While it's pretty easy to look at a nutrition label on a food package, you not only have to know what you're looking at but you also have no way of knowing which one is better for you unless you manually compare the two. Fooducate Plus aims to make this process as easy as scanning a UPC label. Instead of having to decipher those crazy ingredients Fooducate Plus gives you a simple letter grade. The lower the grade the worse the product is for you. This is cool, but what makes this feature really sing is the ability to scan two products and have it compare them for you. This way you'll know at a glance which one to keep and which one to put back on the shelf. Even if you don't have a second choice in hand, Fooducate Plus can recommend alternatives right in the App. No further scanning necessary. There's even a social aspect to it that allows you to "Like" or "Don't Like" a particular item. The likes for a particular product are displayed as well. 

I can't really find anything wrong with this product functionally. I love the fact that you get a nice box shot of the product, but I would like to see the text in a slightly larger point size. Other than that, I give this App two thumbs up. 

You can get Fooducate Plus (ad free) for $3.99 here from the 

You can get Foodcate for Free here from the 

Special thanks goes out to my buddy Dave Marra for this App suggestion!

When Apple introduced iOS 4 one of the things they opened the door to was more device connectivity. Withings is delivering on the promise with an iOS connected Blood Pressure Monitor (read my review of the hardware here). The App doesn't really do you any good without the Withings devices. However, now with either the Withings WiFi Scale or their Blood Pressure Monitor you can use your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to track your progress. With the Blood Pressure Monitor (BPM) in particular your iOS device serves as the display. The BMP connects directly to the dock connector on your iDevice and you control it from the the touch screen. Once the reading has been taken your iDevice transmits the results to your free Withings account. You can even email the results to your doctor. 

While the App works well there is a little room for improvement. First off on the iPad in particular the graphs don't seem to be as optimized for the larger iPad display as they could be. In some cases I've even see seen the lines disappear as if they are too thin to display.  I'd also like to see some more sharing options besides just emailing the blood pressure info or sharing weighings with other Withings users I'd like to have my weight automatically emailed to my health coach each time I weigh myself. That is certainly not rocket science and very doable either from the online account or from the iOS App.  Other than that if you have the budget for the devices, they are a fun way to track your weight and blood pressure. It's nice that the App doesn't have to talk directly to the scale. This way you can just weigh yourself without having to first look for your iDevice. The App is sync'd with your account online and shows a push notification once a new reading is available. Nicely done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJlu7Q2J1bU

You can get the WiScale App for Free here from the 

Get the WiFi Scale here for $159

Get the Blood Pressure Monitor here for $129

 I've lost over 50 lbs in the past year primarily by doing a good job of sticking to my diet. However, it's time to step things up a bit and get back into a regular exercise routine. I have an elliptical machine and swimming pool at home as well as some free weights. I'd be lying if I said I knew what I was doing on any of them. Sure I can set the elliptical machine to 30 minutes and go! However, is that enough? Probably not! So if I were to design a fitness App for the iPad I would want to have tons of different exercises in it with pictures, explanations of the exercises as well as videos on how to do them. I'd want to be able to build an exercise program with my own workouts as well as suggested routines and the ability to track my progress. 

iFitness HD is exactly what I'd ask for and more

I was quite surprised at how comprehensive this App was and how loaded it is with info. There are over 330 exercises built-in. If that's not enough you can even add your own custom ones. Although there isn't a video for every exercise, the short videos showing you exactly how to perform the exercises are a huge plus. It's rich with tracking abilities too. You can monitor your schedule via a nice built-in calendar and even export your logs via email in CSV (txt format) or PDF. There's even a built-in BMI calculator (I hate looking at that thing! LOL) If you have the iPhone version you can sync the data between them. There's a built in timer for many of the workouts too. This App definitely seems to have it all! However, there's one thing that I would definitely like to see added. One of the problems working out alone is that, well you're alone. There doesn't seem to be any audio in this App. I'd love to have the App count out my repetitions as I do them as well as having an audible  time. In other works I'd want more of a workout "video" trainer when possible. The iPad has a nice large display and is great to prop up and watch as you work out. I often sit it on my elliptical machine and watch podcasts while working out. It would be cool to have a workout instructor guide me verbally as well as visually. The only other thing is that the App for some reason doesn't work in landscape view. It's not a big deal just surprising that everything is portrait. Otherwise this App has it all. 

You can get iFitness HD for the introductory price of $3.99 here from the 

Let's face it! The health care system in the US is FAR from perfect and while I'm not going to get into the healthcare debate (as passions on both sides are high), I will take a few moments to highlight an App for my local community. The Detroit Medical Centers must be pretty proud of their Emergency Room efficiency because they're willing to tell you what most hospitals won't. They released a FREE App for iPhone, iPod touch (and it works on iPad) to show you at a glance at any given time what the ER wait times are for DMC hospitals. The App can detect your current location and give you the distance to the nearest facilities and their current wait times. Let's face it, a few minutes can make all the difference in the world when you're in an emergency medical situation. So I while I hope I NEVER need this App, it's great to know that it's available and on my iPhone. The App not only gives you the wait times, but if you tap a facility you can get the phone numbers and see where it's located on the map. 

