Tag Archives: iphone

Apple Files Patent to Combine Handhelds and Gym Equipment

The Apple Corporation has filed a patent that will help people workout together and share their results no matter where they are in the world. The patent that was filed last October is for Interfacing Portable Media Devices and Sports Equipment and this new technology would help owners of Apple products like the iPhone share their workout data and performance information with others regardless of where they are in the world. Things like your speed or heart rate would appear in real time on your friend’s handheld display along with their own, provided both users have Wi-Fi or a cellular network connection. Many people are using media players like the iPhone to track their performance as well as to have a distraction while working out, but until now, the missing component was an easy way to insert data into your handheld device and share it in real time with others.

In a statement, Apple wrote, “an exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides sports equipment that is capable of writing workout data to a media player. The workout data may be data related to contemporaneous workout activity. The sports equipment may include a connector or connector insert for mating to a connector receptacle on a media player to form a communication link. The sports equipment may also have wireless or optical circuitry that may be used to establish a communication link with the media player.”

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Posted on February 14, 2024 by Descygna

Meal Planning is a Snap with Mobile Apps

By Jill Buonomo

What’s one thing most busy parents have in common? Trying to get through their day while mulling over the question, “What’s for dinner?”

We could all use a little help to ensure that healthy and affordable meals make it to the table every evening, and mobile meal planning apps make that possible. It’s easier than ever to take a moment at lunch or during your child’s soccer practice to thumb through your phone and put together that night’s dinner, or even be proactive and plan the entire week’s meal plan.

Check out some of the best meal planning apps available.

Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)

The highly popular food writer and author has made cooking and meal planning that much easier with an app version of the bestselling cookbook How to Cook Everything.

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Posted on October 21, 2023 by Health Buzz

Jawbone UP Wristband Has Potential To Ease Healthy Changes

The first step in creating healthier habits is to know your baseline, where you are starting and what areas need the most improvement. “I need to eat healthier” is very vague and does not tell you what to do. When you do know which direction to go, it is important to know the first step and not bite off more than you can chew. Another important step to making a change in your behavior is to track your progress and recognize incremental improvements. If we do not allow ourselves to feel good about the small steps toward improvement that we make, the process can seem overwhelming, and we can be tempted to give up on our goals.

While there are many smartphone apps that can aid in tracking and even some that can make suggestions for improvements, perfect for busy days where taking the time to write down what you are doing and eating is likely to fall to the bottom of your to-do list. While you can start again the next day, many people stop using an app once they have missed a day or two. I am hopeful the new UP bracelet from Jawbone may make the entire process of creating healthier habits easier.

The Jawbone UP is a waterproof wristband, similar in size to a Livestrong band, with embedded sensors that connect to your smartphone to track behaviors such as eating, sleep, and physical activity. It is expected to be released by the end of this year. The free app will track your data and make suggestions for improvement. It sounds like suggestions will be made using the kaizen theory. It sounds really cool that you can input your daily diet by snapping photos of your food, but I wonder how much people will follow through with this. I am also interested to see just how the app works and if it includes push notifications.

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Posted on August 24, 2023 by Brooke Randolph

Foodish Lets You Journal Without the Calorie Count

There are many food journaling apps out there, and most of them are geared towards helping users count calories and lose weight. The Foodish iPhone app takes the diet journal in a new direction. The user takes photos of their meals and the app keeps a record, allowing the user to give each item a rating with an emoticon. You can then share your pic on Twitter and Facebook.

The makers of the app describe it as “the elegant and modern way to track a diet for all those who don’t want to mess scales and calories.” Basically, the app will not tell you if your meal was healthy or not, but it can help you be more aware of what you’re eating and how much. This is particularly true because you have to photograph your food before you eat it, allowing you enough time to think twice. If you’re looking for an app that will inform you about the nutritional value of the foods you’re eating, you will be better off with something like FoodFacts or Fooducate.

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Posted on June 15, 2023 by Margaret

FoodFacts iPhone App Helps with Healthy Choices on the Go

It’s no secret that food packaging can be misleading. While most people know that reading the ingredients list on packaged foods is important, they may not necessarily always take the time to do it. FoodFacts.com is a site that’s designed to help users figure out if a food product is healthy in a snap, and now they have an iPhone app that makes this process even easier to use in the grocery store.

Like the site, the FoodFacts app allows users to look up a health score for nearly every item in the grocery store. The scores are on a scale of 1 to 100, with a higher score indicating a healthier food. In addition to a food’s score, FoodFacts also provides you with the list of ingredients, nutrition facts and potential allergens. From there, you can add the food to a grocery list or save it as a favorite for later reference.

The FoodFacts.com iPhone also allows you to perform a general search using a filter for ingredients you may wish to avoid, like dairy, gluten, sugars or trans-fat. This allows you to find products you can have, without reading through many different nutrition panels. Users have the option of searching individual products by typing in their names or by scanning the bar code. You can also create a personalized profile that helps the app to remember what ingredients you wish to avoid.

