i(pod) of the tiger….give me two more!

Personal trainers, love them or hate them, they usually get results for you. But not everyone likes to have some muscle-moulded bloke or whippet of a women screaming “One more! One More!” at them. Well, there could be a new choice on the horizon. As part of the Nike + iPod partnership, the fruit ‘n’ swoosh duo are working with a number of gym-equipment manufacturers, including Fitness, Precor, Star Trac and Technogym, to make their equipment compatible with the Nike + iPod system.

The result would see gym goers hooking up their iPod Nanos to a piece of gym equipment, record their workouts then upload the results to the nikeplus website. Presumably, this would then allow them to analyse the results and help with their next workout session.

MyTake - It’s very interesting to see that more and more personal data is being captured by us, the individual. More and more aspects of our lives are being digitised for us to review, analyse and share as we choose – in this case you could imagine mates gloating about their calorie-busting sessions, or 20 minute sprints, hey, there could even be a Facebook app in there. Through the different tools out there, it seems we are creating almost real-time digital versions of ourselves - what we like, what we feel, what we want, and now, how hard we are exercising. The more of us we have out there, the easier it is for others to interact with us, which is the true power of the social network. “Alan is….”

The goggles never lie

You know those arguments where someone says “I never said that” or “I’m sorry, I don’t remember that meeting”, or even “No, I never touched that”? Well, these phrases could soon be a thing of the past if some researchers at the University of Tokyo have their way.

They have developed a pair of video goggles that records everything that the wearer looks at and recognises objects and assigns names to, then to top it all, another program goes back and creates an easily searchable database of the recorded footage. Ultimately designed to function as a high-tech memory aid, the goggles promise to make losing your keys, wallet or mobile phone a thing of the past.

MyTake – I think the goggles have an even more interesting use beyond that of a memory aid. As I suggested at the beginning of the post, those sticky situations of did they/didn’t they could be easily resolved, plus perhaps a more interesting use could be as a UGC capture device. News crews could be fitted out with them when going to cover a story, or even holiday makers could purchase a pair of “Holiday goggles” to ensure they never missed a second.

iTunes kept from No 1 spot by the Wall

It may seem like it’s been around for ever, but in only five short years iTunes has become the second-biggest music retailer in the US. According to a new survey by NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey, the only retailer to out-muscle iTunes in 2007 was Wall-Mart, aka HD DVD killer.

Apple’s journey into the top three US retailers has come of the back of worldwide take-up of the service, mainly due to the phenomenal success of the iPod. But this is not to downplay what has been achieved in terms of brokering deals with the major record house – not an easy thing to do.

MyTake – iTunes is everywhere and if you think about the power of what is a solid distribution model, Apple are in a pretty sweet spot. In addition, not only do they have a great distribution model, it’s a model that gives you what you want, when you want AND it’s customisable. Thinking about the true nature of content sharing, iTunes is the perfect personal content aggregator, only it’s not run by a (ro)bot, it’s run by you.

It's all over for Evil Edna and her pals - here comes LCD TV

Another day, another milestone for digital. According to DisplaySearch, worldwide shipments of LCD TV’s have overtaken CRT TVs for the fist time with 56 per cent of the TV market being held by LCD compared to 47 per cent by CRT. The LCD slowly moved from our desktop PCs through to our living room and some would say that it is a natural progression.

A big selling factor for the LCD format is its scalability when it comes to size, going from sizes smaller than 20 inches, right the way up to cinematic living room monster sets fit for the most demanding movie addict.

MyTake - It was always going to happen. The LCD format is so versatile; from the TV set you watch while on a long flight, through to your PC/Laptop screen, through to the LCD TV in your living room. All of this (I think) is pushed by the desire to watch and increasing amount of different content – Digital TV, HD TV, HD movies and net-based content. The more diverse the content becomes (and it will) the more we’ll need for a versatile delivery solution

SkypeStationPortable

News from Sony is that the new firmware update for the PSP will allow gamers to make a receive Skype calls from the thier PSPs. Apparently, it only works on the new slim PSP and won't work with the first generation due to hardware differences in the meemory.

To take advatage of this added function, all you need to do is get the firmware upgrade, register for Skype talk and away you go!

My Take - The Sony boys are a smart bunch, years ago they got involved in a number of disctint and separate areas of consumer technology and slowly but surely they integrate them. Building this functionality into the PSP is another step towards a unified digital offering - the way of the future I reckon

At Last.FM, some sense

Last.fm, the Social music network has agreed deals with both major and indie record labels to let fans listen to the music they want, when they want - without payment. The Deals Will allow fans in the US, Britain and German to stream music for free or pay to download MP3s via Amazon.com.

The new steaming scheme is entirely funded by ad revenue and fans get to listen to each song on the website up to three times before being urged to purchase a copy.

It's been six years since Lat.fm started trying to broker deal with music companies, Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel remarked "They wouldn't even take our calls back then"

My take - another win for the consumer, it appears that the music industry is waking up and modernising. MC Lars had a point.

Tune in next time, just not on this TV

A number of UK consumer electronic chains are set to stop selling analogue TV sets, focsuing entirly on integrated sets with built-in digital tuners. Currys, Dixons and PC World will all stop selling the old analogue sets in a move greeted with open arms by Digital UK, the body managing the analogue switch-off, which will finish in 2012.

Although certain areas of the UK have already had their analogue signals switched off (Whitehaven in Cumbria became the first) the rest of the UK still have the choose between analogue and digital. The move is aimed at helping customers buy "future-proofed" products

My take - it was always going to happen, but what about the waste - all those TVs that no longer work? Something for the entrepreneurs to think about - there could be a lot of money to be made!

Mac grabs some air and takes us to the movies

The Apple innovation show marches on with Steve Jobs yesterday unveiling the world's thinnest laptop, which is just 1.93cm at it's thickest point. The laptop, called the MacBook Air, wasn't the most interesting part of the keynote - Apple also announced an online film rental service for iTunes giving users access to almost ever major studio film.

Although it's just in the US at the moment, Steve said "We're dying to get this international as well," hinting that it would roll-out worldwide later in the year.

See BBC's article on Apple's biggest launches to date: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7189218.stm