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Apple Declares DRM War On Sneaker Hackers
theodp writes "Nicholas Carr is not pleased that Apple has applied for a patent to extend DRM to tennis shoes and other articles of clothing. Apple apparently views tennis-shoe DRM as a way to head off a potential plague of sneaker hacking. 'Some people,' the patent application observes, 'have taken it upon themselves to remove the sensor from the special pocket of the [iPod-linked] Nike+ shoe and place it at inappropriate locations (shoelaces, for example) or place it on non-Nike+ model shoes.'"
I've already posted this above - but I've got nothing else to do - so I guess I'll say it again. Apple and Nike don't care. They sell the sensors all on their own. In fact here is a link to the sensor for sale - all by itself - at the Apple Store. So the patent application doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And I don't think most of the Nike+ shoes come with a sensor. I'm pretty sure they just have the empty pocket where you can insert the sensor.
And on the flip side, Nike now sells this arm band that allows you to do the whole thing without the nano.
I used it for a while (with Brooks shoes) but replaced it with a Garmin Forerunner - the GPS is much more accurate and gives me a lot more data on my runs. I still use the nano for music. If the forerunner had the same functionality to play music and give auditory cues on distance, time, etc. it would be perfect. For now I use both.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Grr, where the hell are my mod points