SlapApp.com » Healthcare & Fitness

GeoPlay Golf

Rich DeBell — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:09:08 +0000

If you are a golf enthusiast and the proud owner of an iPhone then you have to play GeoPlay Golf! Developed by 10 and 2 Studios, Geoplay Golf is the first iPhone app game to take advantage of two of the iPhone’s most powerful features: the accelerometer and the GPS. The accelerometer in the iPhone can measure your swing speed and type to judge how well you hit your ball and with how much power. Also the GPS can track where the ball landed and then walk you to the exact location. You can plot a course wherever you can receive a GPS signal and if you’re in a lazy mood and wish to play indoors, just switch off GPS and Swing modes and play it like a traditional iPhone golf game.

Game play:

Geoplay Golf utilizes the iPhone’s built in accelerometer, so gamers must use their iPhone as their club. After dragging the screen in the direction you wish to swing, you will be prompted to point your phone down with the screen facing the hole. When you hear the ding sound, you can pull your phone back like a club and then swing.
Geoplay incorporates the iPhone built-in GPS. Once you turn on the GPS, your phone will create a map of your location then build a golf course out of it. Gamers can setup the location of the hole and tee according to their preference, as well as the size of the course. After you hit the ball, you can actually follow the on-screen GPS map to the golf ball and play it where it lies.
If you’d like to take your gaming experience one step further, you can also swap out the landscape on the screen with one of five built in environment themes. So, weather and professional in-game statistics of actual golfers are updated as you play.
With 15 environments to choose from you can create your custom course using traditional fairways and greens or fantasy courses including Arctic fields, construction sites, farm yards, and even moonscapes.

GeoPlay Golf for the iPhone or iPod Touch has some terrific graphics, some amazing functionality and is flat out Fun with a capital “F”. Any golf player or plain Gamer will enjoy this game for both it’s golf accuracies and unique gameplay and usage of the iPhone’s technology. Having the ability to make use of any location in the world adds a complexity to it so that it never gets old. With some additional social media and multiplayer enhancements GeoPlay Golf will be an instant SlapApp rated 5 fingers.

Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock

Ryan Johnson — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:18:49 +0000

I don’t know about you but I work pretty long days and typically hit the hay between 1-2 AM most nights. I know for a fact that I’m sleep deprived and could use a little help to keep me on track. In steps Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock by Proactive Life. This app isn’t just a replication of the iPhone’s built in alarm function, it has a handful of useful extras that help you get more sleep and wake up on time.

Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock has been developed with sleep and behavioral science in mind, and focusses most of it’s energies on the amount of sleep you get compared with the circadian component. These two components are the biggest indicators as to whether or not you’re getting a healthy amount of sleep. Circadian component is basically sleep relative to time of day and sunlight. There are chemicals in your eyes that even when shut can detect sunlight, get your melatonin pumping, and naturally try to wake you up. So basically, if you’re sleeping with sunlight tickling your eyelids then you’re not getting the same quality of sleep as you would in the middle of the night when it’s pitch dark.

So how does Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock help you sleep better? Well, it basically keeps track of your daily sleep habits and over time provides you with feedback as to whether or not you’re getting the amount of sleep you need. It does this by keeping a sleep diary for you. All you do is set a daily sleep goal, say 8 hours, and then each night when you set your alarm it starts recording the amount of time you sleep. The moment you stop the alarm from sounding in the morning you’re sleep total is logged. Because it’s a sleep diary you can easily record any other sleep you get during the day as well. So if you need a nap, set yourself an alarm, make a note that it’s a power nap, and it’ll add the time to you daily total. Depending on the amount of sleep you get Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock provides you with green, yellow, and red feedback. Green means you got the sleep you needed, yellow for when you’re under your goal by less than an hour, and red if you’re more than an hour under. Give yourself a week with this app and you’ll start to get an idea of how close you are to getting the amount of sleep you need to function at your best.

Something else I like about this app is that it has a feature that helps you wake up. Because I don’t get enough sleep, I have a heck of a time getting out of bed. Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock comes with a game to help you wake up in the morning. If you elect to turn the game mode on, then the moment you press the button to stop the alarm the game starts up. All you have to do is touch a sun image that appears on the screen serveral times. I realize this may sound pretty dumb, but it really does work. There’s an easy, medium, and hard setting, and in each case the game lasts just long enough to make you fully awake. Additionally your game performance is automatically tracked which helps give you a read on how groggy you are when you wake up, which is a sure sign you’re not getting quality z’s. Each morning that you’re more and more coherent when you play the game, your scores will increase, and it’ll be clear that you’re sleeping much better.

