Nike+ SportBand purchased early, unboxed for all to see
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 9th 2008 3:31PM
posted Apr 9th 2008 3:31PM
[Thanks, Terry]
posted Apr 9th 2008 3:31PM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
wow.. Nike's into bondage. who knew?
cue Depeche Mode
Why is it so hard for companies to keep products not to release on other dates.
Whaaaa?
A heart monitoring feature would be nice but that would drive up the cost a lot. The style is much better than the C3 and other heart monitor / watch combos they offer.
It seems that the wireless pedometer feature would be more costly than a heart-rate sensor built into the band, but I don't know how that tech works exactly. Those two watchband studs look perfect for sensor nodes.
yeah i thought the same thing about the pokey things. I guess its not accurate while running/swimming. I mean, most chest strap HRM have to be sweaty and stay 100% contact with skin or else they screw up.
sportsband on head.
Kinda weird that the sensor still has the Apple logo on it. I guess they didn't want to spend the money or time to make a separate style sensor.
Apple probably has some patents on the software someplace.
or they wanted to make sure Apple would carry the product in their stores
From what I understand, the sensor is the same, so if you have the sensor, you could just buy the band. I'm not sure. Maybe Apple still produces the sensor, the Nike guy said it wasn't a "competitor" it was designed to supplement it, for those people who at times didn't need the full functions of an iPod and jsut needed the band. I wouldn't be surprised to hear Apple helped them develop the band.
Am I the only one that thinks this thing looks like ass on toast?
It would appear that you are.
Quite.
I wonder if this will make just a good watch. I mean if you go for a walk with the receiver in or on your shoes you can always see how far you are going without your ipod
Its not really that bad, the display and 2 button operation are a bit limiting but its discreet and does what its made to do. Now ive just gotta wait for the software to become avaliable, the link in the packaging is dead at the min :(
From the pictures on nikeplus.com, it looks like it was meant to be worn on the inside of your wrist, so when you turn your arm so your wrist is pointing up, the display is in the correct orientation
Didn't think about that, probably because it breaks a huge convention.
I think they smartly made some watches with angled text, because parallel to the arm is also kind of difficult to read (requires either moving the head, or lifting the entire arm). Now, they've basically overcorrected. Putting the display on the interior of the arm a) breaks convention and b) requires either head angling or lower arm movement.
The biggest problem is the orientation of the display. With the display perpendicular to the arm, it's pretty much impossible to read it comfortably.
A few of these were handed out at a running event and the other complaint was calibration.
I don't see why not. If I remember the whole University of Washington tracking sensors thing they did, they're transmit only devices which means there would be nothing stopping you from doing a workout with both. I'm sure the nikeplus web page will prevent you from uploading both though :)
Does anyone know whether you can use this at the same time as you use the ipod link? (ie can both the ipod and the band linked to the same sensor?)...
I like listening to music and I like the voice telling me how far I have gone at the mile intervals, but I would also like something on my wrist to tell me my pace and to allow me to check my current distance without fishing the ipod out of my pockets...
I believe Nike has some watches that will connect to your iPod and Nike+ Sensor that can tell you everything AND still control your iPod.
IMO, I'd rather have the iPod Nano setup then that SportBand.
Just came back from a trip to California. Due to that 'dreadful' exchange rate, I shopped lots.
um...niice to know?
Um, excuse me, the Apple logo is their because of the relationship between the iPod Nano and the sensor. naybe you've been in a cave. It's ok, cave's are interesting too.
Strangely this item is iPod free and therefore the Apple logo seems out of place. But hey NAYBE that's just me.