figure out the bpm on all my songs. I've considered trying to do it but I don't have a whole month to dedicate to the cause... It sure would make beat-matching a lot easier for a simple playlists
 
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