Tag: Health »

New Year, resolutions, and the like. Everyone, from local papers to Apple to us here at 148Apps are getting the word out about ways to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle. We've already taken a look at some apps that help us all acheive our goals, and we plan to continue that trend for the entire month, with personal stories from our crack writing team, continued reviews, and focused features like our Favorite Four.

Here's what we have for you from the past couple of weeks. Stay tuned right here for even more Health and Fitness goodness for your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Abs Workout For iPad Review
"Abs Workout for iPad is definitely a good place for the user to start on their quest for a better body, although Levels 2 and 3 will need to be purchased after a while, as abs gets stronger, and exercises become easier."

All-in-Pedometer Review
"For the walker, All-in Pedometer is ideal, focusing on one key aspect and doing a fine job of keeping the user informed throughout."

Gym Genie Review
"Despite the ugly interface, Gym Genie is a solid workout tool. It’s not a comprehensive resource or anything like that, but for what it is – and its 99-cent price tag – it’s not bad at all. For beginners, at least, this could be very helpful."

Favorite Four iPhone Apps for Sticking to a New Year’s Diet
"As we mentioned in our favorite four apps for keeping New Year resolutions, weight loss (as well as getting into and staying in good healthy shape) tops most people’s list of desired self-improvements. Few other goals are harder to achieve, however. We don’t have the secret formula, but we do have four iPhone apps that make getting into the right shape a lot easier."

As we mentioned in our favourite four apps for keeping New Year resolutions, weight loss (as well as getting into and staying in good healthy shape) tops most people's list of desired self-improvements. Few other goals are harder to achieve, however. We don't have the secret formula, but we do have four iPhone apps that make getting into the right shape a lot easier. Hit the break for our favorite four apps to do just that.

Singaporean-based Zensorium is introducing a new device designed to let people track their health and wellness on their iOS device, with a new device called the Tinké.

The Tinké plugs directly into an iOS device, and users touch its sensor directly with their finger. By touching this, the device claims that it can measure heart rate, respiratory rate, and the oxygen level in a person's blood, making it essentially a pulse oximeter for an iOS device. It measures these then rates the person on its "Vita Index", which is based on the quality of the measured information. Tinké also can track this information over time, so people can see how their health is changing, and preferably for the better! People can share this information with friends and family, with the ability to comment on Vita Indices, to share tips and encouragement. As well, users can share their Vita Scores anonymously, with the ability to compare their scores with other people in their age group.

The Tinké will come in four colors: black, red, white and an aqua blue. Zensorium is currently taking reservations, with a target price of $99, although there is no planned release date for the hardware. As well, there is no indication if this will officially support the iPad. Will the information be cloud-based, or device-based, so users could potentially use the Tinké dongle on their other iOS devices, like iPod touch or iPad, and will the network be available through the web? Plus, will it work? Will all the measurements, especially oxygen measurement, really be accurate based on just using a dongle? Other pulse oximeters are intrusion free, but use a closed design; will the open ended design of Tinké negatively affect measurement? These are important questions to be answered as Tinké reaches its release date in the indefinite future.

Apple likes to boast that their products allow us to connect to each other in fantastic new ways. It's a tall claim to say the least. However, what stronger connection could there be than the one between parents and their children? The MotherKnows app is trying to help prove Apple right by giving parents a new way to monitor their child's development and more easily be prepared for medical emergencies.

Working in conjunction with the MotherKnows website, the app stores all sorts of health records like growth charts, medication lists, graphic displays of immunizations and other information collected directly from doctors and regularly updated, all on an iPhone. This is particularly useful for quickly providing places likes schools and camps with anything they may need to know regarding a child health-wise. Parents can use the app for little tasks like scheduling appointments and for more long-term tasks like tracking their child's progress. Parents can even create milestones like "first steps" and take a picture to go alongside it.

Although the app can sync with one's MotherKnows account when accessing data one doesn't need to purchase an account in order to use the app. MotherKnows is currently available for free on the App Store.

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Jawbone, known for their award-winning Bluetooth headsets, has announced UP, a wristband and app combo that tracks daily activity such as sleep, motion and eating habits. The goal of it is to help people live a healthier life.

For those who follow Ted Global, they'll remember that UP was previewed at the event this past July. Tracking sleep, eating habits and motion, the wristband is worn 24/7 and wirelessly communicates with the iPhone app via MotionX technology. The app then calculates daily totals, displays them and works to give users a better understanding of their health, what drives it and ways to improve it. And no, it's not another weight loss gimmick. It is about visually displaying the hundreds of decisions made every day to be healthy and gives the user the motivation to alter their behavior for an all-around healthier lifestyle.

UP also includes a social aspect with the ability to challenge friends. Within the app friends can send encouragement and challenge each other for most hours slept, who had the healthiest meals and more. The wristband will be available on November 6 for $99.99 while the app is available for free as of today.

Last week we looked at apps that help manage weight by offering simple tools to get nutritional information. In keeping with that healthy theme, this week we look at recipe apps for those seeking to add more veggies to their diets, for vegetarians and even for vegans. These apps are full of healthy and tasty choices for anyone looking to make a change to, or maintain a healthy lifestyle with the help of their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

Vegetarian How to Cook Everything

Part of the wildly popular How To Cook Everything series, this cookbook, written by Mark Bittman, offers over 2000 recipes for delicious meat free dishes - by far the most we've found in one app. The emphasis is on great taste, but also keeping it simple. The app includes vegan recipes along with tons of how-to's, illustrations and planning guides. Easy searching and shopping list creation that can be sent by email make this the ideal choice for anyone, whether a person looking for the occasional veggie pasta dinner or a true tofu addict.

Do Eat Raw

There are health conscious meat-avoiders, idealistic vegetarians, hard-core vegans and then there is the raw foods movement. Touted as being not just a way to lose weight and stay fit, but also to increase longevity and health, it may not be for everyone. If raw is on the menu, however, Do Eat Raw is the app to get. The app has over 300 raw vegan recipes along with information on everything from how to dress up a dish to what to drink. The app is divided into sections for easy browsing, and users can rate dishes and see user ratings to see what's, well, cold?

Whole Living Smoothies

Prefer a nice refreshing drink of fruits and veggies to a full-on vegetarian meal? From the kitchen of none other than Martha Stewart herself comes Whole Living Smoothies. Assembled by dieticians, this recipe app comes with 12 Essential Recipes, 12 Meal-in-a-Glass recipes and 12 Allergen-Free recipes. Additional sets for Weight loss, Immunity Boosting and Detox are available as in-app purchases. The app also contains a comprehensive glossary explaining the specific health benefits of the key ingredients, tips on buying organic produce and even email and Facebook sharing.

Veggie Love Cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens

While not for vegetarians, this app from Better Homes and Gardens provides 50 family-friendly recipes that teach moms and dads how to sneak veggies into everyday food so their kids will get the required servings without having to give up burgers, tacos, pizza or even bacon. This is not a weight-loss cookbook, but with a good search function, cook-together tips to get families interacting and invested in what they eat, a shopping list creator and built-in timer it's sure to help kids - and parents - get their daily allotment of veggies. And not just by hiding them, but by showing them how fun and tasty they are to cook and eat.

There is a massive industry related to losing weight, but most doctors agree eating healthy foods in moderation along with exercise is the real key to weight loss success. If being healthy, not just thin, is the objective, quick dieting isn't the answer. The permanent solution lies in making lifestyle changes that last. So we've compiled our favourite four apps to help track calories eaten and burned and find comprehensible nutritional information about foods for iPhone to make the journey to fitness a little easier.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal

This app boasts the largest database of foods - over a million - and provides a calorie count along with information on fats, protein, sugars, fiber and other nutritional facts. But the app does a lot more. It allows dieters to enter entire meals, or add favorite foods, even recipes for fast access to comprehensive and useable information. The app also includes a web companion to track your food intake online and it syncs with the app. There is a barcode scanner for packaged foods, and even push notifications if a user forgets to log a meal. On the fitness end there are more than 350 exercises included for both cardio and strength training, and the app keeps track of calories expended. Create goals, generate reports and start shedding those pounds.

