iPhone App

Check out FitSugar reader spacekatgal's very thorough review and comparison of two running gadgets from the community group RunningSugar.

Running is generally a cheap sport — good shoes and good music are generally all you need. However, like most other sports, the deeper you get into it the more you start eying professional gear. For runners, that means heart rate monitors and GPS devices. They help you quantify data about your speed, your heart rate, and your distance. When used properly, they can help push your runs to the next level.

RunKeeper Pro is a $10 download for iPhone, and one of the highest rated running apps available. It tracks your distance and time with your iPhone’s GPS chip. The $315 Garmin Forerunner 405 is a top-of-the-line GPS watch. It uses the same technology to track your runs, and has an optional heart rate monitor. Can a $10 iPhone app compete with one of best reviewed pieces of running equipment available? Find out when you read more

Here's a post from OnSugar blog Apartmentalizing:

Earlier this month, The New York Times launched a new (and free) iPhone app that directs the wealth of info from their real estate webpage straight to your mobile device. This seems perfect for the apartment hunter on the go since you can browse listings by zipcode, price, size, etc, and view them on a map with directions from your location.  You can also upload your own notes and photos to keep tabs in real time on what you've seen and liked (or hated!). Want to hear more about the app?

If Tiger Woods had a time machine, he might go back and install this app. Though it's not actually named for the adultering golfer, TigerText is another reason why cheating partners and spouses might have a newfound friend in the iPhone.

While other iPhone apps, like iTrust help to safeguard against nosy partners, TigerText goes one step further to ensure that even if your partner's snooping around they likely won't find anything. Allowing users to set a time limit on the lifespan of the texts sent from their phone, illicit messages will vanish from the sender's outbox and the recipient's inbox, and can't be forwarded or stored on any servers.

Basically, it gives senders a free pass to say almost anything, with the assurance that it can't be recorded — and they can't be accountable. Sure, it might give Tiger and other high-profile cheaters a free pass, but what about shady business deals and political scandal — I think this offers a little more in the way of insurance than a pass on momentary stupidity. For any kind of indiscretion, this app is a Hail Mary.

You can harness the power of the GPS on your iPhone 3G/3GS to map your run while you're on the go with Runmeter. This app keeps all your data on your phone — no need to log onto a website or sync with another gadget. Runmeter tracks your distance, speed, time, elevation, and many other stats, and gives you audio updates of these stats while you're running. The app is designed to work with your iTunes playing, and you receive audio updates as often as you choose — I like to hear them every five minutes myself. If you don't run with music, no worries; Runmeter gives you audio updates through the speaker on your iPhone.

This little app functions as a motivational tool, too. Using Runmeter, you can compete against yourself — the app gives you feedback while you're running and compares it to previous data. This is great for tracking progress and helping you kick your speed into a higher gear. Another feature I like is that you can easily share your Google Map links of your runs by sending them to friends or to your Twitter account.

The only piece of information this app is missing is your heart rate, so you still need to wear your monitor, but it's nice not to worry about a footpod or other GPS device. I also found that when running on my lunch breaks in downtown San Francisco, tall buildings interfere with the GPS on my iPhone, making it difficult for the app to do its thing. Out in the open, though, Runmeter runs just fine.

You can purchase the app at iTunes for $4.99 — significantly cheaper than a new GPS watch.

Have you started keeping a food journal yet for this week's Get Fit For 2010 weekly challenge? We've got a cool food journal that you can print out, but if you're a tech geek like me you might be scratching your head at the idea of putting pen to paper. Try Lose It instead — a free iPhone app that helps users manage their weight by tracking their calorie intake.

To start, you enter in your current weight, age, height, gender, goal weight, and how many pounds you want to lose each week to reach your goal (up to two pounds). Based on this information, Lose It creates a weight loss plan for you. For example: a 146-pound, 5-foot-2, 30-year-old woman wants to drop down to 130 lbs. by losing one pound each week. If she starts today, Lose It estimates that she can reach her goal by May 17, 2010, with a daily calorie budget of 1,439.

To see how easy it is to use, read more

Pepsi's Amp Up energy drink (another one?!) has created a free iPhone app that gives players "up-to-the-minute info, feeds, lines" so that they can talk to their favorite kinds of women — "24 in all."

Basically, men can either get tips before they score, or they can upload details of their hookups as a result of these indubitably useful apps after they score. Nice touch, Pepsi.

I would rename this the "wishful thinking app." Because what guy who would ask his phone how he should speak to a "punk" woman because she's "staring holes into him" is really scoring at all? I love when the guy in the commercial clicks on the punk cartoon girl and it takes him to a definition of punk ("Punk rock is a genre that . . ."). Wow.

This app may try to help a man score one of 24 types of women, but it seems to be marketed to only one kind of dude: a loser.

(Tell GeekSugar the weirdest iPhone app you've ever seen and read about Pepsi's official apology.)

If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, I hope you're taking advantage of all the great health and fitness apps available. I just downloaded a new healthy app from Women's Health — the Slim Down Shopping List. It is cool, easy to use, and best of all it's free!

For more details and to see some pics of this application action keep reading

Walking or running on a treadmill is great if you want to track your distance easily, and also have a safe, clean place to run whenever you please. The problem is, it can get boring staying in one place all the time. So you can turn your neighborhood sidewalk or woodsy trail into your own personal treadmill with this iPod Touch and iPhone application called iTreadmill. It's a glorified pedometer that not only counts your steps, but can also record your distance in miles or kilometers, and the calories you've burned. I especially loved the pace setting feature. Say your goal is to run at a specific speed, say 5 mph, this app will continuously click at a certain beat so you know how fast to step in order to meet that goal. It's really easy to slow down or speed up the pace by "spinning" the wheel on the right side of the screen. Another cool feature is auto-pause. When I stopped to tie my shoe, the timer paused until I start moving again. Check out the video demo below to see how it works.

There's a free version you can download, but it will only keep track for about a quarter of a mile. I say splurge for the complete application, since it only costs $2.99. It's really motivated me to work out since it's so fun and easy to use.

Do you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch? Tell me your favorite fitness app in the comments section below.