Some new updates to the iPod nano:

- Compact design
- Multi-Touch display
- Volume buttons
- Integrated clip
- Pedometer
- FM radio

Shiller pointed out that there was an “improved fitness experience”, now you’ll be able to go for a run or a walk… right out of the box. No extra sensors are needed. A shout-out to Nike+ was also thrown in there, for their help removing shoe dongles.

16 new clocks were also introduced for the iPod nano: classic LCD style, roman numerals, neon sign, and even a Mickey Mouse face. This is nice for those who insert their nano into those watchbands, you essentially get 16 new watches… you can’t beat that.

The price points for the new nano are: 8GB $129 – 16GB $149

As the previous article demonstrated, the shoes are going anywhere from almost $4000 up to five-digit amounts, but thanks to the spending power of British rapper named “Tinie Tempah” (Tiny Temper, I suppose). Tinie, according to the stalwart journalists at TMZ.com, is reported to have paid $37,500 for a pair of Marty McFly’s shoes.

I say again, someone paid almost 40 grand for a pair of futuristic-looking shoes that don’t even have the power laces system as a feature. I don’t know about you, but if I had that much money to dispose of, it’s doubtful a pair of shoes I’d rarely, if ever, wear would be where my money goes.

Whatever the case, I’m sure the Michael J. Fox Foundation, one that battles Parkinson’s Disease, is thankful for Tempah’s generosity. Speaking of Fox, he was on David Letterman the other night, demonstrating his shoes for the Dave and the audience:

Unfortunately, however, the power laces are not available:

But people do still want them:

Well, Betty, they can be yours for a starting big of around $4000. If they had the power laces, I’d be bidding right now.

All donations for the Air Mag shoes will be matched by Google’s Sergey Brin (up to $50 million). This vicariously means that Brin, thanks to the buying power of Tinie Tempah, will be paying almost $70,000 for a pair of shoes he won’t even get to own.

First and foremost, even though Nike has patented a self-lacing system, it will not be available on the current edition of Marty’s shoes. While the shoes are indeed incredible-looking, they aren’t just available in an effort to introduce a new fashion sense. No, the Air Mags are being sold for charitable purposes. As many of you already know, Marty McFly was played by Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and the Air Mag auction is being done to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which was created to help combat the debilitating illness.

From Nike:

1500 pairs of the 2011 NIKE MAG will be auctioned on eBay with all net proceeds going directly to The Michael J. Fox Foundation. Each day for the duration of the ten-day auction, one hundred and fifty pairs of the 2011 NIKE MAG shoes will be made available via eBay’s Fashion Vault. The auction starts September 8, 8:30PM PST, and will end September 18. Thanks to a previous 50 million dollar match given to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, all donations will be matched, effectively doubling the contributions from the auction.

As indicated, the auction started last night at 11:30 PM, eastern standard time, and the reaction to the cause has been almost overwhelming. While most of the bids are hovering at or above the $4000 marker, there’s at least one pair with a current bid of $8,200.

A screenshot of the auction page gives a great idea of what’s going on:

Click for bigger image

And, a word from Michael J. Fox:

You know the ones I’m referring to, but if not, allow this to serve as a refresher:

It seems as if those self-lacing shoes are about to become a reality, and the word is being spread on a viral basis as Nike wants to stoke the fires of anticipation before they launch the 2011 Air Mags. Apparently, the shoes will be available tomorrow (Friday, September 9th), and as indicated, the buzz for Nike’s power-laced shoes is building.

The viral aspect began in earnest when Frank Marshall, the executive producer on all three Back to the Future movies, started tweeting these ambiguous pieces of bait:

Of course, when you throw the idea of hoverboards out there, it’s hard not to get excited at the mere possibility, but since our scientific community has yet to master anti-gravity as a means of transportation — at least, on a consumer level — we know that’s still a pipe dream.

Self-lacing shoes, on the other hand, are not.

Nike’s already patented a self-lacing shoe construct, and now, it appears as if they are ready to unleash these beasts on the rest of the world. But first, the marketing aspect has to kick in, and thanks to the viral nature of the web, Nike’s “Power laces! Alright!” shoes are now buzzing.

Nike has also released a promotional video for the Air Mags, and it’s vague enough to be considered a viral offering. To wit, the video is called “McFly’s Closet,” as if to provide a hint where Nike is leaning:

Update:

Nike has a press release concerning the shoes, and if any of you have any inclinations of acquiring a pair, get ready to flex some eBay skills. According to Nike:

1500 pairs of the 2011 NIKE MAG will be auctioned on eBay with all net proceeds going directly to The Michael J. Fox Foundation. Each day for the duration of the ten-day auction, one hundred and fifty pairs of the 2011 NIKE MAG shoes will be made available via eBay’s Fashion Vault. The auction starts September 8, 8:30PM PST, and will end September 18. Thanks to a previous 50 million dollar match given to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, all donations will be matched, effectively doubling the contributions from the auction.

While Nike says eBay’s Fashion Vault is where the charity auction will take place, there’s nothing on the page to indicate it the auction is now active. There is, however, a video of the shoes, which, I’m sad to report, will not have the power lace system.

He’s not suave like Phil Jackson, pontificating about the merits of Buddha. Nor is he gregariously loud-mouthed like Rex Ryan. No, Les Miles is famous for being Les Miles, and for those awesome plays he calls. And for coaching LSU to the BCS Championship. And for eating grass during the game, like so:

The video, which leads this post, is apparently something viral for Nike and Converse, which is owned by Nike. That makes sense seeing how the video’s title is “It Must Have Been The Shoes” and for the fact that Miles is wearing both Nike and some awfully famous Converse during. While the video is indeed enough to whet the most discerning appetite, there is, of course, more where that came from. LSUFreek chimes in with an awesome animated gif:

Aside: If you haven’t heard of this awesome web image artist, change that.

