Earlier this month, I wrote about connecting my old Mac mini to my television . My mini offers a great Apple TV-style lifestyle with none of the Apple TV limitations. It's a real Mac running real Snow Leopard, albeit on an older, admittedly limited mini. I have Front Row, EyeTV, QuickTime, and more, all ready to entertain me on demand, as well as standard system access to mail, web browsing, etc.

The sound in my living room is powered by a couple of speakers that shipped with an ancient computer monitor. Their audio works fine for close-up TV watching and Wii playing. Move across the room and those speakers prove how limited they are. Add in a treadmill with its motor noises, and the sound decreases to virtually nothing.

So how can one listen to those great shows that are playing back on that lovely large screen across the room, especially when walking or jogging on the treadmill? I messed around with several solutions until I stumbled across one that really worked well for me. Using my home's 802.11g Wi-Fi network, I could call my iPhone from my Mac using Skype. With only the most minimal of lags, I was able to transmit live audio and watch my favorite shows on the Mac while listening on the iPhone from my treadmill.

Read on to learn how I accomplished this...

When the second generation of iPod touch was announced, one slide on the presentation included built-in support for the Nike+iPod sensor. The cool thing was that you no longer needed the unsightly dongle hanging off your device. The touch just "sees" the Nike sensor and you could add it to the device quite easily. Plus, the app looked great on the bigger screen of the touch, and allowed you to multitask -- not that you should play Dizzy Bee while jogging, OK?

I hadn't thought about it until I got my phone home, but the sensor works just fine with the 3GS. As expected, the app is identical to that on the touch, although Apple posted a tech note regarding answering calls while using the Nike app, something you don't worry about on the touch. If you've never tried using the Nike sensor with either a touch or the iPhone, read on. Oh, and I don't have a Nike remote watch doohickey, but apparently those will work on the 3GS as well. If the Nike thing isn't your bag, we ran down some competitors a while ago.

To pair the device, go to Settings > (in App-specific settings) Nike+iPod and flip the switch to ON. At the bottom (you can see in our gallery) choose either Sensor or Remote, depending on what you've got, and you'll be prompted to move around (sensor) or press a button (remote). That's all there is to it -- the proprietary wireless connection kicks in and pairs the two devices instamagically.

Just like previous iterations of the Nike system, you can change the PowerSong, voice, and units. One new twist: a new Lock Screen pref that will alter the locked-screen display to read in portrait or 2 available landscape modes. Very handy if you have a mount on your treadmill. What, you don't have a mount on your treadmill? Me either.

Now, after pairing, you should have a shiny new app on your screen that has the Nike logo and a plus sign. Unfortunately, my sleepy morning eyes couldn't find the app, but a Spotlight search found it for me. Here's Apple's notes on setting things up.

Keep reading for a short round-up of how the unit works while running.

One of our readers wrote in asking whether the iPhone could possibly replace the Nike sports kit and work as a pedometer with its onboard accelerometer.

Short answer? It already does. The (jailbreak) iPhone pedometer project is open source and available on Google code. The iPhone's three onboard accelerometer sensors allow you to capture force vectors and figure out when the force changes direction as you take a step.

None of the iPhone-specific solutions that I've tried from Installer.app seem to work as well as my wiimote does on my treadmill with Wii Fit. I'd imagine that the iPhone will catch up quickly once the AppStore takes off.

Multiple sources are repeating Stuff.tv's report that Apple is planning to bring the Nike+ system to the iPhone and iPod touch. Nike+ is of course a special kit, originally made for iPod nano, that will record the distance and length of a walk or run -- you stick the little sensor in your shoe, and it works as a timer and pedometer to record personal workout stats.

Stuff also reports that in addition to bringing along the sensor system, the new Nike+ system may also be able to take advantage of the iPhone's and touch's wifi by sending stats from the sensor directly to Nike's online database,where a new "Coach" system will help you schedule runs and activities.

Sounds pretty amazing. Of course, this is only the beginning of the kind of "life management" software that we'll see coming out of the SDK. Stuff suggests that your iPhone will help you know when go to out and for how long, but of course we know that by the time June comes around it'll be able to do a lot more than that.