RunKeeper.com, the site that allows you to track various goals in your fitness training, has released nine new apps to help track fitness data. New apps include Clever Run, Coachya, Cycle Log, Fleetly, Nexercise, Pedometer Ultimate, Scosche MyTREK, Vitogo, and Weighty.

For the sake of clarity, some of these ‘apps’ are simply added to the RunKeeper service (e.g. Clever Run. Though some are standalone, iPhone apps, like Cycle Log and, of course, the official RunKeeper app.

The new apps have ranging functions from a coaching app for both the coaches and their athletes, like Coachya, to turning fitness into a game, like Fleetly and Nexercise. Many of the apps track some sort of activity. CleverRun tracks running-related items, Cycle Log is a comprehensive cycling tracker and companion, Pedometer Ultimate is self-explanatory, Scosche myTREK keeps an eye on the user’s pulse, and Weighty keeps track of weight and fat percentage. Vitogo is a personal trainer app that creates a workout program tailored to the user.

RunKeeper and its apps could be beneficial to a fitness-related New Year’s resolution. Go to RunKeeper.com to sign up for the service and click the “Apps” link to see the 45+ apps including the most recent nine.

Was your New Year’s resolution to get back in shape? The iPad and iPhone can be great workout companions, especially with apps like iMuscle from 3D4Medical.com.

iMuscle is a workout aid that can be used to find exercises that coincide with specific muscles in the body. The muscles are displayed in a visually appealing 3-D view that the user can rotate 360 degrees. Users can create custom workouts and receive hints and tips for specific exercises. The exercises are even performed by a 3-D model.

iMuscle has added some features in its 2.4 update. Users can now share workouts between the iPhone and iPad apps. The overall experience of the app has been improved with larger buttons, the workout creation process made easier, the ability to edit an exercise within a workout, and more flexibility in moving between exercises within a workout.

iMuscle won Apple’s best iPad app in the Medical category in 2011 and was listed as one of TechCrunch’s top 20 apps of 2011. iMuscle is available as both an iPad and iPhone app.

One of the most popular (and expensive!) navigation apps on iOS, TomTom, has just released it’s newest update, 1.8, that includes a new add-on called TomTom Traffic HD. The add-on, available via in-app purchase, helps the driver find solutions to avoid traffic jams and delays. The traffic is advertised to update every two minutes, providing incredibly up-to-date traffic information. The in-app purchase for the TomTom Traffic HD service costs $19.99. The TomTom Traffic HD service is part of TomTom’s recent mission to reduce traffic congestion everywhere. Read more about TomTom’s traffic reduction plans here.

Also available with the 1.8 release of TomTom is multi-stop routes. Users can now add up to five planned stops for their trips. iOS navigation apps are getting closer and closer to rival their dedicated GPS system counterparts. And with the release of TomTom’s 1.8 release, it just got closer. I personally don’t use a dedicated GPS system; I use iPhone GPS apps like TomTom. The 1.8 release also updates the map including recent road changes.

Using the iPhone and iPad as a tool to quickly lookup something (often to settle a bet!) is an often under-appreciated and useful feature (it’s even the biggest folder on our homescreen for some of us!). While one can argue that a Wikipedia app or just using the browser is sufficient for looking up everything, a dedicated and specific reference app can’t be beat in its category. So this week lists our favorite four reference apps.

iBartender
This app (which is surprisingly the #7 top paid iPhone reference app) is the ultimate companion for a bartender. iBartender is a simple enough app to explain, it’s one of those books that can be found behind a bar listing all kinds of alcoholic drinks no one knew existed. iBartender trumps all of those bar books with an easily browsable encyclopedia of drinks, a search feature, and the ability to save specific drinks as favorites. This app is a must-have for anyone, not just bartenders, looking to find and try out new drinks.

Wikipanion
It would be a horrible list of reference apps without a good Wikipedia app. While some of the best reference apps are dedicated to specific topics, Wikipanion is the goto app for all other topics and therefore a must-have for anyone who frequently uses Wikipedia. While it’s nothing complicated, Wikipanion provides a clean, quick-loading interface for Wikipedia on the iPhone and iPad.


Qwiki (iPad only)
Qwiki is definitely the most unique reference app in the App Store. Qwiki pulls information, pictures, and videos from various sources to create a multimedia experience for almost any topic imaginable. Qwiki might not be optimal to quickly look anything up, but it’s definitely fun to browse the popular and daily Qwikis. It’s an awesome app to play around with and learn something in the process.

