Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Gadget People Go Running Too

Gadgets are EVERYWHERE!  There is a gadget and/or an app for just about everything you can imagine.   The old days of running are gone.  Majority of people you see running today have the ear buds in connected to some type of fancy device.  There are so many choices to what that device could be.  You have: your smart phone, ipod, GPS device, other MP3 player, etc...  So which to choose, I leave it up to you...

Smart Phone:
The great things about using your smart phone is: 
1) You should have a lot of music on there, or Pandora is always available.
2) You can use awesome applications like Zombie walk and Endomondo to help keep track of your progress
3) Built in GPS so you can track where you go
4) One device to rule them all, no additional hardware so no additional cost (assuming you have a smartphone)

The lame things about using your smart phone: 
1) If you sweat a lot the smart phone gets wet, that isn't covered under most phone insurance,
2) the GPS on most phones suck the life out of your battery.  Once your battery is drained you are stuck by a wall charging said smart phone OR you go without your amazing device.  (the latter makes me sad and stuff).
3) To bulky for an arm band.  I found smart phones are turning more and more into Zach Morris style phones when it comes to size.

iPod Nano:


The great things:
Small, Nike+, Genius feature, price tag, watch, itunes

The lame things:
1) NO GPS,
2) no one knows if you need the tab for your shoe or not (not even the apple geeks),
3) Not sure if sweat resistant.
4) itunes (notice it is a great and lame thing)

Pebble

The great things:
1) It has the display like the kindle,
2) it integrates with your phone wonderfully (iphone/android/crackberry),
3) Open SDK so nerds can create apps

The not so great things:
1) You still have to lug around your smartphone (I think its hilarious that we think that carrying around a little smart phone is a pain).
2) You have to have a smartphone and a pebble
3) price, 150 for an accessory of your phone?....

Motoactv

The great:
1) All in one device: music, GPS, watch, timer
2) has wifi for auto upload to the intertubes (assuming you have wifi)
3) has bluetooth, everything is better with bluetooth,
4) Sweat resistant
5) Neat accessory list: watch, arm band, bluetooth headphones (with heart monitor?), heart monitor
6) Its a watch too

The not so great:
1) Its the first model that moto has come out with, might wait for version 2.
2) It runs on Android, so if they keep developing on it then it will be awesome, but if it fails then not so much.  Kind of a gamble in that aspect
3) Price, 250 for just the base model, then you have to get the arm band or watch accessory which runs another 20 or so.

Garmin Device

Great:
1) Top of the line GPS
2) durable

Not so great:
1) No watch

iPad

j/k, just making sure you were still paying attention :)  Can you imagine though, someone running with an ipad, bhahahaha.  Actually though, I've seen people running with them on a treadmill, or a stationary bike.

The End Result:

It depends on what you will use it for and how often you drop things.  The great thing about so many different types of devices is the selection.  If you don't like what you have then do you didn't do enough research before purchasing your device for running, or you fell victim to false advertisement.


So what do you guys/gals run with?  If you were to pick out a new device what would you pick?

2 comments:

  1. Music is important to me, so I feel like I would either go with the motoactiv or the garmin + ipod (so that you get the music and the GPS). I didn't like the nike+ because no GPS, so it is especially inaccurate if you switch speeds a lot (like if you're doing speed work). I use my iphone, but I don't mind holding it. I have friends who have armbands for theirs, though, and they seem to work fine - have you looked at whether they have one for your phone?
    XO Lora

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    1. I agree, not sure I would like carrying two devices so I'm thinking the motoactv. Not sure if I will get this model or if I will wait for the next one though.

      I have looked for an armband for my phone, and I can only find universal ones. A has one, but when she uses it her phone can't get a GPS signal for some reason, so that sucks.

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