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Apple and Nike Team up for iPod Shoe Interface

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tue May 23, 2006 04:02 PM
from the thousands-of-pasty-white-geeks-cry-out-in-terror dept.
Technology (Apple) Technology Hardware
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."
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[+] Your Rights Online: Nike+ iPod Used For Surveillance 66 comments
Thib writes "Researchers at the University of Washington have published a report detailing many easy and cheap ways the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit previously discussed on Slashdot can be used to track individuals, even when they are not carrying their iPod. They have even implemented a Google Maps application to display surveillance data in real time." From the article: "'Our research also shows that there exist simple cryptographic techniques that the Nike+iPod Sport Kit designers could have used to improve the privacy-preserving properties of the Nike+iPod kit,' the group reports. 'Our work underscores the need for a broad public discussion about and further research on the privacy-preserving properties of new wireless personal gadgets,' the group reports. 'We stress, however, that there is no evidence that Apple or Nike intended for these devices to be used in any malicious manner. Additionally, neither Apple nor Nike endorsed this study.'"
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Apple and Nike Team up for iPod Shoe Interface 50 Comments More /

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  • What would happen if Nike & Apple got together? [shey.net]

    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) [shey.net]'"
    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) [shey.net]"
    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) [shey.net]

    From: "Personalize, iPOD iD"
    To: "'W. McFarnby (not really) [shey.net]'"
    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) [shey.net]"
    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) [shey.net]

    From: "Personalize, iPOD iD"
    To: "'W. McFarnby (not really) [shey.net]'"
    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

    • Re:Nike+Apple=??? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Aadain2001 (684036) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:20PM (#15389775) Journal
      You realize that Nike hasn't run sweatshops for a long time now right? The factories in Asia used to be contracted by Nike to produce shoes, so Nike did not own them. After all the bad PR they moved in and took over the factories and now the people have very nice working conditions and earn a much higher than average wage compared to the rest of the countries over there. If you would like to end sweatshops, try talking to Adidas, Rebook, etc, which still do use sweatshop in Asia.
      • Interesting. The last time I recall the issue coming up was when Nike was claiming in their advertisements that they had improved conditions for the sweatshop workers and that they were not sweatshops anymore. I remember this because they were sued for false advertising, but the court ruled that while Nike's claims were in fact false, their lie was protected by the 1st Ammendment.

        This was from an article linked by /. a couple years ago, so anything resembling detail is gone. Except the "it's okay for the
      • The distinction is irrelevant. Nike dictates all the terms to the sweatshops that make Nike shoes and they are specifically culpable for their decision to stop doing business in Korea and Taiwan after those sweatshops unionized to seek out cheaper, more exploitative places elsewhere.

        http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops /nike/ [globalexchange.org]

        You are regurgitating Nike propoganda, which has been demonstrated to be false. Nike is not responding to bad publicity by addressing the problem, they are responding on
        • 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.
            • Thats bull. Take for instance China (Xining - the capital of Qinghai province), the GDP of an individual was $800... while its a little higher than $2 a day, its not much, and people in that city enjoy clean water, well-built houses, and electricity.

              The American-centric attitude that people have really just makes me sick. Try going to a different country before making all these claims about how we're treating other people so badly - they have the option to take that job or not, and the people that have th

    • You should have just changed your name to "child_labor" as that would be a more formal description.
      • I actually played with that site a few years back to see which terms were acceptable and which weren't, and it appeared that the word 'labor' was not allowed. Strange considering 'labor' is a fitting term to what one might do in running shoes.

    • Re:Nike+Apple=??? (Score:5, Funny)

      by bertramwooster (763417) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:47PM (#15389960) Homepage
      Oh. I thought you were going to say Nipple. Never mind.
      • Intelligent first posts are now a 'subscriber bonus,' really. If you give /. a bunch of cash they let you see stories a few minutes early, and if you happened to have previously requested a mildly inappropriately labeled iPod from Apple (or known where to get text of an order like this) you're suddenly five steps ahead of everyone else. As long as you know how to use a text editor, that is.
      • 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.
          • 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.

  • Why? (Score:3, Funny)

    by cephalien (529516) <unger30&potsdam,edu> on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:05PM (#15389663)
    Not to be a prude about this, but what exactly is the point? How much do regular pedometers cost?

    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 /., but there's got to be a better use for it.

      • Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Kadin2048 (468275) <slashdot@kadin.xoxy@net> on Tuesday May 23 2006, @05:11PM (#15390117) Homepage Journal
        What would be very cool is if it would attempt to match the beats per minute of your song to your actual steps per minute, so you could run to music at whatever pace you wanted to. I think iTunes has a BPM field, so you could probably at least have the iPod choose songs that were close to your pace (so you could have different pump-up, running, and cool-down music), but I don't know if you can easily alter the playback speed of an MP3 without altering it's pitch to do exact cadence matching. I wonder if it has enough processor overhead to do on-the-fly resampling.

        • Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Xyde (415798)
          The iPod can already do this for audiobooks, i assume it could be done for mp3 as well.

  • iPhone + Nike = Shoe Phone? (Score:5, Funny)

    by green pizza (159161) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:07PM (#15389675) Homepage
    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...

  • Please remove your shoes.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by iXiXi (659985) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:08PM (#15389687)
    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.

  • Big feet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by truthsearch (249536) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:10PM (#15389700) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • Brilliant (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ritz_Just_Ritz (883997) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:10PM (#15389705)
    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!

  • Didn't the old iPods have this feature? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quaoar (614366) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:13PM (#15389730)
    I mean, they had a pedometer...running 5000 steps with a first-gen iPod would cause the hard drive to fail... :)
  • Boy, when I saw that "Special Shoes" link I thought for sure I was going to see this [interstate80.info]!

  • Price too low (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Captain Perspicuous (899892) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:14PM (#15389733)
    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?
    • Read the fine print on bottom of the "rock n' run page".. it says:

          The sensor's battery is not replaceable. Battery life will vary
          considerably based on use and other factors.

      So the $64M question is, how long does the sensor's battery last?
      This could explain the low price.. $29 may be cheap, but if you're
      buying a new sensor every year, suddenly it's getting expensive.
    • 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...

  • Nike + Apple (Score:5, Funny)

    by i am kman (972584) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:16PM (#15389746)
    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.

  • no way! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by basic0 (182925) <{mmccollow} {at} {yahoo.ca}> on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:16PM (#15389748)
    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.

  • Integration (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AAeyers (857625) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:20PM (#15389779) Journal
    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

  • Inaccurate, not useful to serious athletes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MBraynard (653724) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:21PM (#15389781) Journal
    Pedometers do not cut it for distance measurement. Almost everyone uses a GPS unit these days. Interestingly enough, the only company still pushing a pedometer-driven system these days is Nike. At SOME point they are going to get on the GPS bandwagon but I'm uncertain why they are taking so long to get 'cutting edge in this area.'

    OT - That banner ad for Crystal Reports just brought my computer to a crawl.

    • To myself, who I'd consider to be a reasonably serious athlete, I prefer the food pods to GPS for a few reasons. They're typically smaller, but most importantly, they aren't automatically destroyed by large buildings or tree cover. Living in areas where I would run on trails surrounded by large trees, or in downtown with large buildings, I would constantly lose GPS signals and so my distance, pace, and maps of my runs would be way off in areas. The foot pods can be calibrated by you on a track to make them accurate to your stride, and are +/- 1% after doing that typically, which is better than my GPS was by far. Now they have downsides as well (elevation gain typically isn't measured), but they're better than losing signal for some of us.

  • Sync Capabilities (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AgentOJ (320270) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:26PM (#15389824)
    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 s
  • I would have to wait until New Balance comes out with one. A 13 4D Wide is kinda of hard to come by.
  • ...it will become known as "The sole that times men's tries".

    (sorry)

  • Think Different my ass (Score:3, Informative)

    by Udo Schmitz (738216) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:53PM (#15390012) Journal
    Says the BBC [bbc.co.uk]: "Although 60% of factories monitored achieved an A or B rating in terms of compliance with agreed standards, a quarter of factories were found to present more serious problems.
    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.

    • How does a quarter of factories equal 40%?

      Now, while I agree that the sweatshops of the kind used by almost every overseas manufacturer is despicable, your twisting of the argument by fudging the numbers doesn't help your case. Remember, "C" is considered an average rating. If 60% of their factories are above average, thats pretty good. And only 25% fall into the "serious problems" category. That means that 15% are in the average range. If anything, Nike should be commended for making such a turn-around fro
    • I have 5 iPods in my left shoe alone... speek for your self.

    • Nah, I think it's a pretty shrewd move. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by DwarfGoanna (447841) on Tuesday May 23 2006, @04:22PM (#15389794)
      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.

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