snap to viewTimex teamed up with Apple for this Ironman iControl spotter , which is pretty much a standard exercising spotter with one major difference : It has iPod controls on it . communicate with your iPod via a small dongle that nag into an iPod ’s world-wide docking port , you ’re capable to control play / pause , bulk up and down , and the go to the next / previous racetrack on any iPod with a sour grass connector . We have our hand on one of these baby and took it out on the road for a hebdomad ’s Charles Frederick Worth of workouts .
The iControl lookout man is offer up an a variety of color , include gray , ignominious , white , pink , blue , orangish and immature . Timex send us a black one , in all probability thinking that the other colors might be a small too girly for our tastes . The watch looks like most grooming watches except it ’s quite a flake smaller , and we intend that in the best way . It ’s unobtrusive around the radiocarpal joint , and does n’t stay put up too far . Its dance band is strong yet pliable , and it ’s courteous and unfastened with flock of perforations , keeping down the sudor .
We try out stop up in the dongle to both an iPod nano ( it does n’t mould with the iPod shamble because that player does n’t have a dock connecter ) and an iPhone , and it synced up cleanly with each one as shortly as we plugged it in . The iPhone complained that this twist was n’t designed for it and bid to go into plane mode , but after we selected No , it communicated with the watch without incident .
After it ’s synched up with the iControl watch , the iPod accepts the scout ’s command almost instantly . The next / previous caterpillar track buttons are on either side of the lookout , the mass up and down buttons are on the correct side , and the play / suspension button is front and core , and all are promiscuous to pass on and operate . One major letdown was the lack of fast forward or rewind ascendence . We detect that to be a useful capability when listen to podcasts , because we often district out and desire to back up and try sure segment again , but you ca n’t do that with iControl — if you want to back up a fleck , you ’ll have to dig out the iPod and do that the old - fashioned style .
Because of that lack of tight - forward and rewind , it hardly makes any sense to use this watch with the iPhone , especially when using the iPhone ’s included headphones with manoeuvre / pause and next - track function available right there on the earphone overseas telegram . Once we have our intensity set with the iPhone , we rarely need to adjust it again or go to the previous track . But when walk with the iPod nano in a pocket , it was especially convenient to be able to hesitate and bring forward the data track without having to founder tread or fumble for the iPod .
Besides those iPod features , the scout also contain the full complement of education feature of other Timex Ironman watches , including a 50 - lap memory reminiscence chronograph , the power to store training log with your current workout , a multimode countdown timer , two time interval timer for speed and endurance grooming , and three customizable alarms . It ’s also water resistant to 100 meters .
TheTimex Ironman iControlwatch work as advertised , and it looks great , too . However , if you ’re getting this lookout just to manipulate your iPod , or especially your iPhone , $ 125 is a steep cost to compensate for the limited convenience it offers .
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