AppCraver » Healthcare & Fitness

Police Scanner or Emergency Radio?

Barbara Holbrook — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:36:18 +0000

If you’re one of those edge-of-your-seat types that enjoys following police, fire and EMS transmissions there are half a dozen apps that make it easy to listen to those calls on your iPhone.

Most of the scanner apps are still rookies with less than a month in the App Store. Only two of them — Police Scanner by Juicy Development LLC and Emergency Radio by EdgeRift, Inc — are seasoned veterans with experience and multiple updates under their belt. Both apps do a very good job of providing live streaming transmissions to your iDevice, but there are subtle differences between them.

Police Scanner provides more than 1700 streams from 7 countries, so finding an agency to listen to is fairly easy. Police Scanner allows you to select a location from three different pages of listings or use the Near Me page to see a list of pre-selected agencies based on your current location. The Browse page is your guide to every available agency. Select a country, then drill down and narrow your search by region / state / county until you find an agency that sounds interesting. The Favorites page stores quick links to your chosen agencies making it faster to get to where you want to be for future sessions.

While listening to a stream on Police Scanner the screen displays the name of the agency, a play and pause button, volume control, and a favorite button that allows you to add that stream to your favorites page.

Emergency Radio provides around 1500 streams from 2 countries — the U.S. and Canada. Much like Police Scanner, Emergency Radio opens to a page that lets you choose how to select a station. The All page allows you to scroll through the streams or enter text to jump ahead to a specific city. The Nearby page is, again, a list of available streams close to your current location. You can adjust what distance Emergency Radio considers “Nearby” from as few as 5 miles to as many as 1000 miles. The Favorites page stores your list of preferred agencies. For those not familiar with police and fire codes, a glossary of terms is listed below the channel as it is streaming.

Overall both Police Scanner and Emergency Radio do a fine job and provide a good service. But in any head-to-head somebody has to win. So, here’s the break down:

Police Scanner has an edge on clarity with, what seemed to me, a crisper listening experience. By providing additional countries and more than 200 additional channels, they also have the edge on quantity. Finally, maybe looks aren’t everything, but Police Scanner has much better graphics.

Emergency Radio has the edge with their search function by allowing users to type in a city name. They also get points for including a glossary.

So many features in Police Scanner and Emergency Radio are similar but for now the nod of approval goes to Police Scanner. The clear audio and slick graphics are attractive, however its the ability to eavesdrop on crime-fighting play-by-plays in so many other countries that really won me over.

Just something to keep in mind, both apps can have long periods of silence. That’s the nature of a police scanner: Transmissions correlate to the call load and some areas naturally have more activity than others. If the action is too slow you can always find another channel or country to listen in on.

iPeriod is Just for the Ladies (mostly)

Barbara Holbrook — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:21:03 +0000

iPeriod won me over.

Although menstruation tracking apps aren’t exactly new to the App Store, I’ve avoided reviewing any of them. It’s not that I’m squeamish about the subject matter. It’s just that I’ve never been the type to track this information, so why start now?

But, over the last few months, we’ve received multiple requests for information about period calendars for the iPhone and other menstrual-cycle tracking apps — requests from both men and women. So, when WinkPass Creations offered AppCraver the opportunity to review iPeriod I decided it was time to give the people what they want.

iPeriod tracks a pretty extensive list of symptoms related to one’s menstrual cycle: flow, cramps, spotting, moods, as well as 4 user-configurable options that can be modified to track your specific PMS symptoms such as headaches, bloating, energy levels, weight, etc. There is also a notes section where women can add a daily addendum to the calendar. The notes section won’t be “tracked” but can still be a useful record of information.

So just what does iPeriod mean by “track.” Well, the interface has several options for viewing information. The iPeriod Summary lists start date, duration and cycle length by month with an average calculation at the top and a predicted date for your next period. Calendar View is more intense with color-coded icons for menstruation, ovulation, potentially fertile days, and all the details for mood, etc that you may choose to track.

It’s a heady list of options and information. But, what I like is the simplicity of the interface. Call me lazy, but I can’t bothered to spend time typing in a bunch of emoticons and PMS symptoms every day. With iPeriod, it can all be done with a couple of taps. It usually took me longer to decide my mood than to enter in the information. (Tap the notes section of the calendar page to enter all your daily data.)

As a woman with pretty unpredictable cycles, I found that with enough information iPeriod can still do a reasonably good job estimating dates. I filled in guesstimates from the last 3 months and iPeriod returned a date that was within a few days of reality this month. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next six months or a year. Maybe iPeriod will find the underlying pattern that has always eluded me. The app uses it’s period prediction algorithm to provide menstruation dates a year in advance — pretty nice if you’re planning a vacation.

If the need ever arises, the information in iPeriod can be shared by email. You might use this to back up your information (which can also be reimported in case of data loss) or to send the info to your doctor.

Initially, I assumed that iPeriod was an app just for the ladies, but I’ve since been schooled by another AppCraver staffer who says that “smart guys” keep track of what’s going on with their girlfriend. I never knew. I guess that’s why some guys always seem to know when to say the right thing.

app_name: iPeriod (Period Calendar)
rating: 9/10

kobeFit – Personal Fitness Manager Will Keep You on Track

Barbara Holbrook — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:00:31 +0000

kobeFit — They say variety is the spice of life and this is especially true when it comes to fitness. Not only will varying your routines keep you motivated, but it’s also a beneficial training technique. But how do you keep track of your different routines? And, how do you keep on schedule when you crawl into the gym at 6 a.m.?

kobeFit is a personal fitness manager for the iPhone and iPod touch that is designed to easily keep your workout schedule on track. Because kobeFit aims to manage your fitness life, the initial set up will take some time.

If you plan on tracking your goals, you should start with your basic stats. Visit the Progress tab where you can enter your height, age and name. Then use the “track a new body area” button to really get personal. You can enter up to 12 different body areas to track such as weight or waist measurements. You can also snap a quick pic and track your progress in a photo journal.

Where kobeFit really shines is in its ability to manage workout routines. First browse the Plan > Exercise tab to get a feel for what’s available. Most exercises (excluding sports) have a description that includes information about its specific benefits. Then, from the Plan > Routine tab you can create a variety of workout plans using any combination of exercises. Each plan can be named and put on a schedule so that you know when it’s time to repeat that routine.

Now, each time you sign into the app kobeFit will greet you with the scheduled routine for the day. Just tap the green start button to begin your workout. As you complete each exercise, kobeFit will track what you’ve done so that you can access the information later. If you’ve set goals, then you will also be rewarded as you achieve milestones along your fitness journey.

Once it’s set up, kobeFit puts your workout routine on autopilot. If you’re serious about tacking your workout routine with a minimum of fuss, kobeFit is a good place to start.

My only real complaint is that, while app is well-designed and easy to use, but the $6.99 price tag is a bit high. For an app with a premium price tag, I’d like to see a few more features such as the ability to get an email reminder if I miss more than a certain number of scheduled workouts or the ability to track calories burned (assuming I’ve entered my height and weight).

app_name: kobeFit
rating: 7/10

Drink Safely With DrinkTracker Breathalyzer

Amelia Sauter — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:04 +0000

DrinkTracker Breathalyzer – This might sound like a lecture, but for goodness sake, don’t drink and drive. But it’s not that easy, is it? If alcohol affects your judgment, how do you safely know if you are OK to drive when you have been drinking? DrinkTracker Breathalyzer is here to help.

With all 50 states now making it illegal to have a BAC at .08 or higher, knowing your BAC is more important than ever. DrinkTracker Breathalyzer may not be as accurate as a real breathalyzer, but it certainly gives you a better idea than guessing would.

DrinkTracker Breathalyzer is a user-friendly app developed by slappmedot.com. When you enter what you have had to drink and at what time, DrinkTracker Breathalyzer calculates your blood alcohol content (BAC). Your BAC is based on your profile where you enter your gender, height and weight. The default measurements are in metrics, but you have the option to switch to U.S. or Imperial.

DrinkTracker Breathalyzer is easy to use and allows you to add multiple profiles, though from what I can tell you can only track drinks for one person at a time. DrinkTracker Breathalyzer gives you a list of generic drinks to choose from – wine, beer, and liquor – that includes the amount you drank and the percent of alcohol in each drink. You can also add and save your own drinks.

The best component of DrinkTracker Breathalyzer is that it updates your BAC every 60 seconds, and tells you how long you need to wait before your BAC reaches your preset target, for example, .05. If you close DrinkTracker Breathalyzer, the app re-opens into your current session.

A couple of quirks: The “Done” button does not work when you are editing drinks; you need to use the “Save” button instead. Also, if you edit your profile mid-session, it does not update until you actually exit your profile (not just your current session) by opening another profile.

I am a bartender and I also teach a class on how to serve alcohol safely. In my eyes, drinking safely is higher on the priority list than making good tips or high sales. Having an app that helps calculate my BAC – or someone else’s – is important to me. There are a whole pile of BAC calculator apps out there for 99 cents, but I have only tried DrinkTracker Breathalyzer which sells for $1.99. Frankly, I am not going to bother looking at any of the other apps.

Deciding whether or not to buy DrinkTracker Breathalyzer is a no-brainer. If you are going to drink, I recommend you drink safely by using DrinkTracker Breathalyzer.

app_name: DrinkTracker Breathalyzer
rating: 9/10

WebMDmobile Medical Information On The Go

Keith Lewis — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:30:14 +0000

Sometime over the past 10 years just about everyone has sat down at their computer and visited the WebMD website seeking information for a remedy or relief from an injury or illness. With the WebMD mobile iPhone app from WebMD, LLC you can now access that same information conveniently on your iPhone.

The WebMD mobile iPhone app is loaded with a plethora of information. Once opened WebMD mobile offers four selections to get started: Symptom Checker, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid and WebMD Search.

Chose Symptom checker and WebMD mobile will ask for your age, zip code, and gender. Next you will have a choice of how to conduct the symptom search. Choose between General Symptoms, Skin Symptoms or select the specific area of concern (Head, neck, arm, etc.). You are guided to a list of symptoms.

Select a symptom, such as dizziness and you will be able to view possible causes. In this case the response was Meniere’s disease or Motion sickness. I selected Meniere’s disease and was directed to a blank screen. So I’m thinking it’s not Meniere’s. I return to the previous screen and select Motion sickness. The following page detailed the definition, symptoms, causes, and treatment for motion sickness. It also lists FAQ’s — causes, diagnoses, treatment and therapies for motion sickness. But selecting any of these will direct you out of the WebMD mobile and onto the WedMD website.

When choosing Drugs & Treatments WebMD mobile gives you a choice of finding a drug by using the search feature, identifying a pill by shape, color or imprint, or browsing the top 200 drugs by name. Next you’ll select a drug from a list of possibilities.

After selecting a drug WebMD mobile provides information such as how it’s administered (oral), the phonetic pronunciation of the drug name, and the brand name. Also you can select from a list of five options: Uses, Side Effects, Precautions, Interactions, and Overdose. Select one of these options and you are lead to the appropriate page for information regarding that selection.

WebMD mobile’s First Aid page starts with a list of possible symptoms. Select your symptom and you’re directed to the treatment page. I selected dizziness earlier when using the symptom checker, so I chose it again in first aid mode. Immediately I was sent to the treatment page.

At the top of the page was a notification that advised, if having chest pain, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding, sudden weakness or numbness, or if I think I am having a medical emergency to call 911. The odd thing about this warning, even though it is at the top of the page, is that is written in a really small font. Below the warning are the treatments for dizziness — Self-Care at home, Medical Treatment or more information from eMedicineHealth. Be aware that selecting this last option will take you out of WebMD mobile and onto the web using Safari.

WebMD mobile has an overabundance of information and getting to that information can be time consuming. There are just too many steps to get through to obtain results and often those results reside outside of WebMD mobile on the Internet. Depending on your needs, that might not be an issue for you. If your needs are in the moment medical situations I find it too task heavy.

If you plan to use it for mostly educational purposes and you have time to spend looking things up, you will more than likely love having WebMD mobile for your on the go medical reference. If you’re looking for something to help with a current ailment and need help quickly spend the money and try SymptomMD.

app_name: WebMDmobile
rating: 7/10

SymptomMD First Aid On The Go

Keith Lewis — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:30:23 +0000

SymptomMD – In a day in age when many people either don’t have health insurance, their co-pay is a bit steep or, if you’re like me, just don’t like having to go to the doctor. How does one determine what to do when sick or injured? When is a doctors visit necessary and not just precautionary?

The answers to all of those questions may lie in SymptomMD by Self Care Decisions, LLC. Designed to help make educated decisions towards the type of care needed for relief of an illness or injury, SymptomMD could possibly save you thousands of dollars and many wasted hours in doctors offices or emergency waiting rooms.

According to Self Care Decisions LLC, SymptomMD is derived from the clinical protocols that have been tested for 15 years on more than 150 million symptom calls. These protocols have been used by physicians and nurses throughout the US and Canada.

SymptomMD is loaded with a massive amount of information that is fairly easy to access. The first thing to do upon opening SymptomMD is select a symptom. There are four options to selecting a symptom: Alphabetical Index, Body Area Index, Recently Viewed, Keyword Search. Next you’ll narrow your choice by selecting a symptom that most closely identifies your problem. Finally you will receive a list containing advice for the care or treatment of your problem. The advice can range from Call 911 now to Self Care at Home.

SymptomMD has several other features that can also be very helpful. There are options for locating nearby emergency rooms, calling 911, calling your doctor or a child’s doctor, an over-the-counter medication dosage chart and much more.

Having the SymptomMD app is the equivalent of having a first aid book with you at all times. There are certain emergency procedures that everyone should know, such as CPR and Heimlich Maneuver. For those unfortunate situations when illness or injury occurs and you need to determine what to do, SymptomMD is perfect to have available.

Related Articles: Pocket First Aid & CPR Guide

app_name: SymptomMD
rating: 8/10

When You Need to Sleep or Relax Try a Little White Noise

Michael Alexander — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:30:48 +0000

If you have trouble sleeping or just need to relax, TMSOFT’s White Noise may be just what you need to hear.

White Noise is one of many apps in the App Store that simulates the sounds of babbling brooks, chirping crickets, tinkling wind chimes, and when all else fails, the steady humming of a hair dryer or a yakking mob. Whatever gets you through the night, right?

White Noise has a wider range of ambient sounds and greater control over them than I’ve seen in similar noise makers (some selling for more than this app’s $0.99 price tag too).

It features 40 ambient backgrounds, ranging from the night sounds of the Amazon jungle, to the snap, pop and crackle of a fire, to the droning hum of city traffic.

The app displays 8 of its 40 ambient sounds on its home screen. To select your favorites from among all 40, go to the Sound Catalog, tap the Edit button and move each sound to the top of the list and they’ll appear on the home screen.

You can control the volume, balance and pitch of each sound to make, for example, the sound of a fan seem to speed up, or the sound of a passing train seem to slow. White Noise also features timer settings so you can fade sounds during the last minute of a preset time, trigger an alarm after a preset amount of time and to exit the app at a preset time to conserve battery power.

The interface is polished and nearly all your adjustments can be accomplished using slider controls.

I’m not a big fan of apps like White Noise that promise to alter your state of consciousness, but I have to admit, I like this one. If nothing else, the sounds of waves lapping at the beach took me away from a dreary cold day, if only for a few minutes.

app_name: White Noise
rating: 8/10

Entertaining Hearing Test Doubles as an Accurate Age Predictor

Derek Walter — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:30:43 +0000

Want to feel that you are losing your hearing? Then Hearing Test is the right app for you. It plays tones at eight different frequencies that are broken down by which age groups should normally be able to hear them. It starts with 8000 Hz, which supposedly all people can hear. It then goes all the way down to 18-year-olds and below, which are supposed to hear tones at a frequency of 20,000 Hz.

Fortunately there is a warning that this is not a diagnostic test, but simply for “entertainment purposes only.” Otherwise it might flip some people out when it turns out they fail the hearing test for their age group. Or there are those overachievers (like me) who wanted to be able to hear the sound from the 18 and below category even though I am…not 18.

Hearing Test is pretty easy to use. Tap on each of the icons and you will (hopefully) hear a high-toned pitch. On one level I was only able to hear a clicking sound. Then as I moved down the age categories I was able to hear nothing at all. Fortunately I was within my age range. Beyond the hearing tests there is an “about” page that gives some background on people’s hearing and reminds users not to take the results too seriously.

Perhaps Hearing Test would make a good “dog whistle” to summon teenagers or young children while adults could not hear the sound. Or this was programmed by Santa, who put in the same magic ingrediants as the bell at the end of the Polar Express that can only be heard by children. Either way, Hearing Test leads to a bit of fun as you can test the hearing of yourself and friends and family members. But of course don’t take Hearing Test too seriously — unless you find yourself wondering why you can’t hear any of the hearing tests.

app_name: Hearing Test
rating: 7/10

iFitness Needs A Workout

Keith Lewis — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:00:27 +0000

The iFitness app might be the place for some to re-start but for most it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Medical Productions Inc is the company behind iFitness. But who is Medical Productions Inc and what are their qualifications? Your guess is as good as mine. You’re probably inclined to find out through their website. Don’t waste your time, I’ve already attempted. I discovered a splash page with a snazzy picture of “medical professionals” examining an x-ray above the below text.

Medical Productions Inc. Founded by a team of medical experts, we strive to improve the world by making innovative products. Through the web, print and even mobile phones, our products embrace your way of life.

It’s been my experience, over the years, generally when someone sells you a fitness plan or workout routine they at least try and make you believe they have some type of expertise. Even some washed up actor/actress pimping their fitness wares on the Home Shopping Network has the sense to tell you something and attempt to give you the impression that you can trust their knowledge or lack thereof. But Medical Productions Inc leaves that door locked shut.

I decided to put my fear of not knowing who was providing me the information aside and delve into the iFitness app. I first noted that the directions page offers an excellent description of the icons and how to use this app. It provides a glimpse into the various sections beginning with the Exercise section which contains more than 115 exercises. It also details your ability to log exercises, track workouts, and how to access the instruction page of each individual exercise. Next I learn that the My Workout section allows me to add exercises and create my own workout routine. I scroll down to the Routines section and I find that these are pre-made exercise routines are designed by “our fitness experts” I’m once again reminded that I don’t know who “our” is or who their experts are. I press on and discover the Logs section provides a place to store all of your previous workouts.

I chose to explore the Exercise section and the first thing I noticed was a list of major body sections such as Abdominals, arms, back etc., additional options including exercises by muscle, complete list of exercises, and Add/Edit Custom Exercises. Upon selecting one of the options on the page I was led to a list of more specific options.

I selected “ab crunch on a ball” from the abdominal section. The next screen displayed two pictures of a man on a ball. One picture depicting the starting position and the other the finishing position. Immediately I notice the pictures seem a little off. Hard to say but it just seems as though they were made for another medium and not this app. I tapped into the information page of this exercise and found it to have a pretty good description of the exercise and how to perform it.

I continued to check out a number of exercises and their instructions. I found many of the instructions to be thrown together or seemingly cut and pasted from other sources. For instance the instructions for the step machine states:

For a gym owner, a step machine makes an excellent choice for a number of reasons…This makes them particularly popular with women, who are often highly focused on toning their butt and legs.

Further I found iFitness to be loaded with typos, which gives me pause. If they are sloppy enough to sell this product without proofreading it, how much effort was given to the research of exercises and development of routines. That said, although I did not examine each and every exercise and routine, I read quite a few and their descriptions and techniques seem to be consistent with some exercise books I’ve read and the diagrams on the machines of the gyms I’ve belonged to.

If you are a beginner I would pass on iFitness and find a source that documents the expertise of those providing the information.

For those of you that have been working out for a while and know the basics of routines and proper use of equipment, iFitness may be of use by providing you a list of so many exercises. You might find something that you like or haven’t done for years. ifitness also provides a way to maintain documentation of your workouts. If you’re like me and you write down every exercise and set in a composition notebook you won’t have to schlep that book around the gym.

app_name: iFitness
rating: 6/10

Health Cubby Connects Fitness Friends

Amelia Sauter — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:30:26 +0000

Health Cubby is a social fitness app from App Cubby. Health Cubby allows you to set your fitness goals on your iPhone and follow your own progress as well as the progress of your friends. This app does not support the tedious task of calorie counting, which is fine by me.

Health Cubby is not particularly inspiring by itself. Yes, you can track goals for how much exercise you plan to do, how many pounds or inches you want to lose and how many vices you would like to indulge in per week.

It seems that the inspiration and encouragement is meant to come mostly from your friends, assuming they also use Health Cubby. Because this program syncs to an online database, you can see how up to seven friends are doing in achieving their own goals, for example, who skipped another workout or who had too many cookies this week.

For an app with such a simple premise, the interface is extremely complicated. Though I referenced the extensive online user manual, I had difficulty navigating between the pages and figuring out what I was supposed to input where for who. Even after using Health Cubby for a few days, I still struggled to find my way around it. There are a few nice touches to the program: one is a weight loss graph. If you are competitive, you can track your friends on the graph as well. You can also export data via email into Excel.

I am not convinced that the Health Cubby app keeps track of anything that I do not already track in my own head. Maybe it would be fun to use in conjunction with friends, if you can get them to spend $9.99. You can try Health Cubby before you buy it: Health Cubby Lite is free and it lets you input up to ten records.

app_name: Health Cubby
rating: 6/10