News

Wireless link from Palm to treadmill launched

Leading treadmill maker (they hope!) Star Trac has found that "most gymn users are also Palm owners." So it's decided to allow you to link the two. Why? Not just, we hope, in order to publish pictures of athletic lady joggers?

The attraction of the new Star Trac treadmill is an infra-red port. It will allow you to "exchange workout data" from the exercise machine to your Palm handheld.

The good news is, it's wireless. The bad news; it's infra-red, so you have to "beam" it - which means aligning the two devices and waiting for them to go "ping!"

As you can tell from the illustration, this will enable you to generate a strong wind as you run rapidly over the moving mat ...

Software to work with the new treadmill - the Star Trac Pro Elite, was created by programmer Jay Wright, CEO of SingleTap, and allows exercisers to monitor exercise performance over time.

And "in the spirit of the season," Star Trac will also give away a new Palm Pilot to one lucky winner through an email drawing. To enter, email your name and contact information by December 15 to the organisers at Star Trac.

Next month handheld owners may download and install the application on their devices by going to Star Trac's Web site. "Once installed, place the handheld on the treadmill, align the handheld's infra-red (IR) port with the port on the treadmill console, and beam your workout to the treadmill. Once the workout begins, the handheld receives various data including speed, incline, heart rate, calories burned, and distance traveled. When the workout is complete, the user can review and compare it with previous workouts."