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Gym machines with USB chargers

Heart Beats to Hot Beats
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Maybe you forgot to turn your music player off. Maybe you forgot to plug it in when you got home (habits are for suckers). If your device is anything like mine, the battery indicator doesn't warn you until it's too late.

There you are, volume pumped to max, body moving to the rhythm, unaware that anything is amiss. Just as your cardiovascular system becomes one with the elliptical cross trainer, your music player dies. Not even the endorphins can offset the shock. Boredom sets in. You quit early.

Too bad your gym doesn't have USB chargers built-in to each exercise machine.

In my experience, at least 90% of gym goers have portable media players and 90% of portable media players can charge their batteries through a USB interface (although the plethora of adapters might be a problem).

Of course it's only a great idea if the USB charger is powered by the calories you burn exercising.

calculust, May 12 2009

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       [21Q] Looks like you're right, I hope my gym gets those soon. Though I wonder if the machines are human-powered.
calculust, May 13 2009
  

       Enhance your calmness.   

       The idea doesn't specifically mention using the person's power to charge the USB until the last paragraph, when it mentions that doing so would make this a great idea. Until then, this is simply a suggestion for an appropriate place to hang a USB charging port.   

       A mains-powered charger for devices that people use standing still is a good idea. It's a logical progression of features from a treadmill with built-in player and stereo speakers, through a treadmill with a built-in player and headphone jack, to a built-in charger port/player holder. It's a convenience feature, and human power isn't mentioned until brought in as an additional feature.   

       This idea doesn't mention using the data-transfer aspect of the USB port, either. The bakedness of that on some machines doesn't affect the validity of this idea.   

       This is the equivalent of installing iPod-battery dispensers on a treadmill. Clever, even cute. But since the second link's third paragraph starts, "Some USB-enabled cardio equipment serves one purpose — to allow exercisers to charge their personal music devices." It's baked.
baconbrain, May 13 2009
  
      
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