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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."
What would happen if Nike & Apple got together?
Below is an email correspondence with customer service representatives at iPOD iD, an on-line service that lets people buy personalized iPOD shoes. The dialog began when iPOD cancelled an order for a pair of shoes customized with the word "sweatshop." [get the latest on this story at shey.net]
From: "Personalize, iPOD iD"
To: "'W. McFarnby (not really)'"
Subject: RE: Your iPOD iD order o16468000
Your iPOD iD order was cancelled for one or more of the following reasons.
1) Your Personal iD contains another party's trademark or other intellectual property.
2) Your Personal iD contains the name of an athlete or team we do not have the legal right to use.
3) Your Personal iD was left blank. Did you not want any personalization?
4) Your Personal iD contains profanity or inappropriate slang, and besides, your mother would slap us.
If you wish to reorder your iPOD iD product with a new personalization please visit us again at www.iPOD.com
Thank you,
iPOD iD
From: "W. McFarnby (not really)"
To: "Personalize, iPOD iD"
Subject: RE: Your iPOD iD order o16468000
Greetings,
My order was canceled but my personal iPOD iD does not violate any of the criteria outlined in your message. The Personal iD on my custom ZOOM XC USA running shoes was the word "sweatshop." Sweatshop is not: 1) another's party's trademark, 2) the name of an athlete, 3) blank, or 4) profanity. I choose the iD because I wanted to remember the toil and labor of the children that made my shoes. Could you please ship them to me immediately.
Thanks and Happy New Year,
Wynn McF (not really)
From: "Personalize, iPOD iD"
To: "'W. McFarnby (not really)'"
Subject: RE: Your iPOD iD order o16468000
Dear iPOD iD Customer,
Your iPOD iD order was cancelled because the iD you have chosen contains, as stated in the previous e-mail correspondence, "inappropriate slang".
If you wish to reorder your iPOD iD product with a new personalization please visit us again at www.iPOD.com
Thank you,
iPOD iD
From: "W. McFarnby (not really)"
To: "Personalize, iPOD iD"
Subject: RE: Your iPOD iD order o16468000
Dear iPOD iD,
Thank you for your quick response to my inquiry about my custom ZOOM XC USA running shoes. Although I commend you for your prompt customer service, I disagree with the claim that my personal iD was inappropriate slang. After consulting Webster's Dictionary, I discovered that "sweatshop" is in fact part of standard English, and not slang. The word means: "a shop or factory in which workers are employed for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions" and its origin dates from 1892. So my personal iD does meet the criteria detailed in your first email.
Your web site advertises that the iPOD iD program is "about freedom to choose and freedom to express who you are." I share iPOD's love of freedom and personal expression. The site also says that "If you want it done right...build it yourself." I was thrilled to be able to build my own shoes, and my personal iD was offered as a small token of appreciation for the sweatshop workers poised to help me realize my vision. I hope that you will value my freedom of expression and reconsider your decision to reject my order.
Thank you,
Wynn McF (not really)
From: "Personalize, iPOD iD"
To: "'W. McFarnby (not really)'"
Subject: RE: Your iPOD iD order o16468000
Dear iPOD iD Customer,
Regarding the rules for personalization it also states on the iPOD iD web site that "iPOD reserves the right to c
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Not to be a prude about this, but what exactly is the point? How much do regular pedometers cost?
/., but there's got to be a better use for it.
I know I've seen some for less than 30 bucks. Yeah, sure. There's the wow factor
(hey, lookee at my over-priced Nikes. Did you know I spent 30 bucks more and they can talk to my iPod? -- wow, I've gone to the couch and back six times in the last hour, logging 50 steps!)
But not much else. I love technology as much as the next person on
If firefighters fight fire, and crimefighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight? - George Carlin
Sounds like a neat idea, but I'm waiting for the iPhone + Nike = Shoe Phone.
...
"This shoephone holds over 5 billion songs!
Would you believe 10,000 songs and 5,000 ringtones?"
This is so going to trap those joggers nearby in their own little worlds. Running in circles all day long, running, running, running.
So can we at least attach some speakers too so they sound interesting as they jog by?
On a serious note... why do I have a weird feeling sales on "We are the Champions" are going to go up...
Can you imagine these at the airport?
Put your iPod in a clear transparent (and waterproof, just to be safe) case that adds a wireless connector which then uses Bluetooth to talk to your toilet seat. While you pinch a loaf it weighs you, takes your temperature, scans your dump as it passes the "sensor ring", and gives you helpful dietary suggestions along with playing a preset song that you've associated with one of a half-dozen air freshener options.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Brings new meaning to the question, "You know what they say about men with big feet, don't you?"
Big hard drives!
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
Developers: We can use your help.
For the low low price of 99 cents a mile, you can use these fancy running shoes with built-in music. If you stop paying, they break your legs. The RIAA will love it!
