I have to rave for a minute about a new tech toy we recently bought (we don’t share tech toys too well, so we each bought one): the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. This is truly the coolest little lowcost ($29) gadget I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a two-part thing: you get a receiver that plugs into the bottom of your iPod nano (it only works with the nano), and another little piece that fits into the bottom of SOME Nike shoes. I’d recommend ou buy the kit from the Apple Store where they do’t try to sell you Nike shoes, too. Don’t fall for that shoe ploy unless you really want them – they’re pretty expensive. Far more easily, the little shoe receiver fits into your sock or a shoe pocket (I love my Road ID shoe pocket – you get a place to carry a key an some money AND your ID). It’s easy as pie to link to your nano and to calibrate (in fact, I haven’t atually calibrated mine – it worked out of the box just fine). You tell it how far you want to run and it keeps track of your time, distance, and calories expended. You can also set up a “power song” that will play when you press the iPod’s center button until the song starts playing. You can also set up a free acount at nikeplus.com and upload and track the training data from your iPod online. Too cool!

Apple has gone one stp furthe with this whole Nike partnership, and added a new section to the iTunes Music Store that has workout symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>music designed to enhance you workouts with the Nike + iPod Sports Kit. I downloaded the playlist Drive: Nike+ Original run which is about 45 minutes of really energizing symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>music by The Crystal Method.

Now if only somebody would come up with the ultimate pair of waterproof or water-resistant headphones that actually worked…