Overall I found Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock to be a great app. In addition to what I described above there are additional features built in to help you sleep and wake up easier. There’s a setting to play ambient music while you sleep, the standard alarm clock sound is pleasant, and you can choose to play your favorite song from your iPod as your alarm. You can even track your sleep on days that you don’t want to wake up to an alarm. There’s a “wake naturally” setting that’ll track your sleep time quietly and when you wake up just press the “permanently awakened” button to stop the timer. So no matter what you sleep preference is you can track your sleep adequately and by setting goals can improve your sleep habits and your overall health and fitness. If you’re in the market for an alarm clock/sleep improvement app I encourage you to give Proactive Sleep Alarm Clock a try.

Pros:

Works very well and is easy to use
Sleep diary and wakeup game are great features
I can definitely see this helping people improve their sleep habits
Option to track sleep without setting an alarm is nice
Set alarm to be your favorite song on your iPod definitely a plus

Cons:

Minor Bug: When on the Settings page if you press the Info tab it doesn’t do anything
The interface could be improved upon, especially the Info page

Version Reviewed: 1.2

Requirements: iPhone or iPod Touch; iPhone OS 3.0 or later

Runmeter GPS Running Stopwatch/Sports Watch

Ryan Johnson — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:32:23 +0000

If you’re an avid runner then you need to checkout Runmeter GPS. This app provides you with everything that high dollar running watches provide you with but at a microscopic fraction of the price. With just one touch of your finger Runmeter GPS automatically records your run time, distance, pace, average mile time, elevation climbed, distance to go, and a map of your run. When you open the app you can choose to create a new route or can select from a previous route.

Created by Abvio LLC, Runmeter GPS helps you meet and exceed your running goals with it’s plethora of built in features. Each time you perform a run it automatically catalogues your results in a calendar which you can view in the app or export. It plots out your route, which you can view and share via Google Maps, it creates a graph that shows the elevation changes during your run, and conveniently organizes each of your runs by routes and activities. You can even set the app to automatically post Twitter updates during your runs so you can keep your friends and running buddies up-to-date on your latest results.

Whenever you decide to take the same route again, Runmeter GPS has a feature that will treat your previous best run as competition to your new run. It’ll automatically provide you with audio feedback telling your how your comparing with your previous run. This feature is great because it helps push you to work harder each time you run. And, don’t worry, you don’t have to sacrifice listening to music while running with this app. It has a built in remote control feature that allows you to stop and start the stopwatch while listening to music ensuring that you don’t have to fumble around with your iPhone if you get caught at an intersection.

I got to try out Runmeter GPS while I was in San Francisco for the MacWorld 2010 conference. I liked every aspect of the app and definitely recommend to any and all runners. It’s got everything that both recreational and competitive runners need to get the most out of their daily runs. If you’d like to see how I did while using Runmeter GPS, click here to see my results.

Night Recorder

Steve — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:40:17 +0000

Are you suffering from a sleeping disorder such as loud snoring, talking, sleep walking or teeth grinding? Such disorders can lead to serious problems and can many times be hard to diagnose because in the morning you have no recollection of what had been done during the night before. Then your feeling like sh*@ because you either didn’t get enough sleep, have a wounded jaw from grinding your teeth all night, or wake up buck naked when you know you threw on that pair of comfy pajamas the evening before. If any of these problems plague you, then Night Recorder for iPhone is the app for you. This app is the only program that can help you find out what’s going on during those restless hours of the night by recording just what is happening during your sleep.

Night Recorder, by iPaguri, has a sophisticated way of recording. You set the sensitivity level on the VU audio meter for where you want the recording to trigger on. The lower the setting, the more the microphone will pick up. If the sensitivity level is set higher, it would only record louder sounds that reached that point on the meter. This a great way to tune the program to detect either the faintest whisper of the rumble of a snoring mammoth. I found the app to be very responsive. The sensitivity of the microphone and the development behind the way it triggers ON/OFF is really well done. Once the sensitivity has been set you must arm the device by hitting the ON switch. There are two modes for recording: “MORE” mode and “UNIQUE” mode. “MORE” mode creates individual audio clips every time the recording is activated, while “UNIQUE” mode compiles all the recordings into one continuous file. “MORE” mode is a great way to log all activity throughout the night as it also logs the exact date and time the recording took place. This way you have specific data that could be provided to a doctor if you were seeking treatment for your sleeping disorder.

The great thing about Night Recorder is this app works after the iPhone goes into standby mode. Even if the screen is off, as long as the app is launched and the ON button has been armed, you can record all night long! Another very cool feature with the app is the ability to connect via WiFi to your recordings so they can be accessed on a PC or Mac. When you click the WiFi button it pulls up a browser address. Type that address into your browser and this directs you to a personal page with all the recordings you have captured in the app. This feature could not be easier for accessing your files on a computer, making it a peace of cake if you need to email them out of burn the recordings to a disk.

