Nike+ sportband

So... I managed to brick Cupid -- my beloved magenta Nano. Short and stubby, but lovely... not one of these new-fangled (or older-fangled...) models that are tall and skinny. Cupid was squat but got the job done. Until, after perhaps 10 too many times of my throwing her to the floor, post workout, she just stopped working.

I considered getting a new Nano... heck, they come in purple now... but I really don't like the form factor very much. I mean, if I wanted a tall, skinny iPod, I'd just use my old Nano.

But I do love Nike+... and we had been looking into the sportband...

So yesterday, on a visit to Niketown so Wil could pick up his once-favorite shoes, the Nike Air Jordan 6, I had a look at the sportband. I never use the spoken feedback feature on my iPod -- I just sent the workouts for basic and then stop them when I'm done. So would it be so bad to just use my iPod for music, and use a sportband for Nike+?

My concern about the sportband is the limited feedback. I mean, at least on an iPod, you can see what's happening. But the sportband has limited space to tell you whether it's working, etc.

But it was easy to install the utility on my Macbook, and get it charged, etc. I even thought I knew how to get it to link to my sensor and record.

I went to the gym at work this morning to try it out. Let's just say I think I must have misinterpreted the pictogram instructions. I pushed and prodded, "held" and tried over and over as I did 5 minutes of warming up and then 10 minutes of running. Finally, after about a mile, I managed to get the screen to display "LINK" and then "RUN". I watched it suspiciously as I ran, comparing it with the treadmill, but it was tracking about the same distances. And I managed to turn it off. So today's run was 5.15 miles, or 4.20 miles according to Nike+.

I should admit that it was most likely user error... and I'm hoping things go more smoothly on Thursday.