Contributed by Mitch:
The word is out in a major way about the Nike/Apple partnership and their Nike+ campaign. Reviews are starting to abound so I won't re-hash what you can read elsewhere. If you are just crawling from under some nice rock, I'll be brief. For $29 you can purchase a kit consisting of a transmitter for your running shoe and a receiver for your iPod Nano.
While you run and listen to your Nano, the system will measure your time, pace and calories burned and a nice person will "coach" you at five minute intervals. After you finish your workout data will be sent to the Nike+ website during the next Nano synch. It's very simple, very effective and how they did this for $29 a pop I will never know.
I am a Mac user and the whole system worked 100% perfectly for me from the automatic firmware update on my Nano to linking with the shoe sender to the final transfer of data to the Nike+ website. No reboots, no driver updates, no connection problems, no muss, no fuss...amazing.
As an excellent partner to this new system, I discovered a podcast called Podrunner (recently rose to #2 on the iTunes' Podcast Top 10) that offers free running mixes from LA's own dj steveboy. These hour long mixes are built at a set number of beats per minute and make keeping your pace a simple thing.
I already enjoyed running, but now even more so with this latest bit of gadgetry.
So, how many Craigs are there? There is one who is a mac user and one who will not switch from XP because he knows how to set it up. We, the readers, demand to know!
This review was written by Mitch, a buddy of mine who is an avid Mac user. That's why the title of the post is "Mitch's Review..."
Great stufff, looks like a nice bit of kit!