Any visit to Oahu simply isn’t complete without an obligatory trip to Niketown Hawaii, the huge double-storey boutique in Waikiki. Sure it’s not an outletI, but you simply can’t go past the price-point compared to Australia, and the sheer selection available compared to what hits our shores bears no comparison.
I got talking to a bloke in the running department and asked to try a pair of Shox – I was a convert after my other pair had taken away my deep apprehension of the bizarrely cushioned sole. Waiting for the shoe elevatorII I told him I wanted to commit to start runningIII, in lieu of my on-again-off-again walking plans which I never end up sticking to.
Before the pair had even made down the chute he’d ordered three other models, and had shown me the svelte Nike+ SportBand, which is a cross between a watch and a wrist bandIV. It’s a much simpler way of tracking runs than the current iPod systemV, and wearing a thin watch sure beats looking the fool with an iPod strapped to you in a daggy armband and earphone cables waving around in sync with every step. Used solely as a watch it’s practically useless, because of the ninety degree off-kilter display, but you aren’t buying it as a timepiece so it’s really a non-issue.
I tried the Shox which felt exactly as my other pair; rigidly stiff, but with that great heel impact support, which I’d figured would be the best option for running. I tried two other models which felt like everyday runners, and finished on the Vomero 3‘s.
Holy hot hell, these are comfy shoes 
Easily the best impact absorbing sneakers I’ve tried, so much that you can notice it even while walking – it only took me one circuit around the shop to buy a pair in both colours. Naturally I picked up the aforementioned SportBand (which includes the pedometer chip that slips inside your shoe) and left wearing what he called “The Cadillac of Shoes“, another great Americanism, which (if you’ve yet to drive one) in English roughly translates to a smooth, smooth ride.
The Apple logo on the chip got me a little concerned (did he give me a Mac version by accident?) and the USB connector is totally different to any other that I’ve seen, so I imagined that I’d soon be eBaying for the correct version. To my surprise it fits snugly into a standard USB port, and the manual claimed to support both Windows and Mac.
Linux users are used to seeing no support mentioned so I wasn’t disheartened at all, especially considering OpenSUSE has great hardware compatibility. I registered on the Nike+ website, downloaded the installer and tried it through Wine. The first hurdle; it checked for the operating system and returned that Nike+ requires either Vista or XP.
I loaded XP through VirtualBox and tried the installer again. Installation worked flawlessly this time, yet when I connected the watch both operating systems failed to detect itVI. I grabbed the installed files and tried those through Wine and got the following driver errors:
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library QtCore4.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\nike.exe") not found
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library QtCore4.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtGui4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtGui4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtGui4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library QtGui4.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\nike.exe") not found
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library QtCore4.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtXml4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtXml4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtXml4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library QtXml4.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\nike.exe") not found
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
fixme:actctx:parse_depend_manifests Could not find dependent assembly L"Microsoft.VC80.CRT"
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtCore4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library QtCore4.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtNetwork4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MSVCR80.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\QtNetwork4.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library QtNetwork4.dll (which is needed by L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\nike.exe") not found
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"Z:\\320\\Shared\\Nike\\nike.exe" failed, status c0000135
Considering those files were present, I had no idea how to get past that stumbling block. My last hope was to get VirtualBox support for USB and while there was a possible solution, I wasn’t exactly prepared to change fstab in case I borked my Linux support for USB.
Nobody online seems to have a solution, so for now I’m left to dust off an old laptop after every run, which is sure to annoy me more as time goes on, even more so because the watch only only recharges once the software handshake takes place. Still, if Nike+ keeps me exercising it’s worth the time and money, I just hope either VirtualBox developers or Nike get their act together and add proper Linux compatibility for the SportBand.
- Your wallet will have a quiet word to you afterwards if you don’t believe. [↩]
- Which never ceases to amuse. [↩]
- Not that I’ll be running marathons or doing huge K’s, enough for exercise and fresh air. [↩]
- And if you wear it as intended, watch face in, it looks identical to a wrist band. The face will also get scratched beyond belief. [↩]
- Not to mention a lot cheaper, which always scores points. [↩]
- I later noticed that you can tell if it’s been detected, because it will start to charge. [↩]
