Of all the gifts that people consider cool, this has to be one of the most useless. The moment I saw the advertisement for the iControl, I knew that this was one of the worst ideas of all time. But really, it's not that people would not enjoy being able to control their music from their watch but most people aren't willing to pay $50 for this unnecessary luxury in their lives. I mean, I'll admit that the watch does not lack in functionality with all the essential buttons to control your tunes but what's the point? I mean, this watch is intended for athletes, particularly runners, but you definitely would fumble just as much with your watch while running as with an iPod, if not more.
In addition, there are numerous flaws in this little device. To begin with, the iControl is only compatible with iPods and the newer ones (iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPod Nano Video) require different adapters for the iControl that you must go through the trouble of obtaining.
Now, here's a cold, hard fact; the instruction manual consists of 13 full-sized pages, giving you an idea of the complexities involved in the iControl. Simply put, most people don't want to be reading textbooks just to learn how to work a watch.
One more thing, when you're an athlete, generally, you don't want small valuable things lying around where you can easily break or misplace them. The iControl receiver that you must attach to your iPod is one of these small valuable things. And your watch won't do anything special without it.
Just to leave you with a taste of what buying an iControl means, here is a brief list of more useful things you can buy with $50:
-Grand Theft Auto IV
-2 hoodies and a t-shirt from Aeropostale
-A top quality Christmas tree
-A two-year subscription to Time Magazine-A 7-inch Digital Photo Frame
-5 music albums from HMV
-Robosapien Robot
-A robotic vacuum cleaner
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1 comment:
Interesting take on this product. I received one as a gift a few months back and personally think it's the cat's pajamas. At the gym, it allows me to do everything I'd usually do with an IRONMAN watch (lap timers, chronometer...), plus control my iPod which I can just leave in a zippered pocket. I also use it when biking and had a chance to try it out while snowbpoarding last week-end which was great.
As far as ease-of-use, it's basically plug & play. Plug the received into your iPod (works with both my iPods BTW, 80GB classic and iPod Mini) and it automatically synchs with the watch. Most of what's in the instruction manual relates to the watch's IRONMAN features which are already familiar to many athletes.
I'd definitely recommend it.
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