• Graphs that show your progress over time, either with the same route, or how far you manage to run in (example) 60 minutes.
• Map integration. Let me put my runs on a map like on Nike+
• Route playlist planning. Don’t know if that would be useful, but I thought it would be cool if I could put up a map for my run, grab data from previous runs of the same route, mark different sections of the run with a marker (like part 1, part 2 etc), and then drag in songs from iTunes to fit the different parts. Like power songs in the hills, slower stuff when it’s flat etc.
• Some way to integrate the running with iCal. Bitch me if I’m lazy!

If you have any ideas, put them here or in the thread at Flickr. Ditto if you have any good suggestion for other Mac software that uses the data the Nike + iPod collects.

So when I heard about Tangerine, an application that scans my iTunes library and figures out the BPM – Beats Per Minute – on all my tracks, I downloaded it immediately.

Perfect for running

I would use it like this:

• Scan all my tunes, and get BPM for all of them
• Make a test run, and figure out which pace that fits the running I’m doing
• Make playlists that starts at a certain pace, and speed things up at the end
• Or make playlists that mix paces, slow at the start, then faster, slower again etc.

Tangerine does all this. Tags my tunes with the right BPM. Make playlists. Very cool!

Except that it doesn’t work. It doesn’t find my iTunes music library. It may be because I have an Norwegian version of OS X, so the music folder is called “Musikk”. But other apps using the iTunes music library finds it, so it’s just a guess.

Tangerine is still in Beta, and others reports having the same problems as I do. Others tell that it works flawlessly. I’m really looking forward to the next version and hope that it will find my music library and start tagging it.

Do it manually (or maybe not…)

In the meantime, I’m using the bpmWidget. It works like this: Download and install (as a widget). Start a song in iTunes, and tap the widget with the beat for some seconds. Then hit the small note icon to copy that BPM value to the current song playing in iTunes. Repeat 8 000 times for all your songs. Sigh… Tangerine! Where’s that next version?!

…if people look at it and their initial reaction is “Oh, it’s an iPod rip-off,” that’s a pretty crummy first impression. Does anyone at Microsoft realize that rip-offs aren’t considered cool?

A: MY SOURCES SAY NO.

Q: Then again, Pablo Picasso said, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” By that standard the people on the Zune team must be a bunch of Michelangelos, eh?

A: CONCENTRATE AND ASK AGAIN.

Excellent analysis as always from John Gruber.

This is the revolution

I think this is the start of a revolution in the way people measure what their bodies do. Yes, there are already heart rate meters, pedometers etc. on the market. But the iPod is a cultural icon, something that everybody has. In my country Norway, I can easily count 20 iPods on the bus in the morning. Apple has sold millions and millions. This is the start of something big.

But – I can see a future where I want to use the data from different training devices together. To merge the data from a GPS, from a heart rate monitor, from an iPod+Nike. And maybe take it further: To use the devices that collect data (iPod+Nike, GPS, heart rate monitor) to control other devices: Game consoles, PCs and Macs.

And finally: All this data should be in a format that is easy to move: From the devices that collect them, to devices that are controlled by them, and to devices and applications that store them.

Three phases if you like: Collection. Use. Storing.

Collection

The new Nike+iPod Sport Kit is an example of a device that collects data. Itconsists of two parts, a sensor for the shoes and a receiver for the Nano. The sensor with will measure your steps and report them back to the Nano. Information on time, distance, calories burned and pace is stored on the Nano and displayed on the screen. You also get real-time audio feedback like “your average pace is 7:10″, “Three kilometers to go” and “You completed in 24 minutes and 4 seconds.” Brilliant! This will of course make running much more fun, and the audio feedback will work much better than having to watch the screen when running.

You can make special playlists for your workouts, and if you press the center button while running, the Nano plays your special “power song”, for that extra sprint or the steep hill.

Again, Apple proves that the secret is in the details. It’s simple and amazing at the same time. And it certainly is right in the face of everyone writing about “iPod killers” on their sites every day.

