Just talked to them. They claim it actually is a miscommunication involving Apple's 'Made for iPod' program and that the site should be back soon (apparently a third party retailer had marked their item as "On Sale" without permission, which is a no-no) . Also said they're on track for a release in Sept/Oct.<p>UPDATE: Looks like the page is back in action: <a href="http://en.pedalbrain.com/" rel="nofollow">http://en.pedalbrain.com/</a>
I'm sure it's just coincidence that PedalBrain is down and Apple applied to patent the 'Smart Bike'
<a href="http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2010/08/apple-introduces-us-to-the-smart-bike.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2010/08/apple-in...</a>
From the Google cache of their site, they claim their product works with any ANT+ compatible sensor. ANT is the same wireless protocol used by the Nike+ sensor. There aren't any public APIs in the iPhone SDK to access the iOS devices built-in ANT receiver so my guess is they are using undocumented APIs possibly to gather data from these bike sensors which Apple would presumably have a problem with.
I hope this is an little glitch which turns out to be an obvious oversight (<-oxymoron?), because this just stinks. What an awesome idea for a product; it could potentially drive Apple sales in some circles.<p>Waiting for more info<p>......................................
Google cache for those unfamiliar with the startup:<p><a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Aen.pedalbrain.com%2Fhome&btnG=Search" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cac...</a>
Sounds like it's going to be expensive (then again, a lot of bike accessories are). I'm very happy with my CycleMeter app ($4.99 in the App Store) and putting my phone in a secure pocket while I cycle.<p>If I was "serious" about cycling (I cycle daily to get to and from the office, so I'm a frequent cycler but that's the extent of it), then this thing looks pretty neat.