Cell Bytes

Adidas miCoach is a fitness activity tracking system similar to Nike+, except it gives you more data—including heart rate information—and has a sexy voice to guide you through workouts. Yes, it costs more, but it also does more.

The Price

$140 may sound like quite a bit to spend on a fitness activity tracking system, but you are getting everything you need to get started with a running program:

• A stride sensor
• A heart rate monitor
• An online workout manager
• Enough data and charts to satisfy even the geekiest runners

So Many Pieces!

I’ve used Nike+ in the past and I recall opening up a box to find nothing but a stride sensor and some instructions, but with miCoach there was a small pile of straps, gadgets, and cables to deal with. This might almost be sufficient to scare off new users, but the whole system fits together easily.

To start, you’ll plug the pacer unit—the brains of the operation—into your computer using the included USB cord. This’ll charge the device and give you a chance to get some workout plans onto it using the lil’ syncing application you’ll download from the miCoach website. That same application will pull your running data and update your miCoach account each time you decide to sync the device.

Setting up a miCoach account, charging the pacer unit, and getting everything synced barely takes any time. After that’s all done you plug the included single-earphone into the pacer (or use your own headphones), clip the unit to your belt, attach the stride sensor to your shoelaces, wrap the heart rate monitor strap around your torso, wait for the pacer to recognize the other parts, put on some tunes, and run.

Wait! I Do What Again?

Ok, ok. It sounds like there’s too much that needs to be done each time you go out for a run, but in reality it’s a process that takes a few seconds. The heart rate monitor strap is quick and comfortable to put on, the stride sensor clips to your shoelaces securely, and the pacer recognizes both almost instantly.

Unlike Nike+ which integrates into specific music players, miCoach can work with any device-including my ol’ Sony MD Walkman. You simply use the included male-to-male cable to connect your music player to the pacer unit and plug your headphones into that. That’s it. You can hit the track now.

During the Run

While running, you can use the miCoach in one of two modes: free or coaching. In the free mode, the device will simply monitor your activity and save it for later syncing. In the coaching mode it’ll do that and chime in to guide you. This might sound like it’d be annoying, but there’s actually a variety of almost-sexy sounding voices to choose from and they only butt in to provide the stats you need or to tell you that you’re running too fast.

After the Run

After you finish your run, you’ll plug the Pacer into your computer using the included syncing cable. No worries about whether you’ve got a Mac or a PC, because there are apps for each. (Sorry *nix lovers.) For whatever reason I struggled to get my computer to recognize the Pacer the very first time I tried to sync it after a run, but didn’t encounter a single issue at any point after that.

The miCoach Website

Cheesy as it sounds, Adidas got it right with their miCoach website. It’s ridiculously simple to use and is designed in a way that those requiring guidance can get it, but those with a sense of familiarity can just skip to the steps they want.

If you want to use one of the workout plan, you can select and customize them through the site. I highly recommend giving those workout plans a shot, especially if you’re a beginning runner—I’ve spent far too much time training people for a large gym chain and seeing them struggle to figure out what to do if attempting to start without set plan or schedule.

Speaking of schedules, you can view your workout calendar, track data uploaded from your Pacer, and those unfamiliar with running or in need of a refresher can get some tips and pointers.

The only thing missing from the miCoach site right now is a social aspect. I want to be able to share my workout plans and data with other users in hopes of shaming myself into keeping pace. Adidas says that such a feature is in the works though, so we’ll see if I’ll get my wish.

Batteries

It’s already tough enough to eliminate every excuse against going for a run at an ungodly hour and the last thing I need is for my activity monitor to give me one by requiring a charge just as I’m tying my sneakers. I was surprised to realize that over the weeks that I’ve used the miCoach system, I never needed to purposely charge the pacer unit. The specs claim that a full charge should last for about ten hours and I’ve certainly used the device for more than that. It seems that daily syncing maintains a good charge and that’s one less hassle to deal with.

The stride sensor’s battery isn’t rechargeable, but—unlike the Nike+ sensor’s—it is designed to be replaced. For whatever reason, opening up the battery cover proved to be a bit of a challenge, but that may have had more to do with a fear of breaking a nail than with a flaw in design.

The Verdict

As Goldfrapp sings, I’m in love-I’m in love-I’m in love with a strict machine. Since receiving a miCoach to review, I’ve tossed aside my Nike+ and used the new gadget. I’ve gotten more satisfaction out of my runs because of the additional data and also discovered that I wasn’t pacing myself properly. It seems that the miCoach has improved my running experience and that in turn prompted me to actually get off the couch—or out of the office chair—more often. Two sneakers up.

Replaceable battery on the stride sensor (though I did struggle a bit to open the battery compartment).

It’s compatible with any music player

Data. Data. And some more data. Plenty of stats are available, but none are forced down you throat.

Great battery life.

The Pacer unit can be plugged into a USB port for recharging.

Plenty of workout plans are available on the miCoach site for those who want to use them.

The system has a lot of parts and may seem overwhelming to new users. Perhaps the heart rate monitor and the Pacer unit could be combined into one.

No social aspect to the miCoach site (though Adidas says this will change).

[Adidas]

After the Windows Phone 7 launch passed without so much as a mention of Project Pink, Microsoft’s other new phone project started to fade into memory. Today, we can confirm: Pink is coming, and Verizon’s the carrier.

A tipster passed us a load of 3rd-party marketing materials, in which a promotional plan for Pink is laid out in detail. (Campaign specifics and most graphics have to be witheld to protect the innocent, but rest assured, they’re legit.) The documents don’t talk about specs or software details, or more importantly why the hell Microsoft thinks this weird little pebble is a good idea, but there’s plenty we can learn:

• The early Pink renders leaked to us back in September? Those are exactly the same ones included in the proposal.

• Of the two phones in prior leaks, only one shows up here: The Turtle vertical slider. It’s a messaging phone, basically—one part Pre, and two parts Sidekick. (Or maybe three.)

• Verizon is a launch partner for the device, and probably an exclusive carrier. The branding and marketing in the documents suggests a joint Microsoft/Verizon launch, but another carrier isn’t completely out of the question.

• The phones aren’t running Windows Phone 7, unless it’s hidden behind a different interface. Virtually all rumors around the Pink platform implied as much, and again, this appears to be something fundamentally different.

• Social Networking! It’s all over the proposal, and presumably, the phone.

• It’s suggested that the platform has apps of some sort. For a phone like this to share apps with Windows Phone 7 is pretty much impossible—the minimum hardware requirement for a Windows Phone look out of reach for this little black lump—so this one’s a big question mark. Is it another SDK? Or closed app development like we’ve seen on the Zune HD? Web apps?

Since the documents come from a party working with Microsoft, and not Microsoft itself, a few things are missing: there’s no mention of a release name for the product (Pink is the codename we’ve been using, but the launch title could be different.); stil no sense at all as to how the interface works; and no announcement or launch date. The documents are just days old, and hint at a near-term launch, which would be inline with what we’ve been hearing about a second Microsoft phone launch at or around CTIA at the end of this month. And remember, this are marketing materials, designed to promote a launch, not just an announcement. In other words, Pink, or whatever the hell it is, will likely beat Windows Phone 7 to market. So that explains all those Tweets, I guess.

All these missing pieces add up to a massive gap, not just in the phone’s feature sheet, but in our understanding of what it’s supposed to be. If it’s a replacement for the Sidekick, the obvious question is, is anyone asking for a replacement for the Sidekick? If it’s just a Microsoft-branded feature phone, er, why? Doesn’t the future of youth/budget phones all about scaled-back smartphones (see: Pixi, Backflip), and not glorified feature phones? [Thanks, Tipster!]

John Herlihy, Google Europe’s big chief, says that desktops will be irrelevant in three years. Which is precisely why Apple and Google are trying to kill each other, fiercely fighting for the domination of the mobile device world.

Both companies know that mobile computing is where the action is now and where it will be forever. At its presentation, Steve Jobs was adamant that the iPad was the continuation of the battle that started with the iPhone, and repeatedly said that Apple was a “mobile devices company.” Google’s agreed, which is why Herlihy echoed Schmidt’s words at Barcelona’s GSM 2010: Everything that Google is doing and planning is centered on the mobile, the cloud, and ubiquitous connectivity.

They are both right: Your desktop computer will disappear, no matter how much the geekdom cries, unless you are an engineer or someone who requires a big screen to work on—and, even then, the idea of the desktop as we know it will change too. The mice will go extinct, and every John and Jane will do their work and their pleasure using mobile devices like phones and tablets. As it should be, because computing has to become invisible, not complicated and cumbersome, like it is today. In a few years, the computing world will be like Star Trek: The Next Generation, but without the Enterprise. [Silicon Republic]

Apple’s patent theft accusations against HTC got a lot of press this week, as they should! But it’s just the most recent case in a gun-slinging mobile landscape riddled with patent lawsuits. This’ll end about as well as Reservoir Dogs.

The NY Times breaks it down today with this handy chart of who’s suing whom. Nokia has been particularly active, along with Kodak. The biggest target? Apple.

Companies sue each other over intellectual property all the time, of course. But this volume of mobile technology patents is unusually high. According to the Times:

Although patent litigation is not new in the technology world, these suits, specifically around mobile, point to the drastically changing mobile landscape. Lawyers I spoke with explained that mobile technology is still in its infancy and these large computing companies are trying to stake their claim to the future of computing.

Basically, it’s a land grab. Companies that know they’re being left in the dust (Nokia, Kodak) are scrambling to assert any claims that they can, while market leaders (Apple) become fat targets.

Where does that leave the us? For now, nowhere. Business as usual. But if things keep escalating, the consequences could range from companies passing legal fees onto the consumer to ITC-imposed product bans. In these kinds of gun fights, it’s rare that anyone wins. [NY Times]

Those press covering the Olympics sure do have a plum life. They bundle off to Vancouver for 16 days of watching ice-skaters embarrassing themselves, and ruthless Russian bobsledders showing their dark sides. Oh, and they get lens-shaped thermoses.

The story goes that a Microsoft employee by the name of Josh Weisberg wandered into the Canon press tent at the Olympic Press Center, and got given a 70-200mm Canon L-series lens. Or so he thought, probably tucking it safely in his backpack before Canon realized they had gifted him a lens instead of a branded pen or hat.

I hope he wasn’t too disappointed when he realized it was a thermos. I’d happily take it off his hands. [PDN Pulse via CrunchGear]

Image Credit: Josh Weisberg