Heart rate

The Nike+iPod Sport Kit does not contain a heart rate monitor. Apple used Lance Armstrong on the iPod+Nike press conference. I know that Lance, like most other top athletes, use a heart rate monitor when training. There are several brands out there, but Finnish Polar is a market leader, with products for lots of different sports: Running, cycling, outdoor, weight management etc.

If I have data on time, distance, pace and calories burned, I would also like to know my heart rate. It makes training much more efficient and you don’t run too hard (like many of us tend to do when we finally drag ourselves away from the computer). Now, Nike already has a whole range of heart rate monitors.

“Nike+iPod creates a better running experience. We see many more such Nike+ innovations in the future.”

Nike CEO Mark Parker at the iPod+Nike press conference. I’ll eat this webpage if there isn’t a iPod-ready heart rate monitor from Nike within a year.

Steps vs GPS

The sensor inside +Nike shoes senses when you make a step. I would think that it simply sends “a step count” back to the Nano. This is how most pedometers work: You program your step length, and the pedometer just counts how many steps you take. If you take shorter or longer steps, it will be inaccurate.

But with a GPS, you can take as funny steps as you like. The GPS will know precisely how far you have run, no matter the length of your steps.

The Garmin Forerunner 305 (buy from Amazon) is one of the best solutions out there. It is (quite) small, has a heart rate monitor and a GPS right on your arm. I hope Apple picks more partners for their Nano sports line, and Garmin and Polar should be the next ones after Nike.

Or?

Different devices, different data

Wouldn’t it be so much better if all these devices talked to each other? Buy a Nano from Apple, a pair of shoes from Nike, a heart rate monitor and GPS from Garmin, or a heart rate monitor from Polar. And they all sing together.

And when you go to a gym that uses the Technogym Wellness System, your gadgets pick up the data from the machines at the gym. And when you leave, your Nano knows how much you lifted, pulled, pushed and ran. And your heart rate.

You come home, and sync your iPod. Since the data is in a common format for training, you decide yourself which site you want to load up your data to: Nike, Garmin, Polar (all these have webbased services for training data for their gadgets). Or any other site that uses the common format for training.

From real world to virtual world

The final step is to merge this with the wonderful world of gaming. Since all machines now use a common format, it’s no problem for the Xbox 360, the PS3 or the Wii to make use of your gadgets or your data. You can bring out your dance mat and start dancing. The Xbox or the iPod keeps track of your exercise. Grab the Wii controller and start playing tennis in your living room. The iPod still keeps track of your movements. And when you meet your tennis instructor the next day, you can log on to the site you use for your data and have a look at your progress together.

And when it’s raining cats and dogs, and even an iPod full of your favourite tunes can’t pull you out of the warmth of your apartment, you step up on the treadmill, turn on your Xbox or PS3, and start running in the streets of Sydney from PGR, the hills surrounding Hogwart, or the upper decks of Titanic. All rendered in beautiful 3D on your new 42″ LCD screen in front of you.

While running, two of your friends come online too, and you race each other until Ross in Melbourne wins, but you manage to squeeze ahead of Kevin from Buffalo.

A new dataformat for training data

I’m quite sure Apple (or Nike, Garmin, Polar, Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo) will never make an open standard training data unless they really have to. So we better start making it ourselves. And start pushing them to open things up when we have a dataformat that is useful, versatile and ready to be implemented.

How do we do it? Anyone?

Previously on Brilliantdays.com

Computerized gyms
Running and training online
More Africa in your computer
Use your body to control the computer

Available from may 2005. I wonder how long the batteries run? Or is it rechargeable? And how much rain does it stand? And wouldn’t it be cool to have it in other colors? How about a silver and black one…?

Dunechaser does it again. This time he has made a set of co-called minifigs with “Geek Luminaries”. The above is of course Steve Jobs with a first generation iPod (BTW, this demonstrates the beauty of the iPod design: What other gadget could be immediately recognized as itself with just one simple piece of Lego…?)

See also the corresponding post on his blog.

Others include Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds (with a penguin), Larry Wall, Steve Wozniak, Charles Babbage, Tim Berners-Lee and Jeff Bezos – on a Segway!

Custom made Lego

And here’s an idea for Lego: Start making a total list of all bricks you make. Every single one. Put it on a web page.

And when people like Dunechaser make models like these, make an easy system for people to tag their pictures with the names of all the bricks they have used. Example: The Steve Jobs model is 5 pieces, or bricks. The hair, the head, the upper body, the legs and the iPod. And I guess you could say that the hands are changable to other colors to, so then it’s 7 pieces.

If all these had a number, one could add these numbers in the description of the drawing, and put it in some kind of format that was clickable. And which set me right to the “Custom Lego” webpage. A form was automatically filled in, and all the little pieces were picked up by a robot in a Lego storage somewhere, and sent to me.

Imagine the coolness of this: There are thousands or millions of Lego figures that people have created and put on the web. But unless you – like Dunechaser – have collected a huge number of Lego bricks and pieces, you’re not able to make Steve or Bill or Linus yourself, even if you can figure out which pieces that are used in the models.

And a “Put on site”:

Walk outside and take a look around. People on the same city streets are loaded down. They are laden with books, newspapers, Gatorade jugs, personal stereos, knapsacks, briefcases and canvas totes with high-heel shoes inside. They have iPods strapped to upper arms, fanny packs buckled around waists and house keys Velcroed to shoelaces.

Perhaps it’s because we are multitaskers. Or because we’re insecure. Maybe we are becoming more independent. Whatever the reasons, we are more and more burdened by our belongings.

From Washington Post.

Reams of stories have been written about children being injured by heavy backpacks. Now they tow large suitcases on wheels. They look like so many little flight attendants.

LOL.

With the access Apple will no doubt get to Disney (Research)’s vast library of movies and TV shows, iTunes is about to get a huge boost toward becoming the front end for our digital TV and movie experience too.

“What happens when you can beam shows from your computer or iPod wirelessly to your TV?” he asks. “You have a Tivo (and a music player) that you can take anywhere.” IPods and TVs don’t have that ability yet but they will soon, he believes. “iTunes will be the software that runs your living room.”

Fred Vogelstein of Fortune thinks Steve Jobs already owns your living room:

Skeptical? Talk to Jeff Zucker, the new CEO of NBC/Universal. In an interview with Newsweek he said that iTunes had generated $2.5 million in download revenues just in the last three months. He also said it was helping him decide what to air. Because of the unexpected popularity of one show, “The Office,” on iTunes, TV viewership shot up and it won a coveted Thursday night prime time slot.

I wonder how long it takes before Scoble comments on this…

“I like Flickr. I like blogs. I like search. I like the fact that my daughter is going to knit her own ipod sock. Maybe next year she can exhibit at MacWorld and give me a free pass. .

In that light, I hear that MacWorld might have been better called MacWorld Accessories. Is there a fashion show next year?

Maybe we could call it MacFash. .”

This is something for Anina: Arrange the first gadget, computers and fashion show: With all the cool iPod accessories, mobile phones by fashion designers, software for creation of digital art and fashion, and clothing for the digital lifestyle.

Some examples:

The Burton Audex
The Levis RedWire DLX jeans
The Giro Tuneups II system (lame Flash interface, click snow, then helmets, then accessories)
Elite Model Look mobile phones

And of course a million different designers doing iPod cases with everything from polyester, via knitted socks to $30,000 with diamonds.

How about it, Anina? In Paris? The first MacFash? Or maybe TechFash?

It also has a list with the colors on the iPods. That is, the colors they used to have. Now, with the iPod mini gone, they are only black and white.

