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Buyer's Guide: The Best Monitors 
Health and Well-Being Apps
Romain Thuret / Florence Legrand
Updated: June 4, 2010
Updated: June 4, 2010
The iPhone has your well-being at heart. Or at least some of the available apps do. Veritable swiss army knife 2.0 that it is, the Apple phone could hardly escape our health and well-being obsessions. After all, given that you've got the thing at your side all day, might as well use it to save your skin if the occasion arises.
What with advice on diagnosis and treatment, dieting, sleep patterns, first aid and fitness, today's Appzone is given over to the body.
What with advice on diagnosis and treatment, dieting, sleep patterns, first aid and fitness, today's Appzone is given over to the body.
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 Forgot to take it, no excuses The principle is simple: every day for 21 days, PillReminder sends you a push alert reminding you to take your contraceptive pill. You can also set it up for treatments such as allergy medication. Thankfully, cycle times can be adjusted. Of course, any woman can program an alarm on pretty much any phone these days, but here the push alert is more discreet, as if you were receiving an SMS (up to you if you want to activate the audio alert or not).  Price: £0.59Developer: Winkpass Creations
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The pocket dietician! This very popular app allows you to manage calorie intake according to your nutritional needs, weight and exercise. The database includes more than 110,000 food items and gives daily info on calories, fat, saturated fat, protein, carbs, sugars, sodium & fiber. With nice displays, there's no need for an internet connection as the database is kept offline. A very effective tool to combine dieting and exercise, used by diabetics, athletes and weight watchers alike. Allows you to factor in your own recipes and home made foods. Still lacking in UK specifics and therefore loses a star. Price: £2.39Developer: Nanobit d.o.o. |
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Waking up on the right side
Hard to get up on the right side of the bed in the morning? Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock promises easier mornings by analysing your sleep patterns. You simply place the iPhone under your pillow, preferably under the sheet so as to wedge it in properly. The accelerometer and app program do the rest. According to data it collects during the night Sleep Alarm wakes you up a maximum of half an hour before the time on the alarm. You can check out your sleep graph each morning. The app works relatively well if your sleep is undisturbed (you're woken at just the right time, fresh and raring to go) but if you're agitated at night it seems slightly random. Price: £0.59 Developer: LexWare Labs |
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 iFirstAid
Or how to carry the tools needed to save someone's life. Released in beta version in February this year the St John's app has become the UK's best selling medical app in a very short space of time. Motivated by the stats showing people are not receiving all the first aid emergency care they could be, St Johns is aiming first aid knowledge at iPhone users. The app includes the latest advice and protocols, is simple to follow and includes illustrations and voiced instructions. Based on UK protocols and and includes both UK and EU emergency services numbers. Price: £2.39 Developer: St John Ambulance
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Your mobile coach
With over 300 exercises for keeping in shape, this is an immensely popular app. While there are all sorts of general exercises, the best thing here is the way you can concentrate on particular zones of the body (arms, torso, thighs, abdominals and so on). Each exercise is accompanied with advice and visual demos. Around 50 of the exercises in the database can be carried out without the need for any equipment and you can draw up your own program from the database according to your requirements and desires. Unfortunately there's no repetition counter. A good app for getting yourself in shape for the summer, if you're motivated! Price: £1.19 Developer: Medical Productions.
See also: Joggy Coach / Price: £0.59 |
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 Treatment and diagnosis guide
For those of you who auto-medicate, here's the ideal tool. SymptomMD indexes a whole host of illnesses and complaints and offers the advice and treatments necessary to take care of them. A useful reference for managing minor illnesses and injuries.
For concerned parents a pediatric version of the app is available to help diagnose your child's health issues. Price: £1.79 Developer: Self Care DecisionsSee also: Pediatric SymptomMD / Price: £1.19 |
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Track the fat
Ideally you need the Wi-Fi scales by WiThings to go with this app. Without it, Wiscale will only calculate your body mass index. The WiThing scale, on sale at £119, calculates and monitors weight and the Wiscale app then receives your data by Wi-Fi. The data is then stored in a database that you can consult whenever you choose. Better still it draws a graph of your weight and fat mass over time. A good way of getting yourself in hand. Price: free appDeveloper: WiThings |