Other areas of genius, courtesy of the always-interesting Les Miles comes from the aforementioned Spencer Hall, who offers a humorous shot-by-shot breakdown of the magnificent video. A highlight of Hall’s post:

Everyone looks extremely uncomfortable with this arrangement except for Miles, who you’ll notice claps at home the way he does on the field: hands straight, eyes filled with glee, and with a silver turnkey rotating slowing in the middle of his back. His daughter is torn between her obligation to sing the anthem, and her burning desire to put a foot in the ass of the audience and let rip with her pitch-perfect rendition of the Nicki Minaj verse from “Monster.” Miles the Younger on the right knows her dreams, and is hoping she’ll bust a rhyme and shock the world. That’s what would make her happy. When she acquiesces to her father’s wishes, a small part of him dies as the anthem sounds in the air.

Not only is Hall’s commentary its typically funny stuff, it also includes a screenshot of Miles hanging on the rim after he dunks. That, alone, is worth the price of admission:

We will make it our mission to not only go to Baton Rouge this fall, but also to get someone drunk enough to get this image of Miles dunking a basketball tattooed on their body for all eternity. We also would bet a hundred dollars cash money that Les Miles tore something in his groin doing this, and would double the bet to include Miles telling his doctor “I think I popped a cockspring, doc.”

To quote Charlie Sheen, Miles and Hall are both winning. Miles for the video and Hall for the commentary. One can only hope Miles continues down the viral video path, and if this is indeed a Nike-backed production, perhaps they should include Hall the next time they do something with Les Miles.

Also, if this is Nike, it’s pretty obvious they have a handle on this who “viral content” thing. Campaigns like Leeroy Smith and the Kobe Bryant/Aston Martin video immediately come to mind. Too bad none of them can compete with the awesomeness on display from Les Miles.

The NYT has a great summary of Nike’s “Nike+” effort to engage runners and get them to connect and compete with each other. In conjunction with Apple’s iPod, runners can time their laps, download their progress, and keep track of how their friends are doing–all without forceful participation by Nike.

This use of social media is helping Nike to better allocate its marketing budget.

Last year, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million United States advertising budget on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That?s down from 55 percent 10 years ago, according to the trade publication Advertising Age.

Between 2003 and 2006, Nike “increased its nonmedia ad spending 33 percent, to $457.9 million, according to the Advertising Age data.”

How is this working out for Nike? Standing back, and letting the consumer decide how to interact with the brand, appears to be working. Recent reports suggest that 40% of Nike+ users end up converting to the Nike brand running shoes.

Which other companies have you seen doing well with social media marketing?

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While I was searching for possible article topics this afternoon, I came across one that applied to me personally. T. Scott Saponas, a research student at the University of Washington conducted a study that concluded that the Nike+iPod Sports Kit could actually be used as a tracking device.

Being a runner myself, I had looked into the iPod and Nike collaboration, which integrates chip technology into a pair of Nike running shoes, in order to count calories and miles through an iPod Nano.

According to the Apple’s Nike+iPod site, you can also “use the workouts included with your Nike + iPod or create your own. Spoken feedback and your PowerSong help motivate you to achieve your goals. And when you get back home, upload your data to the Nike+ website to analyze your workouts, set goals, even compete against your friends in virtual races.”

The runner’s information is transmitted from one chip, which acts as a pedometer in the Nike shoe, to another chip located in the iPod Nano that records the data.

Saponas, along with other students, discovered that the chip technology actually leaves the runner vulnerable to tracking devices, through transmissions of the in-shoe sensor.

The unique code transmitted by the in-shoe sensor identifies the individual runner, as well as their location.

Saponas came to the shocking conclusion that by using the signal from the sensor, a runner may be tracked, in real-time using Google Maps, if the sensor is left on while not in use.

Nike+iPod users are advised to shut off their Sports Kit when not using it for exercise purposes.

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Autmn Davis is a staff writer for WebProNews covering ebusiness and technology.

These misatkes include: Missing out on long-tail terms, not developing a descriptive meta description tag, no alternative to all flash sites, bad landing pages that hurt PPC rankings among others.

In the article Wil Reynolds writes: “I did a search on Nike as a keyword, and just that word alone came back with over 2.5 million searches performed last month according to the SEObook.com tool, which uses Overture’s keyword suggestion tool. This does not include the long-tail terms like Nike football cleats, Nike air force one, Nike sports bra, Nike golf balls and the millions of other searches done with the word Nike in it somehow. I wouldn’t be surprised if the branded Nike search volume were in the 15 million range.”

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The term “joga” was taken from a Portuguese expression “Joga bonito,” meaning “play beautiful,” says Google software engineer Pedram Keyani.

It is “a phrase that symbolizes both any football player’s desire to embody the grace of the game and our goal to offer a community site that helps promotes the sheer fun, skill, sportsmanship and community spirit that make football truly the world’s favorite game,” said Keyani.

Google lent its search technology to the site to help members seek out content, community information, and player information. Those with a personalized Google account already, like Gmail, can gain access immediately.

The community inside works like many social networking sites, utilizing friend requests, alrets, and instant messaging.

If Joga members get really lucky, podcast phenom SoccerGirl will sign up. We’d link to SoccerGirl if she weren’t perpetually sans vtements while podcasting and seemingly never actually talks about soccer-well, she might but we’re not really listening.

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From the Joga site…

Joga is a place to meet other soccer players, share your own soccer experiences and enjoy photos and videos from around the world.

Membership is by invite only. Let’s hope this is actually used by soccer fans as opposed to criminals.

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.