Apple, Nike Team Up to Power Your Workout - But Wait, There’s More
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You wouldn’t expect two heavyweight companies to leave you with a product as simple as that, would you? There’s plenty of support for using the Sport Kit. For example, you can use your iPod to transfer the stats on your workout to nikeplus.com. This site lets you track your runs, set goals, and even compete against your friends…or against other friends as a team…or really, against anyone around the world. Going to the Nikeplus site, it really looks as if the company is trying to set up a whole community around users of the Sport Kit, which strikes me as rather Web 2.0 of them.
Even if you’re not that social, the site lets you analyze your performance and keeps stats on everything. You can check out how you’re doing by run, by week, or by month, from an intuitive graphical interface. Being able to keep track of your progress – to actually see yourself improving over time – can be a big help to keeping you motivated.
Since music is such a big part of working out for most people (at least, for most people who work out with an iPod), it should come as no surprise that Nike and Apple are conspiring to make appropriate tunes available in Apple’s iTunes store. There will be a new Nike Sport Music section that will feature Nike-created content. You will also see continuous workout mixes specifically developed for use with the Sport Kit; these will be for time- or distance-based workouts. To quote from the iPod-Nike synch page on Apple’s website, “Each routine offers coaching, motivational, and training tips over a continuous mix of music.” There will be several other types of workout mixes as well, including playlists chosen and introduced by professional athletes.
Incidentally, I didn’t see anything that indicates you’ll need to be a Sport Kit owner to buy the special music mixes. That’s good news for those of us who don’t want to go through all the work of putting together our own workout mixes. (There’s probably some kind of irony here, but my mental muscles get far more exercise during the day than my physical ones; the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time actually thinking about my workout, let alone my workout music!).
In addition to the seven styles of sneakers that will support the Sport Kit, Nike is also introducing specially designed apparel that is iPod-compatible. This includes jackets, tops, shorts, and an iPod Nano armband. These items feature waterproof pockets for the iPod, and are supposed to help keep the wires tucked neatly away and not let them get tangled.
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