• Baum, L. Frank. The Road to Oz
• Christie, Agatha. The Mysterious Affair at Styles
• Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent
• Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Notes from the Underground
• The Founding Fathers. The Constitution of the United States
• Irving, Washington. Old Christmas
• James, Henry. An International Episode
• London, Jack. Call of the Wild
• Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus
• Wodehouse, PG. Psmith in the City

You can help them, by reading books yourself, and upload them to their server.

And that it’s just a hype that will end pretty soon. Yeah, right. Now people will FILL their iPods with all the videos from Usenet. Lots of skin I would guess. Which of course is a sign of a mature technology that’s here to stay.

Update: Another reason. PodDater lets you download videos of profiles for dating. Mating on your iPod.

“Only” $1,015…

Amazing collection of cassette pictures. From about 30-10 b.i. (before iPod).

If you’re new to Last.fm, it works like this: You download a plugin for your music player software. There are a number of plugins found here. Install the proper plugin for your OS and player. Some of the plugins also works with mp3-players like the iPod. So when you sync your iPod, it sends the tracks played to the plugin.

Register with Last.fm and create a free account.

Next time you play a song, the plugin will send the artist and track name to Last.fm. Now the whole world can see what you’re playing. Scary for some, cool for some! My Last.fm status page is here.

When you have registered (or if you already are a Last.fm user), head over to the brilliantdays.com group, and join. When 15 people have joined, you can see the collective music taste of the members at the group page.

This isn’t about surfing the Web anymore – it’s about having a lifestyle that doesn’t require you to think or reprogram. The days of the blinking 12:00 are long gone, but it’s obvious Microsoft and its vendors don’t know that yet.

Chris Pirillo thinks.

1) It’s too small. People are now buying 32″ and 42″ and even 50″ flatscreen TVs. 20″ isn’t enough. I would like Apple to stick together the 30″ display with the iMac. If you just took an iMac without the screen, you could glue it on the back of the 30″!

2) The harddisk is too small. With the OS and a full Final Cut Studio install, almost 60 GB is used. When I first digitized all the CDs, I used AAC. But if I should use the Mac as the station for playing music at stereo at home, I would redigitize most CDs as pure 44100 KHz AIFF. That would take lots of space. Add videos, audiobooks, podcast (many with video), and 250 GB would be gone in days.

What Apple really should consider is making a home edition of the Xserve with an Xserve Raid. Install it in a closet somewhere you can’t hear it, put cables around the house. And let all music and video stay on the Xserve instead of the individual computers. Make a version of iTunes that just hooks up to the Xserve Home, and puts all media there.

3) Look at the picture of the iMac with the new Front Row software again. Four “buttons”: Music, Videos, DVD and Photos. What’s missing? TV. Why on earth isn’t there a TV tuner inside?? Unbelievable. If Apple want people to put their Macs in the living room they have to make the screen bigger and put a TV-tuner inside. I want to record my own TV-shows. I want to pause live TV. I want to use an EPG to program which programs I want to record.

Also: Make an easy way to make plugins for Front Row. I want to be able to see my RSS feeds in there as well. The weather. The webcam for the roads on the way to work. The babycall from the kids room. Just add two more buttons, TV and Yours. And make an easy way for people to hook all kinds of things up to the software under Yours. Many of the widgets people have made for Tiger would be very nice to use (in a different form) on a big TV-screen with a remote. I would even consider reading mail in there, if the interface was good enough.

The most important thing missing in iTunes 5 is a history menu. Or log menu.

I have blogged about it before, I have reported it to Apple before, and I’m repeating it: Why isn’t there a history menu in iTunes? It doesn’t make sense at all.

Try this: Browse the podcast directory, choose a category (like television):

Find a podcast that you would like to subscribe to, click the arrow to see the info page for that podcast:

When the infopage is up, hit subscribe. Now iTunes switches to the podcast view in where I see all my podcast.

OK, now I want to go back to the podcast directory and check out some more podcasts. Where is that back button?

To get back where I were 10 seconds ago, I have to click on the “podcast” button on the bottom of the screen to see the iTunes music store podcast view, then click on one of the categories on the right. Then find the sub-category if I were browsing those.