IMDB
The IMDB app is a clean and well-made app that provides an iOS experience for the popular movie database, IMDB.com. Get into an argument about a specific actor/actress in a specific movie or TV show? Whip out the iPhone and look it up on IMDB. The IMDB app is a great companion app to play around with while watching TV.

The iPad is a perfect two-player gaming device. Specifically, the iPad is awesome for playing board games. While the following board games aren’t all iPad-only, these are my favorites for use on the iPad. This week’s Favorite Four are my favorite four board game apps.

Risk
Risk, the classic strategy game, is probably my most played board game on iOS. My girlfriend and I play it constantly on my iPad. The war game has a decent AI system, but the AI has only beat my girlfriend and I in a three person game once. What’s nice about Risk on iOS is that there are two options for claiming the original territory. I’m not sure which is the correct way but it’s an awesome option to play around with. Risk is a must-have app for any board game fans.

Ticket to Ride – iPad only
Ticket to Ride is the iPad adaptation of the popular train board game by Days of Wonder. It’s is one of those German-style games that’s somewhere between a strategy board game like chess and a party game like Pictionary. The game consists of claiming routes between cities according to cards each player receives. I’m still learning the game, but it’s one of the most fun iPad games I’ve ever played.

Carcassonne
Carcassonne is another German-style board game recreated for iOS. Unlike Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne is a universal app. Carcassonne involves placing tiles on a board to create a medieval landscape with cities and roads. Carcassonne is one of the few games on the App Store that’s so popular and so well-done that its rating for the current version is the full five stars and 4.5 for all versions.

Game Table – iPad only
Game Table was one of the first apps I grabbed for my iPad when I got it a little over a year ago. I immediately realized how cool it would be to play board games with people to give them an example of the iPad. Game Table has various board games including an awesome chess app, checkers, backgammon, reversi, a card app with chips, and Go (the Chinese board game). No AI here; just beautifully crafted game boards to play with other real humans.

With the iOS 5 announcement, many have been speculating on the “death” of certain apps that provide some of the same features that iOS 5 will be coming out with. This week I’ll talk about four categories and specifically four of my favorite apps that might be killed off by iOS 5.

Dropbox – Cloud Storage
iCloud was a huge announcement. While it contains more functionality than just cloud-based documents, iCloud offers 3GB more free storage than Dropbox does. With my documents, calendars, pictures and more being automatically synced between all of my devices (Mac/iPad/iPhones), I doubt I’ll continue using Dropbox once iOS 5 is released.

Camera+ – Photo editing
Camera+ was the must-have, quick photo-editor for the iPhone. If anyone is even remotely interested in doing quick touches to his or her pictures, Camera+ was the app to buy. The Photos app in iOS 5 will now add quick touch-up features like cropping, red-eye removal, and an auto-enhance feature. Unless an editor is incredibly powerful or has specific features that I would want, I’m likely to just use the Photos app after the iOS 5 release.

Wunderlist - To-do
There are so many varying types of to-do apps on the App Store that I doubt Reminders (iOS 5’s to-do app) will kill off to-do apps. But there’s a specific to-do app that I just started using, Wunderlist, that does exactly what Reminders will do – cloud-based to-do. With a free, to-do list app synced with all iOS devices, I find it hard to believe that to-do list apps will be as popular as they once were.

Instapaper – Offline Reading
Instapaper isn’t the only service that provides an offline reading list (another popular one is Read It Later), but both services cost money. Built into the new and improved Safari on iOS 5 will be a reading list feature. The offline reading list in combination with the new “Reader” view (which presents text in an easy to read format) presents an experience similar to Instapaper. I’m a huge fan of Instapaper, but I tend to prefer native Apple apps over third-party apps if they’re available. I’ll definitely be checking out the reading list feature in the new Safari and I have a feeling that it may win me over.

I tend to use native Mac apps when they exist because they tend to be the best. But as far as browsers go, I’ve preferred Chrome over Safari for a while. Diigo Inc. has just released a free browser on the iPad that claims to mimic Chrome’s speed and interface.

Given the screenshots of iChromy, it possesses many of the interface features that Chrome does. The tabs on top (probably the most noticeable feature of Chrome), single bar for addresses and searches, and the star next to the bar for bookmarking stand out loudly as a Chrome experience on the iPad. Other features that aren’t necessarily Chrome-like but are features of the browser nonetheless include an automatically hiding address bar, an offline reading list, sharing to various services and social networking sites, and the ability to open a link in a new tab.

For a free browser, an offline reading list feature may excite people who want an Instapaper-like experience without dishing out the $4.99 for the app on their iPad. But for those who prefer Instapaper (like me), it’s one of the sharing options available in the app. Other sharing features include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.

iChromy was released only a few days ago, but their app description already lists future features and bug fixes coming out in the next version. This suggests that the developers at Diigo are making iChromy a priority and we can expect additional features and support of iChromy in the future. Features coming with the next release are a .com button for the on-screen keyboard and auto-scrolling top the top of the page when tapping the status bar at the top. The description also lists a bug fix and the promise of “other features.” Grab iChromy while it’s free, who knows if it’ll stay that way.

Some game genres have had a rough time in their induction into the App Store (like action hack n’ slashes), but a few genres seem like they’ve been waiting for devices like the iPhone and iPad. Case in point? Word games work out perfectly with iOS. This week, we’ll showcase our Favorite Four word games.

Crosswords
Released ages ago in App Store years, Crosswords is the one word game to rule them all. At the high price point of $9.99, it’s a tough one to buy. We eventually just took the plunge about a year ago and the app has been well worth the cost. The reason it’s worth such a steep price (for an app) is that it’s the last crossword-related purchase anyone will ever need to make. The app is updated from a ton of free sources as well as some paid ones that require subscription info, like the New York Times. We will never run out of crossword puzzles. Our queue is a little backed up currently at 787 puzzles (and we’re not even using all of the free sources, just our favorites!). In our homescreen folder titled “Favorite Games,” Crosswords is the first app.

Words with Friends
It was obvious that a Scrabble-type game had to make the cut for this Favorite Four, but choosing between Scrabble and Words with Friends was quite difficult. We decided on Words with Friends simply because more of our friends play it (it’s cross-platform). While Scrabble would seem to provide more real-life friends to play with (by linking it with the Facebook Scrabble app), it’s simply easier to play with people we know via Words with Friends.


War of the Words (iPad only)
This app is a hidden gem. The app was released last year and still hasn’t had enough ratings for the App Store to display an average rating. We’re hoping that we might change things for the better with this post. War of the Words includes something that more iPad games should: players sitting across from one another. In War of the Words, when a player forms a words, the letter blocks go over to the other player. Whoever fills the other player’s side of the screen first wins. It’s a simple concept but provides some fast-paced wordy fun.

Wheel of Fortune
We can’t leave out one of the most popular word-based game shows: The Wheel of Fortune apps are great. There are plenty of puzzles to solve and the graphics are impressive on the iPad version. Give them a try!
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YouWeb L.L.C. has released the one of the most ambitious and sought after workarounds ever on the iPad. Their popular browser, iSwifter, has just updated their app with an “all-you-can-eat” subscription model to provide unlimited access to Flash social games and MMO’s on the iPad. People can now play Facebook games and other popular flash games on their iPad. With the ability to use Flash not only to watch flash video but to interact with Flash content like games, the iPad may truly be able to replace laptops for some.

Rajat Gupta, co-founder of iSwifter and former EIR at YouWeb, explains YouWeb has been working over the entire last year creating this technology, “Playing Flash social games and MMOs on the iPad is something users are clamoring for. But it’s not as simple as building a Flash video browser: we have spent the last year building a cloud based Flash browser technology that lets users play their favorite Flash social games and MMOs on the iPad. Social game and MMO developers
benefit greatly from not having to spend months porting their Flash games to tablets.”

iSwifter is not only an app for playing Flash games but is a full-fledged browser with the added ability to watch Flash videos and interact with Flash content. The app itself is free and comes with a free seven-day trial. After the trial, the ability to have unlimited access to Flash games will be $4.99 a month.

Peter Relan, Founder of YouWeb and Chairman of iSwifter, compares iSwifter and Flash gaming to Netflix and movies, “iSwifter is doing for social gaming and MMOs what NetFlix™ and Hulu™ have done for movies and TV shows: subscription based unlimited access to awesome content. A few months ago nobody would have anticipated playing Facebook social games or Flash MMORPGs on iPads with a quality user experience!”