Meatstick Information: How To Use The Polar RS800 (S/D) With An Apple Computer

I'll start by saying that this post is useless to 99% of the world's population; however, for the other 1% of the world it has the potential to be very helpful.

Background:
I bought my Polar RS800 SD before I realized that they aren't directly compatible with Apple Computers. At first I thought that I was screwed, but upon doing some research at different places on the internet I found that it might be possible to get a connection between the RS800 and the new Intel based Macs (I have an intel Macbook Pro). Although there were sources on the internet that claimed it was possible to get the watch to sync with a Mac, none of the sources I found were really good at explaining how to go about doing it (especially for somebody who isn't a mac genius). After about a month of trial and error and spending more money I was finally able to get the watch to sync with my Macbook Pro. I will explain here how I did it.

The Process:
The first thing you will need to do is figure out how to get Microsoft Windows on your computer. I didn't have a copy of Windows, so I purchased Windows XP Home Edition from this website. You might be able to use a different version of Windows (XP office, Vista, etc.) but I can only tell you what I physically tried, which was XP Home.
Next, you will need to utilize one of the programs that Apple has that allow you to run Windows on your Mac. I decided to use Bootcamp because it can be downloaded for free from the Apple website. I'm assuming Parallels would also work, but again I can't say for sure because I didn't try that.
Once you have Windows on your Mac the next thing you have to do is download the Infared (IR) USB bridge (IR wave 721) from the Polar website. This is the website with the download and directions.
Finally, you have to purchase the Polar IR Wave USB: I found the USB device at a local bike shop, but they are hard to find and it might be easier to buy online.

Conclusion:
It sucks that you have to shell out another $130 (for Windows and USB) just to get the watch to work. Polar claims that they are working on making products that are compatible with Mac, but that won't do me any good right now. I will say that the product is pretty awesome when you finally get it all working.

I hope this will be helpful to somebody out there that is frustrated as I was. If you have any questions about the process just leave a comment and I will try my best to answer it.