Do I need to Nike+ pod on my shoe to work in conjunction with my Nano, or is everything I need already built in to the iPod now?
You do not need the Nike+ Sports kit (receiver and footpod) to use Nike+ on the nano (provided you upgraded to FW 1.2). Previous to 1.2, the nano would only track your walking without the Nike+ kit. After 1.2, the nano can now use the internal accelerometer to track running (as pointed out by serge2k). However, without the Nike+ kit, the nano will not work with other Nike+ accessories since they need the receiver part of the Nike+ kit. The main accessory is the Polar Wearlink+ (with Nike+) heart rate strap. This accessory allows you to add heart rate information to your running workouts as well as doing dedicated HR workouts (i.e. aerobics, elliptical, basketball, etc). The calorie burned during these workouts get transfered to both the Nike+running and Nike+active websites.
Will the iPod give me voice prompts as I run?
Yes, but not automatically. You have to press the sleep/wake button to get a message telling you your time, pace, distance, and your HR if you have the strap and kit.
I am wanting to know the same. I would also like to know how accurate it is compared to the Nike+ Sportswatch for running on a treadmill.
You're using the footpod with the Nike+ sportswatch, right? I'm guessing the nano will produce the same results as the sportswatch as long as their both calibrated the same. Keep in mind that you won't be able to use the footpod with the nano and the sportswatch at the same time. The footpod can only be linked to one device at a time.
While doing some research on nike+ as I am considering of getting one of the products I found this great article that answers both of your questions.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/review...ke-putting-the-2011-ipod-nano-to-the-test.ars
If you dont want to read it... basically the nano does not need neither the sensor or the wireless dongle to work with the Nike+ app.. as it uses it's internal accelerometer. Apparently it is not really not that accurate according to a a few tests they did in that article.. hope that helps!
I have seen that article (I'll read it in a moment), but I've read one forum member's account of his test. He got virtually identical results using the nano with and without the Nike+ kit. He ran on a treadmill in order to maintain a consistent pace for both tests. Check out posts by "sandiway", he has a blog too that has lots of good Nike+ nano posts.
EDIT - I have read that article. I think the take-home is that the nano is not particularly accurate (compared to a GPS device) if you change your pace and/or run a lot of hills. A GPS will always be much more accurate in this regard. However, if you run indoors or on a treadmill, a GPS device is pretty much useless and it's much easier to run a consistent pace on a treadmill or indoor track.
Personally, I wish that someone would come out with a Nike+ compatible GPS transmitter that could send information to the Nike+ reciever so that nano owners could run outdoors with GPS accuracy. Just turn on the GPS "dongle" and throw it in your pocket ...