No good. Let us have an iTunes history menu.

what could have been

Originally uploaded to Flickr ChrisDodo.

Superglue! hahahaha (see prevoius post)

In an ideal world… Nanotalby

Originally uploaded to Flickr blackbeltjones.

…isn’t a crappy iTunes phone AND a sleek iPod nano. We want a sleek iTunes nano phone.

And most amazing: Dot-Pod. Which lets people connect to your iPod from the internet, controlling which songs to play. Ok, that must be the number one fastest way to mess up your iPod hard drive since some crazy engineers at Blackmagic Design used an iPod as scratch disk for HD material in Final Cut Pro.

(via eirikso)

Now animators and designers can put their stuff on their iPod photo to go.

Previously: Watch comics in a widget

Technorati tags: comics / mac / ipod

In short:

• If you find an mp3 file with its own URL, tag it with Del.icio.us, with a tag that is clearly your own.
• Then you take the RSS feed for that tag, and burn that as a Feedburner feed.
• Subscribe to that feed in your Podcasting software of choice, and your tagged MP3s will find their way to your player.

Brilliant thinking, Fred!

The Feedburner forums has more details on the technical bits of so-called “One-click-subscription”.

If you want an iPod for your kids, I recommend buying an iPod with video.

iPods with hard drives (the 30, 60 and 80 GB models) have moving parts. So teach your children that the iPod is not a toy. Don’t shake it while playing music and movies. It survives normal movements but doesn’t last long if you shake it like a rattle for hours and hours…

If you want an iPod that is “rattle-proof”, buy an iPod nano. The nano doesn’t play video, but is excellent for sports and is easier to fit in your pockets.

Protect the iPod

Now, add a TadPole case from iFrogz. It comes in six different colors…

…and there are over 200 designs for the click-wheel to choose from:

If you would like to support this site, use the link below to order your TadPole:

Putting CDs and DVDs on the iPod

Now, start putting your music and videos on the iPod. For music, use iTunes that comes with the iPod. And for video, use Handbrake Lite, a small app that rips DVDs and puts them on your iPod with two clicks. It’s Mac OS X and it’s free. If your using Windows XP, Eirik has lots of advice for you.

Enjoy iPodding! And do remember that ears can’t be repaired. Check that the volume of the iPod doesn’t hurt your child’s hearing. There’s a maximum volume setting on all iPods, which you should use if your kids are using the iPod. Remember that only some seconds of loud noise can damage the hearing forever. Also remember that different headsets have different volumes, so check before letting your kids using a different headset than they usually do!

—

There’s the iPod, the iPod mini, the iPod photo and now the iPod shuffle. The next step for Apple should be an iPod maxi. Yes, the iPod maxi. And it’s for the kids.

The normal iPod is too tiny and advanced for smaller kids. And they mess up their CDs and their CD-players. So Apple should make a huge iPod, with easier controls, and padding that makes it impossible to break.

It should be as big as three iPods next to each other, and as deep as three iPod photo in front of each other. It should be padded with white rubber all over, so that it can fall to the floor several times a day. And it should have the new feature of the Powerbooks, that make the drive stop if it moves.

Three big dials and a color display

It should have three dials:

• One to change the album
• One to change the track
• One to adjust the volume

It should also have a color display that doesn’t break easily. The display shows the cover art from the album playing, along with a huge track number, and the name of the song “in large friendly letters” (stealing a qoute from the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Oh, it’s on page 6).

Apple needs to upgrade iTunes to make it easier to add cover art. Hacking around with Applescripts etc. is fun for some. Most users would prefer if cover art were downloaded automatically. Apple already has cover art on iTunes music store, so iTunes could at least download covers for the songs and tracks that is in the iTunes music store.

Someone care to make a 3D model?

There you have it. I’m no 3D expert, so if someone would like to make some suggestions for the design, feel free to contact me!