I mentioned earlier that I always have problems with finding shoes, because one foot is larger (or is it longer?) than the other. At the time I discovered that Nike has a cool service, which let’s you customize your shoes (and other products): Nike iD. The idea is that you can specify the colors of your shoes yourself and with some designs this gives you a lot of choice. What is great though is that with some designs you can even specify different shoe sizes for each foot: perfect!
For woman they’ve got 33 different designs which you can choose from, for men 67 different types. This also includes though multiple type of football shoes and basketball shoes for the men, while woman for instance only have one choice of football shoe. I’m not complaining though, I don’t like football.
The coolest part of the customization choices is that you can put your iD on them. For the shoes, this means you can let them stitch your name or a short phrase on the tongues of the shoes (or if you’re boring something like “Left” and “Right” or “Sinister” and “Dexter”). Beside the shoes, you can also customize bags and watches. Guys can also customize clothing, but they only have a couple of tight running T-shirts. I would like to see some “normal” girly sport clothes that I can customize myself, but I guess we’ll have to wait for that.
Next to the regular NikeID shoes, you can also get Nike+ID. These are shoes that have a secret compartment in the left sole, where you can place the Nike+ iPod sensor. While working out, the sensor sends all types of information to your iPod. I got a pair of Air Zoom Moira+ iD for my birthday, together with the iPod sensor. I had gone to the Nike Store at Oxford Circus (London), where they have a special section for Nike iD orders. The guys there are quite helpful and you can try out and see the different designs and colors they have. What I found a bit weird though was that they didn’t have the model I wanted in my size to try out.
I’ve got sizes 5.5 and 6, which isn’t too small, I think. I had to fit on shoes from another model to try and guess my size. I ordered them, hoping that I guessed right. I was told though that if after receiving them they didn’t fit or even if I didn’t like the colors, I could get my money back or order them again in another design and size. It took about a month to actually create and ship the shoes to the Nike store and I got a nice email telling me when they were ready. I picked them up without too much hassle. What I adore about these shoes, is that I’ve actually got Miss Geeky on them:
After running with these a couple of weeks, I have to say I love how comfortable they are. I might even wear them besides my running, although they might be a bit too shiny for that. I haven’t mastered the iPod sensor yet (it doesn’t do completely what I want), but more about that another time. If you are looking for new running shoes, these are pretty good, but they might be a bit expensive for some (80 pounds). Add the iPod sensor to that and that’s quite an investment into some sports gear. For me, it was absolutely worth it and if you’re willing to put a bit of money into it, this is by far the way to go.
Episode 48: “In Russia, Poland, Mongolia and other eastern European countries”
This is one of those things that you just don’t realise are done in different ways in different countries. It’s interesting to see how many different ways there are to count cash:
Yesterday was a very busy news day. Lots of new stuff coming out, special projects being announced, you’d think it was some special day, right? Anyhow here’s a couple of the most interesting news items from yesterday.
Virgle
Richard Branson announced yesterday a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google: Virgle. Their goal is pretty straightforward: establishing a permanent settlement on Mars. Better yet though, the whole project will be open source. If you are bent on becoming a Virgle Pioneer yourself, you can even apply for it here. Find out more at Virgle: The Adventure of Many Lifetimes.
Moo’s MightyCard
We all love our little Moo MiniCards, but sometimes you just need something bigger. Something that will really impress you business clients. Something that doesn’t fit in your pocket. Moo has come up with the perfect solution: the MightyCard. They come in batches of 50 and just like the MiniCards you can get a different image on each of them. I can’t wait to see what types of holders they’ll design for these!
PayPerTweet
There are an increasing number of Twitterers with tens of thousands of followers, but no way to monetize their followership. Enter: PayPerTweet. Get paid for Twittering about web sites, products, services and companies. And earn extra cash by “ReTweeting”: users help messages go viral by forwarding the paid Twitters of others.
Flying Penguins
Camera crews for a documentary called “Miracles of Evolution” discovered a colony of Adélie penguins and were astonished when the colony suddenly took to the skies. The film maker, Prof. Alid Loyas, said: “We could hardly believe our eyes. It was amazing. It’s the perfect example of Darwin’s theory of evolution working in release.” Take a look at the flying penguins yourself:
Legend of Zelda: The Movie
I have no idea how I could have missed details on this upcoming movie! This looks so awesome; I just know this movie is going to blow everybody’s mind away. So far it looks like Link and Zelda have been perfectly cast, but I’ll have to see the complete movie to fully judge this. Watch the trailer at IGN.
Gmail Custom Time
In more Google news, Gmail revealed Custom Time, where you can set a custom time when you send an email. This way you can send emails to the past with those emails appearing in the proper chronological order in your recipient’s inbox. It uses an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality. Be careful how you use these though: every person is only allowed to use 10 pre-dated emails per year. So make sure you use them wisely.
gDay
Google has been busy! Google Australia announced their new search feature gDay, allowing users to search the web pages published tomorrow. The app uses MATE™ (Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation) to construct elements of the future. “Using a mashup of numerous factors such as recurrence plots, fuzzy measure analysis, online betting odds and the weather forecast from the iGoogle weather gadget, we can create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from now.” How handy is that??
Conversational Ads
Again another Google announcement, this time for Adsense for conversations. With a few simple steps, you can display ads that are relevant to the topics you are discussing. Even cooler: anyone talking to you, can immediately take advantage of the product or service advertised. Just hit the ad with your hand and thanks to the new Teleportation Technology, you’ll be transported to the place where the service is offered.
New ThinkGeek Products
ThinkGeek introduced so many cool new products, I can’t even begin to describe them all. For starters, every geek should have the Betamax to HD-DVD Converter. It plays and records both Super and regular Betamax, uses electricity and even has a manual!
Caffeinated cereal! Brilliant idea! Each serving of Spazztroids cereal will pump your body with vitamins and nutrients and a 180mg dose of caffeine.
There’s also this T-Shirt that everybody is geeking out about: the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt. It features a speaker on the front and provides background music and sound effects at your command. I wouldn’t want one of these though; my mind already provides a soundtrack and I think the two would clash with each other.
To check out more of their new products, just have a look at their website.
BMW Canine Repellent Alloy Protection
This is a great announcement for car lovers: BMW has designed a system to stop dogs fouling new BMW cars. The C.R.A.P. system harnesses energy, that would have been lost during engine over-run and braking, as Rim Impulse Power (R.I.P.). Whenever a dog tries to relieve itself against an equipped BMW, a small electric shock is administered. Dr Hans Zoff, Head of Automotive Security, says: “Beauty through engineering perfection – our philosophy in a wheel nut.”
World of Warcraft: The Molten Core
Wow, WoW is returning to console gaming! The Molten Core will allow players to experience the world of the World of Warcraft in a new format with new challenges and new rewards. It will be initially available for the Atari 2600 platform, but additional console systems will be revealed in the future. Check out the trailer, it looks super cool!
iPhone Can Connect To Everything
As a final news item, I wanted to highlight this blog post from Matt Cutts. He discovered his iPhone could connect to anything! It could even open doors:
