Well here it is, the week after Thanksgiving and I’m feeling a little larger than I was a week ago. Guess it’s time for a diet. Weightbot is a great way keep track of your weight over time or to work toward a target weight.

The main interface for this app is the daily weight input. The design is nice and easy to use. Just touch the weight display to bring up the slider to select your weight. You can shake the phone to erase the weight for a day. If you’re the private type about your weight, this app has the option of turning on a passcode to keep the data private.

To view your history of your entries in nice graphs all you need to do is turn the phone horizontal. The app will display history graphs in week, month, or year formats. Double tap the screen to switch between them. If you’ve set up a goal weight, that will be shown on the graphs as well as a trend line.

New to this latest version is a secure backup system. Create an account with your email and a password and the app will automatically backup your data to guard against data loss.

I don’t think I’ve focused enough on the fantastic design this app has. It’s filled with all those nice touches that just make it feel like right. Truly a case study in unique app design on the iPhone.

Here’s a short video that will give you an idea of the interface. But take a look at the screen shots below in full size for a better representation.

Weightbot is one of the best and most beautifully designed applications yet for the iPhone. It’s fun, functional, and right now it’s got a fantastic price.

Phone Aid is a reference application that gives you quick real information on what to do in case of a first aid emergency. It includes 5 different scenarios that include both picture instructions and audio instructions. The idea being that if you come across an emergency, you can start up this app, set it aside and follow the instructions in real-time from the audio.

In addition there is a great text reference for lesser emergencies — like bee stings, etc.

Here’s a demonstration video from the developer that gives you a good demonstration of what the app is like.

Phone Aid while not all encompassing is a great reference that I hope I will never have to use. Great safety app!

MyMate helps you keep track of your lady. It’s kind of an all in one relationship maintenance application. This app includes screens to help you keep track of your or your significant others cycle, sizes, and important dates.

What would really make this application useful, would the be ability to get reminders. Reminders of the dates coming up — either via email or the iPhone calendar. Unfortunately without using an external service, the SDK does not yet offer this. Hopefully soon.

If you are someone who would like to keep all of this information in one place, MyMate is for you.

Developer: Edovia Inc.
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1

Note 8/14: Note that there is a new version of this software out that reports that it has increased reliability. We’ll try to get access to that and revise this review if we can.

Steps says it’s a personal pedometer. But it’s really not worth a download.

Boy, I’m glad I didn’t by this app. I saw it on a friend’s iPhone and convinced them to let me give it a try. What I found out was that Steps is really not good for anything.

There are many things wrong with this application.

First — it can’t count steps. Something you think a pedometer would need to do, right? I tried using the app while the phone was on in every possible direction to try to get it to pick up the steps properly via the accelerometer. Top pointing down, on each side. In my front pocket, on my belt. I took 20 steps in each configuration. It just didn’t work right.

Steps would generally read 50-100% extra steps over what I actually took. Though sometimes it would only read 2 or three steps, well under the 20 I actually took.

So, does it work as a pedometer? No, strike one!

Second — it reports average speed and distance. Let’s assume for a second that the step counting worked, which I think we covered that it doesn’t, but if it did, then reporting distance/speed is just a guess. Without the app either using the GPS or knowing the length of your step, it’s just a guess. It just won’t add up right unless you have the perfect stride length. Strike two!

Third — it doesn’t work when the device is sleeping. So, you must keep your device on to use it. Handy! Good thing the iPhone has stellar battery life. Sorry, extra sarcastic today.

So there you go, three strikes. Steps is out.

The one good thing to say is that this app looks very nice. Meh.

So, don’t waste $2 on this or any iPhone OS pedometer — just go buy a real one for $2 at any sports store. It will actually work.