I mean, they had a pedometer...running 5000 steps with a first-gen iPod would cause the hard drive to fail... :)
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
A supersmall step sensor for your shoe with wireless transmitter, a wireless receiver, iPod integration, timer, text-to-speach interface, "booster song with 1 keypress", recording all your trips and comparing them over the internet, and Apple and Nike behind it - I was expecting that gear to cost at least $50 to $80, and I'm pretty sure the people that are interested would have paid that amount without thinking about it - but only $29? That is one seriously low price. Wow, what happened, are they subsidizing this one or something?
And if they do, how do they make sure we are buying nike shoes? That step counter can be taped to any shoe, can't it?
And if they really joined forces, they'd need a new name. Hmmmm, let's see, something like: Nike + Apple = Nipple.
Yeah, I'd definitely buy one of those! Maybe two.
Corporations like Apple and Nike promoting their brands through a synergystic crossover product? Get out of here! Next thing you'll tell me that they're going to get professional athletes and rock stars to promote this thing.
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).
That won't short out when you do the swimming portion.
And, has anyone thought of having it make your shoes shuffle when you set the iPod on "shuffle"?
Nike: Just Do It But First Pay Money
Seriously, though, as a former marathon runner (2 hr 29 minutes back when the world record was 2 hr 14 minutes), I question the practical utility of an integrated shoe to iPod link - sure, it's nice to know your approximate pedometer rating, but in reality that is not a real number, only an estimation based on your running stride and (more likely) walking stride - pedometers tend to fail when you are in hill climb and downhill portions.
One would be better served by a GPS integrated iPod that has a calculator function that tells you your literal pace, infers heartrate from a standard external monitor, and shows comparison timings from when you do a fast run at increased speed for a shorter practice run as a goal setter, and possibly uses the iPod music interface to tell you useful information such as:
1. 20 miles to go!
2. take a drink of water soon (elapsed time indicates thirst)
3. you are running at/above/below peak training speed (based on prior training or estimated speeds)
4. hill coming up, duration 2 miles (based on GPS readings and the route/map you gave)
5. only 4 miles to go! (as you get further on)
And so on.
But none of that has anything to do with a shoe. You're far better off with a watch/GPS that connects to your iPod.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The only ones I see.
The sensor is meant to integrate in Nike shoes.
The sensor doesn't have changeable batteries.
I am sure you can figure out some way to attach to non nikes, unless I read this wrong and ceartian shoes come with embeded sensor.
Batter is a concern until they tell us how long it lasts. If three years then what the heck...
...it will become known as "The sole that times men's tries".
(sorry)
"The original location for the player holster had to be moved when testers kept referring to it as the 'iPud.' "
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
These ranged from a lack of basic terms of employment and excessive hours of work to unauthorised sub-contracting, confirmed physical or sexual abuse and the existence of conditions which could lead to death or serious injury."
Cool. That means as of 13 April, 2005 only in 40% of the factories used by Nike workers face a lack of basic terms of employment and excessive hours of work, unauthorised sub-contracting, confirmed physical or sexual abuse and the existence of conditions which could lead to death or serious injury. I'm off to by a pair of Nikes.
Seriously, this is the first major goof since Steve Jobs came back to Apple.
It's embarassing, though. There is that.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Just do iT
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
Privileged, overfed and sheltered children of developed nations may forget this, but at one time in their not-to-distant past, their nation used to be filled with jobs just like the ones in the sweatshop. And eventually, wealth grew and working conditions got better.
Because workers unionized and forced employeers to offer better wages and working conditions. Kinda contradicts your whole "sweatshops are good" shtick.
Of course, you never see any of the workers or potential workers in those countries complaining, and there's a reason for that: Nike and other "sweatshop" owners provided far better jobs than were normally available to people in those countries. People FOUGHT to get a spot in one of those factories.
Aren't you skipping the part about if you complain, you're out, and if you try to organize complaints, you're possibly even dead.
sudo ergo sum
Obviously you can't read, so I'll just say this again:
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".
Read it slowly if you are having trouble understanding.
"There is no easy shortcut between being a developing nation with a subsistence agricultural economy and an information age economy. If the rise of the Asian economies in the 1980s-1990s proved one thing, it's that each and every one has to go through the same growing pains that the United States and Europe once went through. And sweatshops are a step along the way."
The first part may be true, but the poor working conditions these people are forced to endure is not neccessary step. I'm not against companies placing factories in developing nations and I do recognise the good they do for the economy. But just because people in the US and Europe went through a working in similar conditions doesn't mean we can't enforce something better now. If $2 a day is a good local wage, that's fine by me. 16 hour days, 6-7 days a week and unsafe working conditions? NOT ACCEPTABLE.
I'm not a runner, so I really don't know. One hour a day, let's say several times a week, that'd be several years.
Of course, your mileage may vary! Thank you! Tip your waitstaff and try the veal!