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Posted on June 10, 2023 by Margaret

Use Fooducate to Make Schooled Food Choices

There’s a new free iPhone app that can help you simplify grocery shopping choices. Fooducate, created by Hemi Weingarten, is a super simple app that lets you know if a food is healthy or not using a letter grade. Scan a bar code on any food item, and the app will return that food’s grade, the number of calories per serving, and how many users like the food. Fooducate will also give you a few notes explaining that food’s letter grade, and suggest healthier items.

You can also easily scan a second food and compare the two. The less healthy food will be grayed out. For example, I compared a frozen Cedar Lane burrito with an Amy’s frozen burrito. The Amy’s burrito got a lower grade than the Cedar Lane version. While the app does provide some additional info about each food, like vitamins, controversial food additives, artificial food coloring and added sugars, I had a hard time understanding why the Cedar Lane Burrito did better. It seemed that Amy’s suffered from having a higher calorie count, although it contains organic ingredients.

According to app’s website, Fooducate analyzes foods based on their calories and ingredients, weighting “nutrients to limit” (saturated fat, sodium, sugar) against “food to encourage” (fiber). So, it doesn’t look like organic ingredients play a role into the grade.

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Posted on May 9, 2024 by Margaret

Apple May Create iPhone Fitness App with Social Networking

Is Apple working to create the iTunes of fitness apps? That’s what it looks like from a recent patent application, first reported by AppleInsider. The application, titled “Systems and Methods for Accessing Personalized Fitness Services Using a Portable Electronic Device,” lays out the plans for a piece of software that could help people reach a variety of fitness goals.

The application would provide a number of services, such as finding a gym, seeing fitness class schedules, creating and keeping goals, counting calories and even providing workout guides and how-to videos. There will also be a social aspect of the app, allowing uses to share their accomplishments and challenge their friends.

While apps like MapMyFitness and RunKeeper Pro already allow users to track and share their workouts, Apple seems to be looking to build a product that other fitness companies can use to sell their services. Users would be able to see available services and receive incentives to join, such as coupons or discounts. There are also a number of “upsell” opportunities, such as personal trainer services once you’re already at the gym, play-lists that might be heard during a class or even equipment.

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Posted on April 28, 2024 by Margaret

Food Puzzle Food Journal App Is Puzzling

A food journaling app that prides itself on being different, Food Puzzle not only helps users keep track of calories and daily intake of key nutrients, it also can make suggestions to help you create a balanced meal-plan. Although this iPhone and iPad app offers a great concept, they still have a few kinks to work through.

After registering with your name, email and stats, you can go to the “Search” tool and find the foods you have eaten that day. After you have saved several foods for the day (by hitting the “I ate this” button), click over to “Meters” to see what percentage of calories you’ve used for the day, in addition to how much of 14 essential nutrients you’ve consumed, plus sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat and total fat. You can use the “Sliders” feature to get recommendations of foods that contain these nutrients from a variety of categories, like cereal, dairy, fruits, veggies and even fast food. If a food you have eaten is not in the database, then you can manually input the item using the “+ Food” feature (which confusingly does not add food to your daily journal). When you input a new food, be prepared to have all the nutrition info handy, as it’s not provided for you, not just calories. Go over to the “Trainer” feature to add any physical actives you’ve done.

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Posted on January 20, 2024 by Margaret

Create Your Own Yoga Class with the Asanamix Yoga iPhone App

Do you ever wish you could choose the stretches and positions that you do in yoga class? Or wanted to continue your yoga practice at home, but didn’t know where to start? Now there’s a great way to get the yoga class you want without being a yoga pro yourself with the Asanamix Yoga iPhone app.

The creators of Asanamix Yoga describe it as a “modular yoga kit” that allows you to create a guided practice that’s exactly the way you want it. This is an app that’s great for someone who is familiar with the basics of yoga, but still wants guidance for sequences. The iPhone app comes with two hours of audio modules narrated by yoga instructor Ariel Albani. You can combine these tracks with music from your iTunes library and arrange them as you like.

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Posted on January 10, 2024 by Health Buzz

Weight Loss Hypnosis…the iPhone App?

Hypnosis can be an effective treatment for a variety of conditions related to mental health. Those who are seeking to lose weight can use suggestion therapy hypnosis to change unhealthy habits or curb cravings. According to WebMD, hypnosis is usually performed by a licensed or certified mental health professional who is specially trained in the technique. However, self-hypnosis is sometimes promoted at a means of stress-relief.

Now, there’s an iPhone app that claims it can hypnotize you for weight loss benefits. Believe In Weight Loss with Hypnosis uses Benjamin P Bonetti’s hypnosis techniques to change your associations with food. Bonetti is a motivational speaker who has a large collection of self-help publications and recordings.

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Posted on January 10, 2024 by Health Buzz

Strengthen Your Core and Stomach with the Core Fitness App

There are many benefits to having strong core muscles. Not only are these muscles important for balance and stability, but they also support the movements of the leg and arms while preventing injury.

Core Fitness is a new iPhone app that can help you strengthen this area. It uses a 40-minutes workout comprised of yoga stretches and resistance training exercised that work your upper legs, hips, buttocks, back, abs and shoulders. The creators of the app promise that you can see results by doing this workout just three or four times per week.

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Posted on January 10, 2024 by Health Buzz

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