In the coming weeks, you'll be seeing and hearing a lot about a new MP3 player that isn't an iPod. In late July, Philips and Nike will begin selling the MP3Run, a 256MB flash-based player that retails for $299 and comes with a separate Bluetooth module that attaches to your shoe. Despite some early speculation, the Bluetooth element doesn't interface with wireless headphones. Rather, it's there to wirelessly transmit to the player how far you've run--an exciting concept if you do any sort of jogging with your MP3 player.
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| Philips and Nike are teaming up to deliver the MP3Run. |
Recently, reps from Philips and Nike stopped by our offices to show us an early version of the MP3Run. It looks similar to its sister models in Philips/Nike's new line of portables--what Senior Editor
Eliot Van Buskirk refers to as "hockey puck" MP3 players--but instead of basic black, it has a red and light-gray color scheme. You tie the wireless speed and distance sensor into your shoelaces, and it acts as a high-tech and (supposedly) highly accurate pedometer. According to Nike, with a little calibration, it's close to 100 percent accurate, no matter the terrain or variations in your stride. Here's the kicker: While you're running, you can press a button to temporarily silence the music while a synthesized voice tells you how far you've run and at what pace. When you're through with your run, you connect the player to your PC, and your time and distance are uploaded to the Training section of Nike's
running site, where a training log allows you to track your progress.
You can do all this today in a more low-tech fashion by purchasing a pedometer for $20 to $60, timing your run with a stopwatch, listening to a standard sports-oriented MP3 player, and manually entering your times and distances on Nike's running site (or in a spreadsheet of your own). Or you can opt for something like the Timex Bodylink monitor/watch ($250) or Garmin's Forerunner 101 (about $120), both of which use GPS technology to track your run distances. But the Philips/Nike MP3Run is compelling because it attempts to truly blend an entertainment device with a training tool. (Of course, I won't know how successfully it meets that laudable goal--or Nike's claims of near 100 percent accuracy--until I get my hands on a review unit. Hint, hint.)
Nike considered developing additional motivational elements, such as a downloadable file that would help pace you through the New York City Marathon--presumably with the voice of a pushy personal trainer or an R. Lee Ermey-style drill sergeant shouting, "Pick up the pace, maggot!" all the way to the finish line. But for the initial launch, at least, the company has decided to keep things relatively simple. The MP3Run also has a built-in strobe light for night running, an FM radio, and 256MB of internal memory--though there's no expansion slot for adding additional memory. To round things out, a waist belt with a built-in remote will be an optional accessory.
As you may have guessed, I'm a runner (more casual than serious), and as a result, I've always been more of a flash player guy than a hard drive player guy. I know people who run, bike, and work out with their iPods, but hard drive players can skip, and until the Mini came along, the standard iPod was a little heavy compared to flyweight flash players. Besides, who needs their whole music collection for a 40-minute run?
Early quality-control issues aside, Nike-branded players--before Philips, they were made by Rio--have always been among the most stylish of the flash players, easily identifiable because people toted them at the gym in their armband holders. However, under the swoosh and the splash-resistant casing, they were pretty basic MP3 players. So it's about time for Nike to just do it and pull a more ambitious piece of equipment out of its labs--something that may honestly be counted as "wearable technology" alongside Adidas's $250 1 shoe, which adjusts to the terrain you're running on.
The MP3Run won't have nearly the impact the iPod had on the marketplace, but it does send a not-so-subtle message to competitors in the sports space: To stand out from the crowd, your player is going to have to be more than small and splash-resistant and do more than just play music.
David Carnoy is an executive editor for CNET Reviews. Have a question for him?
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