You can get the DMC ER Wait Times App for FREE here from the App Store: 

The Bottom Line

It's a shame that an App like this needs to exist. However, I'm glad that it does. While the App works as advertised the only thing I would tweak is that the list of hospitals should be listed in either the order of wait times OR the closest to my current location. At this point I can't figure out what order they are actually listed in. Seems like a random order. Other than that, if you live in Southeastern Michigan you can't go wrong with this App on your iDevice.

I can't sleep on planes, I can't sleep when my mind is going a thousand miles a minute and I don't like to take drugs. So the promise that there's an App for that really intrigues me. This app comes as a recommendation from one of my colleagues at work. She said, "you gotta get this app!" So I did and I gotta say, it works.

Ambient Music on Demand

The goal of Pure Sleep is to provide you with ambient music to help you sleep at the tap of a button. The app features 9 original tracks plus 3 additional Entrainment Effects called Sleep, Deep Sleep and Power Nap. As you would expect the app provides seamless loops and of course a count down timer and auto quit feature. 

But does it work?

On a recent international trip my sleep clock was all messed up. So I decided to download this app and give it a try. As a matter of fact I'm writing this very review right before bed and right before I use this app. The goal is that if it works and I fall asleep faster as a result then I won't wake up and change or delete this review. I'm gonna try "Desert Sunrise" (I don't know why. I just like the title).

So if you're reading this the experiment was a total success and I highly recommend this app

Here's a great travel "acoustic" speaker for your iPhone to go with it.

Stereo speakers are recommended, but this is better than nothing.

The Bottom Line

Everyone is different and I for one usually can't stand any sound when I'm trying to sleep. I like total darkness and total silence. However, on the road it isn't always easy to get the best sleep environment. So I'll take any solution that really works and well if you're reading this I'm sound asleep as a result of this app.

P.S. I actually found "The Power Plant" track to be more soothing. 

There are two things I always tell New iPhone owners. The first one is to lock your iPhone (or iPod touch) with a 4 digit PIN. This way if your iPhone is ever lost or stolen no one can just pick it up and go town with all your information. The second thing I tell people is to create a custom wallpaper image that displays not only your favorite picture, but also some information about you and emergency contact info. While this could be done on your computer in an app like Photoshop, there's actually an app for that and it's FREE!

Close Call – Just get it!

There are apps out there that let you log in all of your emergency contact info and allergies, but these apps don't you much good if you're lying there unconscious and your iPhone is locked. Close Call is a free app for the iPhone/iPod touch that let's create a custom wallpaper image with an emergency phone number and up to 35 characters of text that you can use for things like your name, allergies, medicines that you are on, etc. This info is perfectly positioned on the image of your choice from your library so that it displays even if your iPhone/iPod touch is locked!

Once you set up your custom wallpaper, Close Call will save it to your Camera Roll so that you can make it your default Wallpaper.

The only thing I would ask for is to have an option for a second line of text. It's kinda hard to fit your name and potential allergies/medicines in only 35 characters. However, the app works and you can put in the most important info. It's also nice that you can choose the emergency contact number from an existing contact.

This app was recently featured in one of Apple iPhone commercials. I believe the line was "if you want to count calories, there's an app for that." I was sitting there watching LOST and when I saw the ad, I picked up my iPhone and downloaded it. I was blown away by this app from the start. It's so much more than just counting calories. This is a complete fitness, diet, nutrition tracking app. I was using Weight Tracker (another fine app) before this one, but Lose It! does everything Weight Tracker does and a lot more.

Getting Started

You start out by simply inputting your current weight and then your goal weight. Lose It! then prompts you with number pounds you would like to lose each week to meet your goal. In my case I could have either chosen 1 or 2 pounds a week. Then it tells you the date by which you should meet your goal. Next it figures out a per day Calorie Budget. Whatever this number is, if you stay under it, you should reach your goal. It even takes into account exercises that you do and adds those calories burned back in to your budget for that day. 

Figuring out how much you can eat

I was also blown away by the extensive database of foods that are already in its database. You simply tell it what you have/had for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and it will subtract those calories from your budget. Of course it can't possibly know the calories for everything. So you can easily add your own custom foods or foods that aren't in its database. Many restaurants now have their nutrition information on their websites. This has been very helpful for me. I was surprised to see how many calories there were in some of my favorite foods at like P.F. Chang's vs. some of the other foods I eat at the same restaurant! It was really eye opening. 

Tracking your progress

You enter in your weight each day (or as often as you like) and Lose It! will track your progress with a nice graph. It will also tell you how much you are under or over your calorie budget each day and for the week.

It even has one of my favorite activities/exercises…… er, um Scuba Diving!  

The Bottom Line

We are all trying to live a little healthier these days and having this app has really made a difference for me! I much more conscious of calories than I ever would have been without. I've already lost 7+ pounds since I've been using it. The most amazing thing to me is that this app is FREE! That's right, there's no charge. I'm stunned by how well this app is designed and that it doesn't cost a dime. It works on both the iPhone and iPod touch.

You can download Lose It! here from the App Store: