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Apple and Nike Team up for iPod Shoe Interface
lyonsden writes "Apple and Nike are teaming up to provide runners a system to integrate their shoes and their iPod. A $30 antenna will connect an iPod nano with special shoes to provide pedometer functions."
This must be part of the wireless patents Apple filed for a while back. I would not at all be surprised if this idea of wireless integration gets incorporated into more and more things. Imagine if you could carry your ipod with you all day and have it work automatically with your home stereo, shoes, car, etc. The ipod could become much more than an mp3 player, and could help collect data (pedometer, etc) and stream music to different sources automatically.
This seems like exactly the thing Jobs and Apple would pursue, a seamless system of wireless integration would perfectly embody their philosophies of style, power, simplicity, and having things 'just work'. It may be just a new shoe accessory right now, but I for one could see this type of technology evolving into new areas
"For Great Justice."
OT - That banner ad for Crystal Reports just brought my computer to a crawl.
On both their parts. While joggers might not be a huge percentage of total mp3 player sales, I'd bet almost everyone who jogs anymore either has or plans to buy one. Apple may have just swallowed them all up. The data tracking function is probably a much bigger deal to those types than lardasses like er.. us realize. Nike gets to sell people another pair of overpriced shoes (probably moreso than usual) and horn in on Apple's brand recognition. Nike might be big in the shoe racket, but those Nike branded Phillips players didn't exactly take the world by storm.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
Looking at the links on Apple's site, it shows that the run data can also be synced with your computer once you get back from the run. The data includes stuff like speed, distance, calories burned, etc, so you can see your progress over a length of time. As a former cross country and track runner, this is the kind of information that we had to calculate manually (well, at least record the numbers and then crunch them) to get an overall view of our progress and goals. Also, it would be cool to have since I'd already be bringing my iPod on a run, and wouldn't need to bring a seperate electronic pedometer along (and I'd be willing to be the electronic pedometers out there that track the same information and sync with a computer don't work with Macs).
Who needs headphones? Duck tape, portable speakers...
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
Sure, in this country $2 a day is impossible to live on, especially for a family. But in OTHER countries $2 has the equivalent buying power for hundreds of $ a day. This is one of the biggest short comings of protesters in America: not every place on the planet has the same level of inflation or equivalent prices for food/objects as in the US. Do some research, find out how much the average livable wage in a country is before condeming a company for paying their employees those wages.
Space for rent, inquire within
Most informed people who complain about sweatshops aren't complaining about what we might consider low wages. Rather, they are complaining about the long hours and poor working conditions. Just because these jobs might be better then the alternatives doesn't absolve the company of the moral responsiblity not to work these people like slaves just because it's "better then what they had before".
If these companies paid a fair wage and provided good working conditions, you would see very few people complaining.