Apple applies for a patent for... a treadmill!

Apple might scrap the iTV, this year, but they've got other plans to get you watching. Your weight that is. According to a patent that the company applied for, it seems they're working on a treadmill, which will most likely integrate iOS in one way or another. The patent shows they're applying for "sports equipment apparatus" with elements that will allow it to be hooked up with an iDevice. The patent also details "circuits, methods and apparatus" that will allow the sports equipment to write data to a media player. It shows cardio equipment. It also has diagrams to show how the interface will work with a treadmill.

The patent shows a 30 pin connector, so it looks like the treadmill would allow you to play media from your iPhone or iPod just by hooking your device up to a dock. This will, of course, mean both music and videos. The patent also shows that the treadmill would read your user information and adjust its settings. It could create records of your workout and have them stored on your iDevice. This would not only be useful in keeping track of your workouts but also to share with friends on their iDevices or the social networks.

Apple already has forayed into the fitness world before with the Nike+ app, released in 2006, which, as you may remember, started out as a chip in your shoe that would connect to your iPod wirelessly and collect information on your run like the distance, pace and more. Of course, now just an app takes care of all of that. With this patent, it is unlikely that Apple will actually design and build actual treadmills. It's more believable that they will license out the patent to treadmill builders to integrate the Apple specific elements in the upcoming generations of workout equipment.