Fooducate Plus

Fooducate is all about helping those on a diet, for weight loss or any health reason, make wise choices at the supermarket. With a database of over 200,000 unique products, this app uses the iPhone camera to scan barcodes and then tells a user about what’s really in that can or box. It will reveal any veiled information from the use of chemical food colorings that may not be safe to excessive trans-fats while also highlighting that item's health benefits. The app allows for side-by-side product comparisons and even provides healthier alternative suggestions. The free version is ad supported.

Weightbot – Track your Weight in Style

If regular apps are too lo-tech, how about a weight-tracking robot? Weightbot is weight loss - or gain - for geeks. Users just enter their goal, their current body specs, and the app calculates their BMI and shows progress on a graph. Rotate clockwise to view weight loss progress over time, or turn the iPhone the other way to view the goal and expected arrival date.

Dotti’s Food Score

We have apps to count calories in raw foods, packaged products, even favorite recipes, but most of us do a lot of our eating out. Getting the nutritional information from a restaurant menu can be difficult and even embarrassing. Dotti’s Food Score uses information from Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone web site to serve up the skinny on almost 600 restaurants. The app has information on the most popular food chains, gets regular updates, and is particularly well integrated with the Weight Watchers program, offering scores based on their program.

The folks behind iMapMyFITNESS seem intent on offering the full package when it comes to fitness based apps. While they've got a little work to conquer the behemoth RunKeeper in terms of market share, they've got some neat tricks up their sleeves.

One of the latest features is the ability to track the amount of calories burnt off during exercise. It's a feature that many an exercising app promises but there's a difference. iMapMyFITNESS tracks the exact workout data rather than sticking to a generic average total that many other similar apps use instead. It means that no corners are cut and users always know exactly what they've achieved.

As well as the calorie checking facility, iMapMyFITNESS is also offering live tracking functionality. This means that friends or family can always keep track of where the user is, potentially a very useful security feature for the concerned jogger or runner. Everything is protected also so that the user can define who can and can't see such information.

While this might sound familiar to RunKeeper users, it's the interface that makes iMapMyFITNESS stand out more so. The website also offers a fairly different experience which may well appeal to those users looking for a change of exercise tracking app.

With new updates, this is an ideal time to give iMapMyFITNESS a shot.

It's alarming to think that skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the US, even more so when considering the relatively simple ways of reducing the chances of suffering from it.

Sunscreen, no matter how inconvenient, is a fantastically useful tool for reducing skin cancer and just regular old nasty sunburn. The important thing is to remember to reapply it at regular intervals. Putting sunscreen on first thing in the morning then going out all day won't help much, sadly. Forgetting to reapply is easy so it's handy that there's now an app to encourage users to reapply their sunblock.

Sun UV Protector is an inexpensive app that will alert its users when to do exactly that. It's smart too, using GPS to ascertain its location automatically. Once the location is retrieved, it then determines the UV Index and works out how often sunscreen needs to be reapplied. Adjusting according to skin type is also possible which is very useful as problems are more likely for those with very light skin.

$0.99 seems a very low price for an app that could potentially save lives and will almost certainly save the pain of annoying sunburn.

It's out now.

Anyone who wants to lose weight knows that motivation is the main thing that's needed in order to achieve such goals. How can that motivation be gained, however? While it can all be done internally, sometimes it's useful to have something visual to look at during regular intervals which is exactly where SlimBooth might be of great use.

It's an app that allows users to see a full body picture of how they'd look if they were slimmer. It's quick to implement and can give a great insight into just how they could look if they slimmed down a bit. Once the transformation has taken place, users can then choose to share the results through all the standard social networking options and show off their new potential look.

While SlimBooth makes a point of being primarily an entertainment app rather than anything scientific, it's still a great idea that's bound to appeal to many in need of a bit more motivation.

SlimBooth is out now, priced at $0.99.