Night Recorder also has an ultra slick interface that resembles an old school reel to reel analog tape recorder. Its got the VU audio meter that can be zoomed in on, a red record light, an ON/OF switch, as well as a Settings tab and a Files section for quick access to your recordings. The menu layout is very user friendly. Now if you don’t have a problem with sleeping disorders, there still might be another use for the app that could come in handy. The technology could easy be used as a spy recorder instead. It would actually be the perfect application for picking up dialog. The great thing about the app is you don’t need to worry about it continuously recording audio, (which would take up way too much space) as long as you have the sensitivity set to an equal level as your subject.

If we had any negative comments it would be to work on the VU meter’s needle graphic accuracy. For the most part it works great but there were times when the needle didn’t accurately represent the level of external noise produced. For example I had made the same sound repeatedly and got slightly different VU meter results. While this didn’t really affect the functionality of the application, it was a consistency issue that caught my eye. The other comment would be to enhance the overall directions on the settings page by supplementing in more text. The “MORE” mode and “UNQUE” mode could use better explanation of function. It would also be nice to include additional directions so people know where to set the sensitivity level on the app.

Overall, this is an excellent app and highly recommended. Its a good solution for those dealing with sleeping disorders, or those wanting to go under cover and spy on an unsuspecting subject. Night Recorder is a unique app that fits a specific niche, performs as advertised, and is easy to operate.

Poo Log

Ryan Johnson — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:59:50 +0000

Everyday each of us spend a little private time dropping a deuce….some more than others. On a good day you pass on a monster mister clean that smells good (to you), gives you a poorific head tingle, requires little to no wipeage, and with any luck it might even break the surface! On a bad day you might be executing frequent courtesy flushes, while performing your best impression of a New

Years Eve fireworks show. Why such extremes? Could it be that our poo is telling us something? Well, with the help of the poolicious Poo Log app for iPhone, you can finally learn what your poo is telling you!

Poo Log, created by AvatarLabs, is based on the best selling book “What’s Your Poo Telling You?”, and is full of poo-centric features that’re sure to bring out the poo lover in all of us. Crammed inside the app are a built in journal, timer, a clever mix of poo humor, tidbits of poo trivia, and driblets of real poo-based medical information. It even tracks and graphs your poo so you can see how your bowl movements vary over time! It’s poopified theme, pooptastic humor, and brain satisfying poo trivia ensure that your next poo, no matter what kind it is, will be an enjoyable experience.

The moment Poo Log opens it’s built in poo timer starts ticking. It quietly and unasummingly counts down the time it takes for you to ”doo” the deed! If you want, you can stop and start the timer at any time just by touching it. It’s up to you what you want to do from here. You can press the POO LOG button and review your history of poos by month and day, you can press the POO PASTIMES button and test out your poo trivia and medical knowledge, or you can check out the POO GRAPH and view your latest poo trends.

Personally I recommend going straight to POO PASTIMES. I found the questions both humerous and fairly challenging. I was also rather suprised with the depth of trivia questions. I’m not sure how many total are in the app, but I played for 24 minutes straight and didn’t see the same question twice. No matter which option you select, make sure that when you’re done with your dirty business you press the NEW POO button. It’s there that the date, time, duration, total score, and description of your poo experience are captured. Classify your poo by selecting from descriptions such as Delivery: Epidural please!, Couple of pushes, no grunts, and Smooth like butter, baby. You can even add notes if you’d like to remember a little something special from your recent blooper!

What can I say? Poo Log is a pretty unique and interesting little app. If you fancy yourself a discerning poo-er you’ll certainly enjoy it. We didn’t experience any bugs or issues while testing. The only thing we noticed was one measly little typo in one of the POO PASTIMES answers. False was spelled “Flase”. If you’ve been looking for something unique to help pass the time while on the pooper, why not get something that’ll help you learn what your poo is telling you! Go pinch yourself off your very own Poo Log from the App Store today!

ICEBeacon

Rich DeBell — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:16:19 +0000

ICEBeacon, created by Clear Wave Mobile, is a potentially useful little app. When I say useful I mean that it has the potential to be literally a lifesaver for someone. The basic functionality of ICEBeacon is that it provides a quick and easy way for users to send pre-setup texts to people in the event of an emergency. The user can have all of their important medical and personal information that would be needed in the event of an emergency sent to important contacts such as loved ones, gaurdians, doctors, etc.

