Nike+ heart rate monitor released, no iPhone or iPod touch support yet (Updated)
by Justin Horn on Jun 7th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm
UPDATE Nike+ heart rate monitor to support iPhone and iPod touch this fall
The rumors for the heart rate monitor (HRM) were rekindled just a few weeks ago when an official Nike+ forum member announced the Nike+ HRM would be coming June 1st. That date has come and gone, but today it’s officially out. It’s currently only compatible with the Nike+ Sportband and 5th generation iPod nano. I have a feeling it won’t be too long before we get an update (iOS 4?) for iPhone and iPod touch that supports this as well.
Also, similar to Nike+ / Apple collaboration, the HRM is manufactured by Polar.
Now you can put more heart into every run by tracking your heart rate with the new Polar Wearlink+ Transmitter. Just fit the strap snugly around your chest and take it for a spin to hear spoken feedback and see your beats per minute during your Nike+ iPod workout, or see the same information while you run with the Nike+ SportBand. And that’s just the start of it. Nikeplus.com gives you an even better read on your progress.
It’s available for purchase $69.95 on the Nike+ website.
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Nike+ heart rate monitor coming to the US June 1st
by Justin Horn on May 18th, 2010 @ 12:28 pmI’ve been thinking about getting a heart rate monitor to give me more data while running with Nike+, but with the rumors about a Nike+ compatible heart rate monitor coming I decided to hold off. Now the rumors have finally been confirmed by official Nike+ forum user, Clover, with a launch date of June 1st in the US and in Canada later in the month. International dates are still up in the air, but shouldn’t be too far after that. We’ll be picking up a couple of these when they are release so come back the first week of June for our review.
Here’s what Clover had to say:
Hi everyone,
Great news! I have a U.S. launch date for the Nike+ compatible heart rate monitor. It will officially launch on June 1, 2010, although it may reach some retail outlets slightly sooner. It will reach Canadian markets in June and will launch internationally in summer 2010, exact date to be determined.
I know you’re going to ask, so I’ll answer pre-emptively: no, I am not able to discuss price, color, device compatibility, and other details at this point. Stay tuned.
Cheers,
Clover
(via Ars)
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Lee Brimelow on flash and touch based devices
by Justin Horn on May 12th, 2010 @ 1:27 pmYou guys all remember Lee from, the iPad provides the ultimate browsing experience, right? Now he’s back arguing against point 5 of Steve Jobs open letter on flash:
Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?
Lee created a video (below) to demonstrate that flash sites don’t need to be rewritten to support touch devices. The problem with the video is the touch device is an old school, mouse cursor where you put your finger device…not the modern multitouch devices like the iPhone.
Even though I disagree with Lee that most flash sites work perfectly on a touch device, neither do a lot of non flash sites. Rollovers are not a flash issue, but a user interface issue facing any website, program, etc. written for a mouse and and keyboard. New websites will have to created to work well on both a traditional mouse based computer and a touch based device. Depending on the website, it might even be necessary to make a sister site geared only for touch based device.
Here at When Will Apple our new javascript based charts make use of the hover effect. You hover over the chart to see the number of votes for a particular month. On iPhone OS devices you tap on the bar to see the “number of votes popup”. Yes, we could create a touch based version of the site that would work a bit better, but this is a good compromise and falls into the category of sites working well for both interfaces.
Even though I disagree on this being a flash problem, I do agree with Steve on his other point…If you need to redesign, why not use the latest and greatest?
Click here to view the full post with video
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Apple vs ?, iPad, iPhone, iPod
Henry Ford 1908 – Steve Jobs 2010
by Justin Horn on Apr 30th, 2010 @ 1:44 amIn 1908 Henry Ford believed horses and steam engines were the past and wanted to create a new type of light engine (internal combustion). In 2010 Steve Jobs drops Flash to support HTML5, which he believes is the future of the web.
Love this section from Henry Ford’s press release:
All the wise people demonstrated conclusively that the engine could not compete with steam. They never thought that it might carve out a career for itself. That is the way with wise people – they are so wise and practical that they always know to a dot just why something cannot be done; they always know the limitations.
Wonder how many people though Ford was crazy at the time?
Henry Ford’s 1908 open letter on engines (image version / text version)
Steve Jobs 2010 open letter on the web and flash
(via @gruber)
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Adobe CEO responds to Steve Jobs open letter
by Justin Horn on Apr 29th, 2010 @ 3:21 pmWSJ has an exclusive interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen:
The Journal’s Alan Murray will have an exclusive interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen at about 2:35 p.m. Eastern, and Digits will live-blog the event. Excerpts of the video are set to be available on the News Hub live show at 4 p.m., with the full video to follow.
Here are some gems from Narayen (from the live blog):
The technology problems that Mr. Jobs mentions in his essay are “really a smokescreen,” Mr. Narayan says. He says more than 100 applications that used Adobe’s software were accepted in the App Store. “When you resort to licensing language” to restrict this sort of development, he says, it has “nothing to do with technology.”
To conclude, Mr. Narayan says he’s for “letting customers decide,” but that the multi-platform world will “eventually prevail.” And the interview wraps up.
Basically they are calling BS on Jobs, but they are just making themselves look bad. I don’t think they are going to be happy when the let the customers decide.
Adobe you have some great products, let this crappy one die already!
UPDATE Check out this comparison of Steve Jobs dropping flash to Henry Ford leaving the steam engine.
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Apple vs ?, iPad, iPhone, iPod
Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools
by Justin Horn on Apr 29th, 2010 @ 10:43 amUPDATE Check out this comparison of Steve Jobs dropping flash to Henry Ford leaving the steam engine.
Steve Jobs has just released an open letter about flash. I think this is a well timed letter, should shift the focus from the whole gizmodo thing back to Adobe vs Apple. He covers 6 main points that are always brought up about flash on mobile. I will quickly quote and summarize them:
Openness
Flash is proprietary and the web should be open, iPhone OS is not the web.
Full web
Adobe claims 75% of video on the web is in Flash, but H.264 has already come a long way and this is no longer true.
Reliability, security and performance
“Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash.”
Battery Life
“Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.”
Flash isn’t made for touch
“Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?”
Using flash as an interpreter between true iPhone apps
“We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.”
This last point is exactly what John Gruber suggested in an article 3 weeks ago, I guess this is why Steve responded to an email saying “We think John Gruber’s post is very insightful and not negative”.
Honestly there is no difference between Apple moving away from Flash and when they were the first to stop support for the floppy drive. I mean Apple is starting to scale back it’s support for firewire, a standard they helped create. Apple likes to set trends, not follow them. Even though the floppy has been dead in most peoples eyes for some years now, it’s now official: Sony Announces the Death of the Floppy Disk.
I see a similar announcement for Adobe in the not to distant future, then Gruber can “claim chowder” the “Apple is evil” crowd.
(via Mashable)
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