The important thing is that all of this information is filled out initially when you purchase and install the application. Once this inital setup is complete, hopefully the user will never have a need to use the app again. But in case of an emergency all that is required is to push a button within the app and an emergency text will be sent out immediatly to anyone the user set up to recieve it.

Here are some of ICEBeacon’s features:

One-touch activation
Sends four automatic text messages
Picture for identification
Name, age, blood type, allergies, medications, medical condition
Insurance information

All in all I like the idea of having an app like this in my phone “just in case”. I can say that I’m not really sure how often something like this would actually be necessary though. This could be really usefull for elderly people as they might be most likely to have a large list of medical issues and are also most likely to need medical assistance. You do need to have a cell or internet connection for this app to work obviously so that can be one drawback if you are somewhere very remote.

I gave this app a solid 4 finger ranking because I believe it can be useful for certain people that have medical issues. Also it’s very easy to use. A recent update to the app now allows it to leverage the iPhone GPS and also send out texts worldwide; a handy upgrade.

One last item to mention about the app is that ICEBeacon’s App Store description also highlights that it is the only such app to have partnered with the American Red Cross. It helps a little with the app cost to know that a portion of it is going to a good cause.

“Through a partnership with the American Red Cross, 25 cents from every download will be donated to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, with Clearwave Mobile committing a minimum of $250,000 in donations by July 1, 2010. The Disaster Relief Fund enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to victims of all disasters.”

Drink Tracker Breathalyzer

Rich DeBell — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:37:11 +0000

Drink Tracker Breathalyzer is created by Greg Slapp of slappme.com. I found it to be a useful iPhone application if your a person, like myself who enjoys going out and having a few cocktails from time to time. Though I can’t vouch for how exactly accurate it is, since I don’t have access to a real breathalyzer machine to compare the numbers, it does seem as though it takes into account enough variables to give a user a good estimate on their current BAC (Blood Achohol Content) number. This of course is useful if you are out for the night and want to ensure you stay within legal limit of being able to drive. Given that you can’t truly account for the exact accuracy though if you are using this for that pupose I would always be cautious and assume it’s slightly over the value shown so as to be safe.

I’d say Drink Tracker Breathalyzer is definilty an app worth dowloading. The user interface is very easy to setup and use. One feature I really like is that it automatically recalculates your BAC every 60 seconds to account for the time change. Also you can leave the app and then come back to it and your current session will still be active.

Here are some features of Drink Tracker Breathalyzer:

BAC calculated and displayed in real time, even when the app is turned off. No manual refreshing or re-inputting required.
Supports Imperial, US and Metric measurement systems.
Store and retain editable profiles (age, height, weight, gender) for multiple drinkers.
A target BAC can also be set for each profile, with a countdown timer showing how long before the target BAC is reached. BAC display is colour coded to show when BAC target has been reached.
Add your own favourite drinks to “My Drinks” for fast and easy selection later on. All drink details are fully editable at any time. Manually sort your drink list into the order you want.
Add drinks to the current session now or at a previous time. You can also remove drinks after they’ve been added if you make a mistake.
Full report on current drinking session including duration, details of drinks consumed and time left to reach target BAC

Pocket Paradise

Steve — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:06:44 +0000

Pocket Paradise takes a tranquil soundscape experience and ties in visual elements to emulate a beach side retreat. Emerge yourself in a tropical paradise and control the environment around you. In Pocket Paradise, you can set the rate for the passage of time, so you can sit back and enjoy a sunny day or fast-forward to find yourself chillin by a campfire in the moonlight. It’s all up to you. Control every feature of your setting by adding elements like lapping water, gentle waves, heavy surf, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, sea birds, whales, crickets, burning campfire, rainbow, and sailboats. Once you come up with the perfect utopia you can save the scene for future relaxation sessions or pick from a list of preset worlds at your own leisure. Additional features include a built-in timer, a shuffle button to randomly switch up the experience, and music options.

Pocket Paradise is unique in a sense that it gives the user the ability to not only control the soundscape but also the visual surroundings with props and time of day adjustments. We gave Pocket Paradise a three-finger review because we enjoyed the app, but also think there’s room for improvement. What could potentially bump up the rating is if the developer provided more interaction between the user and the scene. Give the user the ability to navigate around a 3D environment, or add a 3D landscape rotation feature, as well as the ability to interact with the surrounding items by touching, scanning, scaling, and rotating. That could send this app to the next level.

We did encounter two crashes during the review process, but were unable to replicate the problem so they were likely to be isolated incidents, which should not effect your decision to purchase the application. If you are looking to escape reality and just want to unwind a bit after a hard day, grab those headphones, sit back, and let Pocket Paradise relax your mind.